Durability of concrete protected by an acrylic painting

Abstract

The fast degradation of concrete is a problem that occurs in some structures. In order to have less degradation, the use of protection systems could be recommended. Acrylic paintings have properties that make possible its use as a protection material of concrete. In our study, one concrete that could be classified as a C33/43, was protected with two coats of an acrylic painting. The durability of the protected concrete was studied. Tests made were: capillarity absorption, oxygen permeability, sulphates attack and freeze-thaw. The results show in general, that the degradation of the protected concrete is lower than the degradation of non protected concrete. For the absorption of water by capillarity the non protected specimens absorbed about three times more water than the protected specimens. The oxygen permeability of the protected specimens was about half of that of the non protected specimens. The results of the tests did not show any increase on the resistance of the concrete to the sulphate attack by the use of an acrylic painting. The non protected specimens presented degradation on the freeze-thaw tests after the cycle number 220. The protected systems only presented degradation on the same tests after the cycle number 270.