Chemical Attack Resistance Characteristics of Polymer Impregnated Concrete

Abstract

It is well-known that the polymer impregnated concrete (PIC) has many excellent characteristics such as high compressive strength of over 1500kg/cm², large elongation capacity, negligibly small water permeability and no-shrinkage. And it has also been reported by BNL and USBR that PIC shows good resistance to chemical attack. However, the chemical stability of PIC has been evaluated only form its weight loss, but scarecely from the loss of its mechanical strength.
In this paper, the losses in weight and strength of a plain mortar, a mortar (PIC) impregnated with poly-methyl-methacrylate polymerized by thermal-catalyzer with BPO=5%, and a mortar impregnated with polypropylene fiber reinforced polymer were examined in order to obtain their resistance to chemical attack by 10%-HCl, 10%-MgSO₄, 10%-CH₃COOH and pure C₆H₆.
The results showed that the weight loss of PIC (18.6%) was less than that of the plain mortar (24%), when attacked by 10%-HCl for 28 days. The losses in compressive strength of PIC and plain mortar after attacked by HCl were 67% and 97%, respectively; and after attacked by CH₃COOH the losses were 26% and 57%, respectively. So, it can be said from the viewpoint of compressive strength that the chemical resistance of PIC is 23 times that of the plain mortar against HCl and 3.6 times against CH₃COOH.