ABSTRACT
This chapter was originally completed in the early 1990s, when the UK was only starting to come to terms with alkali-silica reaction (‘ASR’). In the quarter century since, the UK has grown accustomed to living with the risk of ASR and largely developed confidence in its national measures for minimising that risk. Meanwhile, as this book demonstrates, the experience and understanding of alkali-aggregate reaction (‘AAR’) worldwide has developed greatly, benefiting where applicable from some of the earlier UK findings, but also encountering significant variety. The early sections of this chapter continue to chart the story of the realisation of ASR in the UK, whilst all the later sections are brought up to date. A new separate section (6.9) explains the slightly different approach to ASR in the Republic of Ireland. Finally, although British and Irish engineers and scientists have encountered apparently reactive carbonate aggregates overseas, there have been no UK or Irish examples, apart from the silicified components of limestone, so that this chapter concentrates only on ASR (see Chapter 3 for a discussion on the ‘so-called alkali-carbonate reaction’).
