APPLICATION OF WATER REPELLENT TREATMENT SYSTEMS FOR THE PROTECTION OF OFFSHORE CONSTRUCTIONS

Reinforced concrete structures which are situated in the offshore region are exposed to the action of chloride containing water. In many of these structures corrosion of the steel reinforcement will be observed sooner or later. In the tidal zone or in the middle of the see repair measures are extremely difficult to be carried out. By means of preventive surface protection techniques it might be possible to extend the service life of reinforced concrete structures considerably. Because of recent important technological improvements it seems promising to apply surface impregnation with water repellent agents for preventive protection. For a reliable design and subsequent quality control of this protective measure, however, it is mandatory to know the relation between penetration depth of the water repellent agent and the effectiveness of the corresponding chloride barrier. In this contribution some results of tests to determine the penetration depth of newly developed water repellent agents in different types of concrete will be presented in the first place. In addition results of measurements of the chloride penetration resistance of concrete treated with a water repellent agent will be described. In the second series cyclic exposure to saline water has been chosen.

• INTRODUCTION

• EXPERIMENTS

• RESULTS

• DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

• CONCLUSIONS

• REFERENCES