Developments in the Bult Environment 16 (2028) 100257 Contents lists avilable at ScienceDirect Developments in the Built Environment ELSEVIER Journal homepage: www.scienceairet.comijournalidevelopments-in-the-bullt-environment Seawater concrete: A critical review and future prospects Shekhar Saxena’, Mohammad H. Baghban Drprent of Manca and Cl gine, Neri Unity of Seen Techy, Gir oeay Seawater seawater concrete can improve sistsinabiy i eonsiton by redacing the exesiveconsimption of tral between seater conerete and conventional eoteete. Exiting studies ind ne ha high chlrides fn seawater tatbnce the hydration rat, shorten th aetng ie and increase the ecy strength of oncrete In arder to leten the eet of chloride and increse the durability of seawater conerele mineral amisures, reader, and superplstllers have been recommended. Past studies have also eevealed thatthe use of Seawater is conerete wil inevitably comrade steel bare. This atle covers the advantages aod deadvantages of adopting FRD and alas tel bas to prevent the covrsion of sel reinforcement caused by seawater It also suggests fuure posibilies of using naurel and recycled aluminum reinforcement ia seawater coneete which nat only protets one from corsion bat als lead othe sustainability of concrete. Overall, the outcomes ofthis ty wil fonebute to further esearch aimed at improving the properties of Seawater concrete 1, Introduction impacts on the environment, To deal with this problem, many stadies ‘have been conducted which promote the use of industrial by-products oF reeyeled materials in conerete to conserve the natural coarse and fine aggregates. On the contrary, litle research is devoted 10 preserving natural freshwater, hich is widely used for mixing and curing conerete Water isthe chief ingredient forthe concrete mix proportion and also the most vital need for life, Generally, freshwater is used fr mixing and curing concrete, which ia lmited resource, According toa zeport bythe Economist Intelligence Unit, the acceleration of urbanization, popu Conerete sa material that is used extensively on earth after water, As per the satsties provided by the Global Cement and Gonerete Associ ton, an estimated 14 billion cubie meters of concrete is produced annually (Vialsang, 2021). However, the growing demand for concrete is Increasing the consumption of natural materials needed for the prepa ration of conerete. The lack ofthese materials end continuous devel lopment in the infrastructure have resulted in 24.5% increase in global construction costs and 23.1% rise in material costs in 2021 It is antic [pated that construction costs will experience an additional 4—796 in crease in 2022 (\urvay, 2021). In addition, if the excessive use of natural materials is not contolle, i will deplete non-renewable re sources (Ismail el, 2013), Hence iets necessary to search fr alternate materials to balance the rally growing demand forthe construction industry and natural resource availabilty. The environment is also severely affected due to excessive consumption of natural materials. Many Iniitives are taken worldwide to promote sustainability in con- steuction to enbanee the quality of residents” life while minimiaing the mal eden shear sxena@nns.no (Sate np//do ong/10.10360 te 2023.00257 tion expansion, the impacts of climate change, and economic advance: ‘ment are collectively exerting stress on water systems (/rmstrong, 2023). The UN World Water Development Report 2022 states that in: dustry and energy account fr 19% of global freshwater withdrawals, Including groundwater (UN Water, 2022; Krist and Payne, 2022). A high-water demand (nearly 75%) for conerete preparation may occur in 2050 in the areas where water scarcity is going tobe a significant issue (illeces 0, 2018). Further, it was also reported that around 100 m? of ‘water per day is used by a batching plant only fr mixing eonerete (Nick al, 2015). If the same conventional conerete preparation process is used for the upcoming 35 yeas, approximately 580-710 km of water willbe consumed for concrete preparation only (ry, 2005), As per the Reecved 17 July 2023; Receive in revised form 14 October 2023; Accepted 23 October 2028. 