Modeling Water and Sulfuric Acid Transport through Coated Cement Concrete

The behavior of coated cement concrete in water and sulfuric acid was investigated over a three-year period. Two epoxy-based coatings were selected and cylindrical concrete specimens were coated and used in this investigation. The concrete-to-coating mass transfer coefficient ratio varied from 8 to 10. The penetration of liquids through bulk coating materials and coated concrete with and without holidays (pinholes) was studied. The mass change of the specimens was measured at regular intervals and a total of 64 coated specimens were tested. Coated concrete specimens with and without holidays had different performance with long-term immersion in deionized (DI) water and 3% sulfuric acid. Mass transfer models were developed using film and bulk concepts and were used to predict the increase in mass in coated concrete in nonreactive DI water and reactive 3% sulfuric acid solutions. The mass transfer model parameters for various solution-coating combinations were obtained from experiment data. The parameters of the effect of holiday size on the liquid transport process were also identified based on the experiment results.