Influence of Acidic Environments on Cement and Polymer-Cement Concretes Degradation

Abstract

Cement concrete is hardly considered as the acid resistant material however it should be possible to compare the ability of various cement based composites to resist the sever and chemically aggressive environments. The paper presents assessment of the resistance of cement concretes (of two types of mineral binders) as well as polymer-cement concretes (PCC) to hydrochloric acid. Due to the lack of proper standard procedures the tests were conducted according to the DBME own procedure: concrete specimens were exposed to acids of various concentrations and for various exposure times. The criteria for evaluation the concrete ability to resist the chemical attack were changes of mass, compressive and flexural strength. As PCC is considered to be a composite of better chemical tolerance it was treated as a kind of the reference material (chosen PCC characterized with similar compressive strength level as the previously introduced cement concretes). Approach used in the presented research enabled to compare different composites of similar compressive strength, the basic property to be taken into account in the design of the concrete and reinforced concrete structures.