2566-16897 2023 The Author, Published by Etsevier id This san open access ate under the CC Y license (p//ereatvecommensor/tcenses/by/407.5 Soren and Bahn W Extremely high (30%) High (40-80%) | Medium to high (20-39%) Low to medium (10-19%) Low (<10%) elas ie ul rome 16 2029) 100257 Fig. 1. Waterstresed countries in 2040 (Acoso, 2025), ‘rable Average salt concentation ln fret ses (ne, 2011), United Nations (2019), freshorater availability has become a challenge for more than 40% ofthe world's population. There isa double increase in water usage than in th previous century's population. According to the Aqueduct Water Risk Alas by WRI aout half of the global popu: lation, or 4bilion people, experience severe water stress fo at least ‘month sancaly due to improper, inefficient and unsustainable usage of water (Kuzma eta, 2023), According to Armstrong (2023), 44 naons are expected to confront either extremely high or high water stress levels bby 2040 (Pig. 1). The antiipated global water requirements are ex ected to rise between 20% and 25% by the year 2080 (Kuzma etal, 2023). This problem is becoming more complicated due tothe infra: structure development, which is demanding more quantity of concrete and ultimately pressurizing the natural water resources. Therefore, the ‘use of alternative sources for natural freshwater turns out tobe esential for concreting. The earth's surface comprises approximately 71% of ‘water, out of which 96.5% is seawater and the remaining 3.9% ie freshwater, where only 0.896 o less is available for drinking purposes (Howard etal, 2019), Focusing on this, using seawater instead of freshwater for concreting can potentially conserve freshwater resources for future generations and maintain sustainability 1.2. Seawater Seawater is a complicated combination of several salts, including organisms, dissolved gases, suspended sediments, and organie matter. Seavater has a typical salt concentration of around 3.5%. However, it also depends on the geographic location of different seas, asshoven in ‘able I (mre, 211. The pH estimation of seawater is somewhere inthe range of7-5 and 8.4, and the average value when it balances with CO» in ‘the atmosphere is 8.2. (Niehta and Monteo, 2001). Moreover, the composition of seawater sls can bring favorable or unfavorable effects fon the properties of concrete blended with seawater. As per ASTM. 111-98 (2013) (ASM, 2019), the different proportions of salts listed in Table 2 are required to represent seawater. Most studies followed the auldelines of ASTM D11-98 (013) (ASM, 2013) for preparing Acieial seawater to determine its effets on concrete properties However, some studies were also found to utilize natural seawater. “Table 9 presents the concentrations of various ions present in natural seawater. The first production of concrete using seawater can be ble2 Concentration of alts present in seawater (Si, 201. ania Tah Mee Tass oo a aes ie ‘oncentraion GD ms S20 08 Te ry 20 ano ‘Table Chemis! composition of natural seawater Gin of ns Ss = = a @ oF Es 5 etal 2019) 700 a we Toe a a0 Geo eal. e220) ms ms 70 ears 10600 oso 2869 * Wang etal 2018) 1so00 0 seo Zoo 22000 00 Dane et 2020) seo 30 30 tae 16700 a - - ‘ebm ea (2018) Ss = 2 ime den Mabarumed et (2008) s2s0 36 ES her v8 mn ho - ‘abaya 2015) 0 0 360 100 x00 a0 * = Tenge a (2019) rons sok aa vasa isa torso5 Sore and HB tox eter (ano) 20 sis orcre se comer (am) 4500 sn coneete ete (202) nee 00 ‘reported during the Second World War when seawater was utilized in conerete mixing to build structures nearby the coastal areas of California and Florida (Kausik and Islam, 1995). However, few studies have shown thatthe ancient Romans were te fist to use seawater to prepare conerete by utilizing netural mineral admixtures (Witz, 2017). The requirement of seawater for concrete mixing emerges in such conditions when freshwater is inaccessible or expensive to transport. Further, seawater's chlorides and sulfates are harmful tothe durability of tradi onal steel reinforeed eonerete and their amount should be determined Iefore use in concrete, Therefore, various codes have provided recom: ‘mendations for using seawater, and threshold values of chlorides and sulfates in conerete mixing water are presented in Table “The dliferent salts present in seawater chemically react with concrete ingredients and change their properties. This article provides a critical review of existing research on