Performance on an Alkali-Activated Cement-Based Binder (AACB) for coating of an OPC infrastructure exposed to chemical attack: a case study

Abstract

Premature degradation of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) concrete infrastructure is a current and serious problem with overwhelming costs amounting to several trillion dollars. The use of concrete surface treatments with waterproofing materials to prevent the access of aggressive substances is an important way of enhancing concrete durability. The most common surface treatments use polymeric resins based on epoxy, silicone (siloxane), acrylics, polyurethanes, or polymethacrylate. However, epoxy resins are not cost-efficient and have low resistance to ultraviolet radiation while polyurethanes have low resistance to chemical attack. This chapter presents results of an experimental investigation on the resistance to chemical attack (with sulfuric, hydrochloric, and nitric acid) of several materials: OPC concrete, high-performance concrete, epoxy resin, acrylic painting, and a fly ash–based geopolymeric mortar. Three types of acids with three high concentrations (10%, 20%, and 30%) were used to simulate long-term degradation. A cost analysis was also performed. The results show that the epoxy resin has the best resistance to chemical attack independently of the acid type and the acid concentration. However, the cost analysis shows that the epoxy resin–based solution is the least cost-efficient solution being 70% above the cost efficiency of the fly ash–based geopolymeric mortar.