J. Civil Eng. Mater.App. 2022 (September); 6(3): 149-158
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149
Journal of Civil Engineering and Materials Application
https://jcema.com Journal home page:
Received: 29 June 2022 • Accepted: 17 September 2022
doi: 10.22034/jcema.2022.353918.1091
Experimental Investigation on Hydrophobic
Treatment of Cement Concrete with Organosilane
Based Compound
Japneet Sidhu
1*
, Pardeep Kumar
2
,Robin Bhardwaj
3
, Vinay Kumar
4
1
Research scholar, Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, India.
2
Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, India.
3
M.Tech Student, Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, India.
4
Research scholar, Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, India.
*Correspondence should be addressed to Japneet Sidhu, Research scholar, Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology,
Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, India. Tel: +917508776747; Fax: +917508776747; Email: japneet@nith.ac.in.
Copyright © 2020 Japneet Sidhu. This is an open access paper distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. Journal of Civil Engineering and Materials
Application is published by Pendar Pub; Journal p-ISSN 2676-232X; Journal e-ISSN 2588-2880.
Copyright © 2022 Japneet Sidhu . This is an open access paper distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. Journal of Civil Engineering and Materials
Application is published by Pendar Pub; Journal p-ISSN 2676-332X; Journal e-ISSN 2588-2880.
1. INTRODUCTION
oncrete faces multiple issues that threaten the
serviceability of the structure, durability being
one such major issue. High porosity, hydrophilic
nature, and the presence of microcracks and fractures
facilitate water penetration into the concrete. Water
penetration is the reason behind all major durability-
related issues in concrete [1, 2]. It might weaken or even
negate the protection offered by concrete to the
reinforcing bars. Corrosion, freeze-thaw cycles and
penetration of harmful ions and substances not only
corrode the steel bars but also may react with cement
paste and give rise to unwanted deleterious products; all
result from water penetration into the concrete [3-5]. All
these issues can be negated if water penetration into the
concrete can be prevented or reduced. There are various
methods that can be used to reduce water penetration
into the concrete, out of which the hydrophobic
modification methods are continually becoming popular
[6-8]. Hydrophobic treatments alter the concrete
characteristics from hydrophilic to hydrophobic, lowering
C
ABSTRACT
Concrete is the most widely used construction material owing to its good strength, mouldability, and
robustness. However, its durability has always been a cause of concern arising, mainly due to the fact that
concrete is highly porous, microcracked, and hydrophilic in nature, making water ingress into it unavoidable.
Water ingress is the primary cause of all major durability-related issues in concrete, such as freezing and
thawing, reinforcement corrosion, carbonation, efflorescence, etc. It is thus evident that to prevent
deterioration and thereby increase durability and service life of concrete structures, water ingress into it must
be minimized. This can be accomplished by a number of methods, out of which hydrophobic treatment of
concrete is nowadays becoming popular. Surface Hydrophobic Treatment and Integral/Bulk Hydrophobic
Treatment are two main ways to induce water repellency in concrete. In this work, the efficacy of integrally
incorporating a silane product into concrete and providing a surface treatment using the same product on the
mechanical, durability, and physical properties have been studied. The integral modification did not yield
satisfactory results in the case of waterproofing the composites with the Water Contact Angle values lying
below 90˚ in the hydrophilic range. Whereas, the surface treatment reported a successful hydrophobic
modification reporting a Water Contact Angle value as high as 157.1˚. The Water Contact Angle values for
all surface-modified samples were over 150˚, which lies in the superhydrophobic category, along with the
composites exhibiting a self-cleaning behavior with very little effect on the compressive and tensile strength.
Keywords: Hydrophobic, Porous, Silane, Durability, Concrete.