the impact of seawater om various con crete properties. This study sums up the current knowledge of fresh properties, mechanical properties, and durebilty of concrete mixed and cured with seawater. Also the research gap is identified and asigned by comparing results published in various publications. Moreover, this study also highligh the corosion problem of tel bars due to seawater in concrece. In order to mitigate the coreosion problem, most existing studies utilize FRP and stainless steel reinforcement. Several drawbacks associated with these relnforcement are addressed In this paper before they could be used as reinforcement in seawater eonerete. Die to non- corrosive and plastic behavior, aluminum alloy bars would also be used as reinforcing material in seawater concrete, but very limited research has been conducted in this Field. This study proposes future possibilities for using recycled aluminum alloy bars in seawater con crete. Based on the review, the use of various mineral admixtures are also recommended to obtain a more sustainable and durable seawater concrete in the future. Hence, this paper summarizes the current us ‘derstanding of seawater concrete performance, laying a solid foundation for further research in this field so that seawater can be widely sed in plain and reinforced concrete 2. Performance of plain conerete with seawater Its usually considered that structural conerete should not be pre pared by using seawater, However, the avalable literature breaks the myth of not using seawater in construction practices. The previous and cvtrent studies stat that seawater does no affet the properties of plain conerete substantially. However, there are changes in plan conerete properties in fresh and hardened states due tothe use of seawater which is described in the subsequent sections elas ie ul rome 16 2029) 100257 oe Te On lg. 2. fife of seawater and freshwater on heat fow of cement 2A. Hydration rte Seawater concrete and ordinary concrete exhibit different heat flow dynamics. AS cement hydrates with seawater, its exotherm changes steatly, particulary at the beginning of the process. n accordance with txisting literature, It has been proposed that seawater accelerates cement hydration by enhancing the hydration kinetics due to the pres tence of ample amounts of chlorides (Phe et a, 20225 BP. Li aly 20215 Montana tal, 2019}, Younis etl, (2018 found an accelerated hydration eaction of cement when mixed with seawater. The maximum ‘heat dow of cement paste with seawater was estimated at around 25% higher than the cement paste with freshwater. Also, the peak of cement paste with seawater had higher values (magnitude) and appeared frst ‘than freshwater cement past. According to Sikora el. (2020), the use of seawater in place of distiled water increases the hydration rate of cement, and the peak of het flow reached 100 min earlier than the peak of cement paste with dstiled water. The peak value of seawater cement paste was approximately 19% higher than the peak of distilled water Cement paste. The reason behind the early hydration of cement with seawater was found asthe presence of chloride ions (NaCl, MgClz and CaCl) in seawater, which results in accelerated hydration reaction of cement and causes earlier production of C-S-H gel. Guo ets! (2020) also explored the higher heat flow values of seawater sea sand concreze than traditional eonerete made with tap water Huehermore, seawater was found o cause rapid and intense hyération of eement with a great quantity of heat generated. in addition, the study conducted by Wane f(a, (2018) pointed out that seawater cement paste started to increase the heat flow peak between 1 and 10 h, Also, seawater cement paste produced 1.12 times more heat as compared to deionized water cement paste over a period of 72h It was also reported that seawater enhances ‘the cement hydration ate more than a NaCl solution with same chloride concentration. This indicates that NaCl alone does not accelerates cement hydration as much as multiple seawater components (W. \-Li ct al, 2021). The heat flow of cement due to seawater and freshwater from the above studies is compared in Fs. 2. The reasons behind increasing the hydration rate of cement du tothe presence of chloride ions in seawater are explained a follows. ‘The