[10CT662- Special Concrete- Unit 7]

POLYMER CONCRETE (PC)

INTRODUCTION
• Concrete is a porous material and this porosity is due to air voids, water voids or inherent porosity of
gel structure itself.

• Presence of pores reduces the strength of concrete. Hence to reduce pores operation like vibration,
pressure applications spinning are practiced.

• These methods help in removal of only air voids but not water voids and inherent porosity of gel.

• Hence impregnation of monomer and subsequent polymerization is latest technique adopted to

reduce porosity and improve strength and other properties of concrete.

(I) TYPES OF POLYMER CONCRETE

i) Polymer Impregnated Concrete (PIC)
ii) Polymer Cement Concrete (PCC)
iii) Polymer Concrete (PC)
iv) Partially Impregnated and Surface Coated Polymer Concrete

i) Polymer Impregnated Concrete (PIC)

• This is one of the widely used polymer concrete.

• It is a precast conventional concrete, cured and dried in oven or by dielectric heating to remove air in
open cells.

• Then a low viscosity monomer is diffused through the open cell and polymerized by using radiation,
application of heat or by chemical initiation.

• The amount of monomer to be impregnated should be same as the amount of water and air that has
occupied the total void space.

• Another parameter to be considered is evacuation of the specimen prior to soaking in monomer, to

eliminate entrapment of air towards the centre of the specimen.

• Monomer loading time can also be reduced by application of pressure.

• The following are the types of monomer used for PIC:

o Methylmethacrylate (MMA)
o Styrene
o Acrylonitrile
o T-butyl styrene
o Other thermoplastic monomers
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ii) Polymer Cement Concrete (PCC)

• Polymer cement concrete is made by mixing cement, aggregates, water and monomer.

• The above plastic mixture is cast in moulds, cured, dried and polymerized.

• The results obtained by the production of PCC in this way shows very low improvement of strength
and ductility.

• It is due to the fact that monomers are incompatible with aqueous systems and sometimes interfere
with alkaline cement hydration process.

• The following are the types of monomer used for PCC:

o Polyster-styrene
o Epoxy-styrene
o Furans
o Vinylidene Chloride

iii) Polymer Concrete (PC)

• This is the type of concrete in which polymer binders are used instead of cement.

• The main technique in producing PC is to minimize void volume in the aggregate so that the
quantity of polymer needed can be reduced.

• This is achieved by properly grading and mixing the aggregates to attain the maximum density and
minimum void volume.

• The graded aggregates are pre-packed and vibrated in a mould. Monomer is then diffused through
the aggregates and polymerization is initiated by radiation.

• A silane coupling agent is added to the monomer to improve the bond strength between the polymer
and the aggregate.

• The strength obtained with PC can be as high as 140MPa with a short curing period.

• However, such PC tends to be brittle and it is dispersion of fiber reinforcement would improve the
toughness and tensile strength of the material.

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iv) Partially Impregnated and Surface Coated (SC) Concrete.

• Partial impregnation may be sufficient where the major requirement is surface resistance against
chemical and mechanical attack in addition to strength increase.

• The partially impregnated concrete could be produced by initially soaking the dried specimens in
liquid monomer like methyl methacrylate, then sealing them by keeping them under hot water at 70º
C to prevent or minimize loss due to evaporation.

• The polymerization can be done by using thermal catalytic method in which 3% by weight of
benzoyl peroxide is added to the monomer as a catalyst.

• The depth of monomer penetration is dependent upon the following:

o Pore structure of hardened and dried concrete

o The duration of soaking
o The viscosity of the monomer

• Excellent penetration has been achieved by ponding the monomer on the concrete surface. But care
should be taken to prevent evaporation of monomer when ponded.

(II) Application of monomer for Bridge Decks:

• Bridge decks deterioration is a serious problem due to abrasive wear, freeze-thaw, spalling and
corrosion of reinforcement.

• For concrete bridge decks the application of polymer impregnated concrete surface treatment
improves tensile strength, compressive strength, modulus of elasticity, durability, resistance to acid
attack.

• A typical surface treatment in field can be done in following manner:

o The Surface is dried for several days with electrical heating blanket.

o Then the blanket is removed and slab is covered with 0.64 m3 oven-dried light weight aggregate
per 100 m2

o On that initially 2000 to 3000 ml of monomer per m2 is applied and the surface is covered with
polyethylene to retard evaporation

o The surface is shaded to reduce temperature increase which might initiate polymerization
prematurely, that may reduce penetration into concrete.

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o Periodically additional monomer is added to keep the aggregate moist for minimum of 8 hours.

o Now heat is applied to polymerise the monomer. Heating blanket, steam or hot water can be used
for this purpose.

Some of the monomers used for this purpose are:

• Methyl-methacrylate (MMA) + 1% BP + 10% TMPTMA

• Iso-decyl methacrylate (IDMA) + 1% BP + 10% TMPTMA
• Iso-butyl methacrylate (IBMA) + 1% BP + 10% TMPTMA

Where, BP - Benzoyl Peroxide, it acts as catalyst

TMPTMA - Tri-methylo-propane tri-methacrylate, it is a cross linking agent
which helps in polymerisarion at low temperature of 52° C.

