“Water is the spirit, the aggressor and the savior of concrete structures. Without water, concrete does not exist since the cement cannot harden into a paste that binds the concrete as a composite material. Then, water penetration and interaction with concrete motivate and activate most concrete attacks: Water is the transporter of many harmful materials and it establishes the medium for physical interactions and chemical and biochemical reactions threatening concrete integrity and durability. At the same time, water is the key actor for the functionality of various protection and waterproofing mechanisms that create shields for defending attacks. This is achieved through physical and chemical interactions of water with internally added waterproofing materials and the redesign of the pore structure of the cement paste. Consequently, water and concrete establish a unique triple helical relationship, the analysis of which requires a knowledge of concrete chemistry, structure, formulations, performance and transport phenomena….

This book responds to the demand of R&D staff and project engineers for having an integrated engineering book: It takes the reader from introductory chapters on concrete chemistry, structure, durability problems and mix designs into waterproofing technologies. In order to understand the waterproofing mechanisms, the fundamentals of hydro-interactions with cementitious surfaces (not commonly covered in concrete books) are established in another unique introductory chapter. Then, after two general chapters on waterproofing approaches and categorizations, a distinct chapter is devoted for each type of internal waterproofing systems. In order to complete the spectra, the final chapter is devoted to external barriers detailing integral waterproofing cementitious coatings and summarizing polymeric systems for comparative purposes”

Selected book chapters prepared based on Chem-Crete R&D works include 

Chapter 4: Materials selection and proportioning for watertight and durable concrete

Chapter 10: Dual crystallization waterproofing topical treatment by  

Chapter 11: Multi-crystallization waterproofing enhancer for concrete mixtures 

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