What is it about?
A crystallising hydrophobic admixture and curing agents were added to fresh concrete to improve its resistance to severe environmental conditions. A two-stage approach was pursued by adding the crystallising admixture to fresh concrete followed by curing agents, in wax and liquid forms, in a separate application process, followed by exposing concrete to normal and adverse curing conditions.
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Why is it important?
Results obtained suggests that protecting concrete with the crystallising admixture followed by applying wax based curing agent improves concrete strength and its resistance to water ingress than concrete cured with the liquid curing agent. When following the crystallising-wax treating system under adverse curing conditions, a more conserved strength was noticed compared to that produced by the crystallising-liquid system. Using the liquid curing agent in concrete with high water to cement ratio (w/c) has increased the cracks in the internal structure, while water permeability has decreased, either under normal curing conditions or adverse conditions. Following this protection-curing system in industry would resolve the problem of applying protection on wet surfaces and increase concrete’s resistance to deterioration.
Perspectives
Writing this article was a great pleasure as it has co-authors with a long experience in the field of concrete protection and treatment. I hope you find this article interesting.
Mazen Al-Kheetan
Brunel University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: A novel approach of introducing crystalline protection material and curing agent in fresh concrete for enhancing hydrophobicity, Construction and Building Materials, January 2018, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.11.108.
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