Review on surface treatment for concrete
There are variety of surface treatments used for concrete structures protection. A paper presents a review of the effect of surface treatments on mechanical properties and durability concrete, and the durability of treatment materials themselves.
Several common surface treatment are reviewed, including acrylic coating, polyurethane coating, epoxy coating, silanes, siloxanes sodium silicate, and nano-SiO2.
Surface treatments showed different impacts
These surface treatments showed different impacts on physical and mechanical properties, water permeability, chloride migration, carbonation resistance, sulphate attack, and freeze-thaw cycle. It is important to consider their strengths and weakness when choosing a surface treatment. In addition, there are limited prediction model for the service-life of treated concretes, though many tests were conducted to measure the barriers properties of these surface treatments. Many of the surface treatments, especially organic treatments, are generally subjected to aging and weathering, and thus the long-term protection cannot be promised. Hence, both the protective effect and long-term durability of the surface treatment should be taken into account in service-life modelling.
The study is published in: Construction and Building Materials, Volume 133, 15 February 2017, Pages 81–90