(III) PROPERTIES OF POLYMER IMPREGNATED CONCRETE:

1. Stress-Strain Relationship

• From the graph we can see that PIC (MMA impregnated) has a nearly linear stress- strain
relationship to failure.

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• The modulus of elasticity increases from 27 GPa for un-impregnated specimen to 49 GPa for
MMA impregnated specimen.

2. Compressive Strength

• A compressive strength of upto 144 MPa can be obtained using MMA monomer with 6.4% of
polymer loading and polymerized using radiation technique.
• Polymerization by radiation method produced concrete of higher strength than that produced by
thermal catalytic method.
• Styrene impregnated specimen exhibited similar trends but the strength levels were lower than
MMA.

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3. Tensile Strength
• The tensile strength of upto 11.6 MPA is obtained for PIC polymerized using radiation technique
compared to the strength of control specimen of 3 Mpa.

4. Flexural Strength
• PIC with polymer loading of 5.6% MMA and polymerized by radiation has shown flexural
strength 3.6 times more. i.e. the flexural strength has increased to 18.8 Mpa from 5.2 Mpa.

5. Creep
• Generally creep deformation of PIC is 1/10th of conventional concrete.
• Compressive strength deformation of MMA impregnated concrete and styrene impregnated
concrete has been observed to be in direction opposite to that of the applied load, i.e., Negative
creep. The increased volume may be due to phase changes induced by pressure.

6. Shrinking due to polymerization

• Shrinkage occurs in 2 stages of impregnation treatment:

Stage1: Through initial drying
Stage2: Through polymerization
• Shrinkage due to polymerization will be less for a base that has higher modulus of elasticity.

7. Durability

i. Freeze thaw resistance: PIC has shown excellent resistance to freeze-thaw. MMA
impregnated and radiation polymerized specimens withstood 8110 cycles of freeze-thaw
compared to 740 cycles in case of un-impregnated concrete.

ii. Resistance to sulphate attack: Keeping 0.5% expansion as failure criteria, about 200%
improvement in resistance to sulphate attack by PIC is observed.

iii. Acid attack: Acid resistance of PIC has improved to 1200% when exposed to 15% HCl for
1395 days.

8. Water Absorption

• 95% reduction in water absorption is observed for concrete containing 5.9 % polymer.

9. Co-efficient of thermal expansion

• PIC has higher co-efficient of thermal expansion compared to conventional concrete.

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• Co-efficient of thermal expansion value for:

o Un impregnated concrete is 4.02 x 10-6
o MMA, radiation polymerized concrete is 5.63 x 10-6

10. Resistance to Abrasion

o PIC shows a appreciable improvement in resistance to abrasion.

o A 5.5% MMA impregnated concrete has been found to be 50% to 80% more resistant to
abrasion than control specimen.

(IV) APPLICATION OF POLYMER IMPREGNATED CONCRETE:

i) Prefabricated Structural Elements

ii) Pre-stressed Concrete
iii) Marine works
iv) Desalination plants
v) Nuclear power plants
vi) Sewage disposal works
vii) Ferrocement products
viii) Water proofing of structures
ix) Industrial Applications.

i) Prefabricated Structural Elements

• PIC ideally suits for precast concrete. It ensures higher strength, much thinner and lighter sections
which make easy handling and erection of elements.

• Hence it can be used in high rise buildings without much difficulty of erection.

ii) Pre-stressed Concrete

• PIC provides a high compressive strength concrete upto 100 to 140 MPa which will be compatible
with the high tensile steel available for pre-stressing.

• Low creep properties of PIC also make it good material fir pre-stressed concrete.

iii) Marine works

• PIC possess high surface hardness, very low permeability and high resistance to chemical attack,
hence suitable for marine works.

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iv) Desalination plants

• PIC usage for construction of desalination plants has resulted in economic construction over that of
conventional concrete.

v) Nuclear Power plants

• PIC has high impermeability, high strength and high durability properties which resembles the
properties of high density concrete, so it can also be considered for construction of nuclear container
vessels.

vi) Sewage Disposal Works

• In sewage treatment plant, concrete structures are subjected to severe attack from corrosive gases.
PIC due to its high sulphate and acid resistance proves to be a suitable material for these works.

vii) Ferrocement Products

• Ferrocement products like boats, fishing trawlers, domestic water tanks, man hole cover etc., are
generally thin (1 to 4 cms) and are liable to corrode. Application of polymer impregnation
techniques improves the functionality of these products.

viii) Water Proofing Structures

• Seepage and leekage of water through roof and bathroom slabs can be solved by impregnation of
polymer mortar.

ix) Industrial Application

• Concrete used for floors in tanneries, chemical factories, dairy farms etc., has to withstand chemical
attack, for which PIC has proved to give durable flooring.

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