accelerated hydration could be desribed by the diffusion of lorie ions into the inital hydration products due to the eompar= atively smaller chioride ions than hydroxyl ions. These intial hy. ration products act as a passvating layer on the cement particles surface, However, chloride ions will weaken or destroy this passiv- ating layer when reacting with water, enbance dissolution of by: dration products (as tr-calium silicate) and increase hydration rate of cement (Li et al, 2018), «Besides, the particles of cement have a mixture of negative and positive ions. So, the flocculation of cement particles takes place ‘when they come in contact with wate. On the other hand, chlorides are negatively charged (anions). Therefore, wien chlorides get into the conerete through seawater, these anions are absorbed on the5 Sore and HB 3” a? & sg ‘Mass in 100 g unhydrated comer a 8 e. + ‘Time (day) Be ‘Mass in 100 g unhydatod coment (a) PA ‘Time (day) Fig. 3. The simulated phase evolution of Portland cement daring the hydration ins) Delonned water, b) seawater (se, 2025. tay vas 06 ves 068 y +CH(0H), OCA \ $Ca(0Hy ICA oF, * Etringie © CaCO, - by ettingite ©cac0, a 8 8 Fides st By bs . Seawater Seawater ca Diwater & Diwater 10 2 30 40 80 (60 jo 20 30 40 50 6 °20 (Cuka) °20 (CuKee) 28 days vos 00,8 . + Ca(OH}, © C360, 2 ps ‘© Ettingte Friedets sat i water to 2 «30 40 50 60 °20 (CuKa) Fig. 4 Porlnd coment XRD with seawater snd deionized water at 1,7 and 28 days (ong a, 2018), surface ofthe cement particles, causing chem to become negatively charged. This phenomenon leads to the deflocculation and disper sion of cement particles and increases cement hydration (1 etal, 2018) ‘Furthermore, de salt NaCl in seawater can react with Cx(OLD2 present in conerete and produce calcium chloride (CaCl) in the concrete (84. (1)) (slam et al, 20055 Li et al, 20185 Shaiks and Dobson, 2019; Younis et al, 208). Calefum chloride works as a ‘catalyst forcement inthe intial hydration period and eatalysis the hydration of C38 and C;S. It probably leads to forming @ porous GSH gel (calcium silicate hydrate). The porous structure of the (C-SH gel allows a quicker diffusion of ion, leading to rapid cement hydration (ents eal, 2016), {€MOHD, + 2NACI-» CXC, + 2Na* + 208 a5 Sore and HB 450 (8Tap water es Seawater 310 1505 14 Setting time (minutes) Be Initial setting time Final setting time Pig. 5. Seting times of OPC with tap water and seawater (Y-chora5 tal, 1990) 22. Hydration product ‘Atypical hydration product Friedel’ salt (FS) is produced by the reaction of chlorides of seawater with caleium-aluminate hydrates and calcium hydroxide in cement paste as shown in Eg. (2). Moreover, Kuzel’s salt (KS), is also a hydration product of reaction between chlo: ride and AFm, illustrated in Eq (2). KS exhibits a crystal structure ‘resulting from the intercalation of FS and AFm. In environments with love chloride levels, FS can undergo a partial conversion to KS. It was found that FS and KS do not have a harmful effet on Portland cement. 5 leads to enhance the hydration process of aluminate (CsA) and ferrite (CAF) which could be helpful i binding mote chlorides. Furthermore, ‘the formation of FS preepitates plays a role in compacting pore struc tures, resulting in reduced permeability (ing and Yi, 2023). Pig. 8 shows hydrated assemblage in Portland cement mixed and cured in deionized water and seawater (1) etal, 2023). Moreover, Fg. 4 presents data from X-ray Diffraction (XRD) of een paste mixed and eared with seawater and deionized water, which shows disinet hydration com: ‘pounds in cement paste mixed with seawater compared to deionized ‘water and how these compounds change over time. FS isnot present in ‘cement paste that has been aged for one day in seawater however, it ‘becomes significantly evident after 7 and 28 days in seawater cement ‘paste. Moreover i's worth noting that porlandit sms tobe presentin “smaller quantities in eawatercemtent specimens after one day of caring. However, at7 and 28 days, the CaCO, content in seawater cement paste ‘decreases, The could be due to some ofthe CaCO reacts with CA oF ‘monosulfoaluminate and forms calcium carboaluminare. Additionally, ‘the peaks ofertrngit in seawater cement paste are mote pronounced than in defonized water cement paste (Wan ea 2018) 3C20ALOVONO 