Preparation and Characteristics of Integral Water Repellent Cement-Based Materials

Polymers are often applied in concrete for multiple purposes and aims. For instance, surface impregnation of concrete with silanes is a reliable technology to protect cement-based materials from ingress of aggressive solutions into the materials. An alternative method is to add silane emulsion into fresh concrete or mortar to produce integral water repellent materials. In this contribution integral water repellent concrete was prepared by adding 1 %, 2 %, 3 %, 4 % and 6 % of silane emulsion. The influence of silane emulsion on the compressive strength, porosity and pore size distribution, water capillary suction and chloride penetration have been investigated. The results indicate that addition of silane emulsion moderately reduced compressive strength of concrete. With 3 % of silane emulsion the reduction is about 10 %. The addition of silane emulsion hardly has influence on pore size distribution. Silane does not block the capillary pores, but only forms a hydrophobic film on the walls of capillary pores. Addition of silane emulsion reduces water capillary suction significantly. The reduction rate is higher than 89 %. Even the surface of integral water repellent concrete is abraded off 7 mm, the material still demonstrates high water repellency because the entire volume is hydrophobic. In addition, chloride penetration also can be reduced substantially.