Examination for Controlling Chloride Penetration of Concrete through Micro-Cracks with Surface Treatment System

For well-constructed concrete, its service life is a long period and it has an enough durability performance. For cracked concrete, however, it is clear that cracks should be a preferential channel for the penetration of aggressive substance such as chloride ions accoding to author's previous researches. Even though crack width can be reduced due to the high reinforcement ratio, the question is to which extend these cracks may jeopardize the durability of cracked concrete. If the size of crack is small, surface treatment system can be considered as one of the best options to extend the service life of concrete structures exposed to marine environment simply in terms of cost effectiveness versus durability performance. Thus, it should be decided to undertake an experimental study to deal with the effect of different types of surface treatment system, which are expected to seal the concrete and the cracks to chloride-induced corrosion in particular. In this study, it is examined the effect of surfaced treated systems such as penetrant, coating, and their combination on chloride penetration through microcracks. Experimental results showed that penetrant can't cure cracks. However, coating and combined treatment can prohibit chloride penetration through cracks upto 0.06 mm, 0.08 mm, respectively.