4 CH(OH): | 2CF | 41,0 -» 3C2O-ALOy CAC, 10HO 5) +208 @ elas ie ul rome 16 2029) 100257 3C20 AL O;6HO 4 OSCAOH) + 0.503504 + CI = 440+ 3C20-AhO;0 $CeCI, 0.5C2S0, 10H;0 (KS) + OF @ 23. Seting time ‘The initial and final seting times of concrete are significantly affected by seawater when used to mix concrete. It is reported that seawater tends to decrease the setting time. As discussed earlier, the presence of chlorides in certain salts of seawater leds to speed up the hydration reaction and thereby decreases the setting time of concrete ‘The initial setting time i found tobe more affected by the presence of seawater as compared tothe final setting time (Ghorab ctl, 1989). In ‘the 1990s, in the study of Zhang ct al. (1993), seawater from Qingéao ‘China Sea was utilized for mixing concrete and found 4 min reduction inthe intial and fnal setting times of cement paste as compared to freshwater cement pase, The study of ¥.Ghorab es, (1990) revealed that the intial and Gnal seting times of OPC (Ordinary Portland ‘Gement) were minimized to 25% and 22%, respectively when OPG was mixed and cuted in seawater as compared fo the OPC which was mixed and cured in tap water (Pig. 5). In eeent studies, Katano etal. (2013) ‘also observed that seawater concrete exhibited 90 and 135 min lesser intial and final setting times than conventional concrete. The study of Younis etal. (2018) explored that the use of seawater reduced the initial setting time ofthe fresh concrete by approximately 30%, whereas the ‘use of seawater with recycled coarse aggregate decreased the initial setting time by about S0% as compared to ordinary concrete (Younis ‘tal, 2020), Als, (Wanget al. 2025) observed a 279% reduction inthe initial setting time and a 24.2% decrease in the final setting time of ‘concrete wen seawater wes wsed Such concrete could be used where ‘the pid concrete setting is required o seting time could be reduced by using retarders, However, the use of retarders in terms ofthe long-term performance of seawater concrete needs more researe, 24. Workabilisy “The use of seawater shows a reduction inthe workability of concrete ‘duct the acceleration in hydration reaction and seawater concrete was found to be more cohesive and compact and viscous than ordinary ‘concrete. The presence of calcium ehloride in seawater accelerates the (C-S-H production and the heat generated in cement hydration drops the slump of seawater concrete sooner than freshwater concrete (1:73 ‘tal, 20235 Teng etal, 201%; Ly etal, 2022) also noted a decrement in the slump of geopolymer concrete with seawater. Younis tal. 2018) measured the 208 reduction inthe Inia slump Now of eonerete made with seawater compared tothe conerete prepared with freshwater, It was also investigated tha tap water conerete achieved 625 mm slump ow, whereas seaveater concrete 421 mm, The rection in the slump was possibly due wo the accelerated hydration process inthe presence of seawater chlorides, Also, there was no separation and sufficient ig 6, Slump flow of concrete mixed with) tap water an b) seawater (Son's el, 2020)5 Sore and HB fe] “NSE Oo woof Sen tat ° 0 30 oo Pa 0 “Te (ni) Fig. 7. Slump flow of concrete mixeé with seawater and freshwater with tne (younls etal, 2018) uniformity in the concrete mixed with seawater, as depicted in Fig. 6 (Soares etal, 2020), i etal. (2019) conducted a study for comparing the workability of cement paste prepared with seavater and freshwater for diferent plasticizer doses and w/e ratios and found that the work ability ofthe cement paste with both kinds of water varies in similar ‘ways for different superplasticier dosage and w/e ratios. However, a slight reduction inthe shump of seawater paste was found as compared to freshwater paste, which could be caused by the eatly hydration of| ‘cement by seawater and the higher viscosity of seawater due to the presence of more amounts of suspended solids in seawater, Alois) ‘tal (2023) & Liv etal 2022) also observed a decrease i the sump of fresh concrete when seawater was substituted for freshvwater. Purther more, it was aso explored that concrete prepared with seawater and recycled coarse aggregate remained flowable fr 60 min, whereas con: ventional concrete remained flowable for 120 min CYoun's etl, 2020). However, the fall in the slump was controlled by providing a sufficient dosage of retarders and superplasticizes, as shown in Fis. 7 (Younis etal, 2018) 25. Swength arly research on seawater in concrete showed that seawater did not ‘harm plain concrete performance. The problem in concrete prepared ‘with seawater rises chiefly bcause ofthe rusting of steel bas. The study ‘condueted by Griffin and Henry (1962) revealed that plain conerere properties did not gee worsen by using seawater and there was no ‘decrement in the strength of concrete by wsing seawater. In addition, ‘seawater is responsible forthe higher early strength of concrete but Tends to reduce the long-term stength of concrete. The study of Kash ‘na [slam (1995) elaimed that seawater enhanced the inital strength of ‘cement mortar for up to seven days, and then at 28 days, there was a ‘drop of around 139% in the strength of seawater cement mortar as so 0 20 0 a i i (Kaushik and slam, 1935) (Younis etal, 2018) (Somes et a, 2020) elas ie ul rome 16 2029) 100257 ‘compared to tap water cement mortar. fori (1981) underlined that after ten year, the strengths of concrete prepared with seawater and fresh water are almost the same. Besides, according to Taylor ana Kuviarh (1978), asthe water salinity increases, concrete strength also incresses. Inrecent times, Zhang cl. (2022) found that seawater cement paste ‘exhibited higher compressive strength than deionized water cement paste ater one day of curing but experienced a decline in strength after ‘seven days of curing, Wevian (2070) also investigated that seawater concrete gained more compressive, flexural and tensile strengths at initial curing ages of 7 and 14 days as compared to concrete prepared ‘and cured in freshwater whereas at later ages such as 90 days the strengths of seawater concrete reduced by 3:8-14.5% than that of freshwater concrete. A slight improvement in early strength (7 days age) ‘of concrete mixed in seawater was observed by Younis etal. (2018), but te same concrete strength fell by 7-10% at 28 days. Likewise, Scares cal. (2020) achieved seven days compressive strength of concrete as 54.5 MPa by using seawater and a slightly lesser compressive strength (60.5 MPa) by using ap water while at 28 days. Patah etal (2023) ‘explores the enhanced compressive strength in concrete through the use ‘of seawater for mixing and freshwater for curing when combined with fy ash and a water-to-binder ratio of 04, The combined use of seawater and sea sand is also found to increase the seven days compressive sength of concrete by 36-76%, but 28 days strength is approximately the same, and stength at 180 days s 3:7-10.2% lower when compared with freshwater conerete (Kia ets, 2015), Similarly, the esearch of| Guo el, (2020) coneluded that concrete prepared using seawater and ‘sea sind showed azound a 2-79 rection in compressive strength at 28 days and a 10-18% reduction at 56 days when compared with tra tional concrete Pan etal. (2021) als observed a 12.3% increment in compressive strength of seawater and sea sand concrete at 3 days, but the compres- sive strength ofthe same concrete decreased by 1.9% and 7.6% at 7 and 28 days, respectively. On the other hand, some studies also showed the increment in compressive strength of concrete up 0 28 days and reduction at alate age due tothe us of seawater for mixing (Goyal and Karade, 2020; Lolli’ etal, 2019; Wang etal, 2018). Sikora etal. (2019) reported a significant improvement in the compressive srength of ‘cement paste for upto 14 days and also litle strength enhancement at 28 days using seawater than that of conventional cement pases by using ‘optimal levels of colloidal silica. Fxeessve or less use of colloidal silica nlf is effects, emphasizing the importance of precise silica incor poration. ig, 8 compares selected results from diferent studies of ‘compressive strength of concrete prepared with seawater and feeshwater (Goyal and Karade, 2020; Kaushik and Islas, 1995 Park etal, 2010 ‘Younis tal, 2017, 2018). According to the literature, the improvernent in the strength of conerete prepared with seawater a initial days could be due tothe presence of NaCl in seawater, hich speeds up the disso. lution of triclcium silicate and accelerates the hydration reaction Freshwater mix. Seawater mix 7 (ollie. 2019) Weelan, 2010, Age ys) ig, sft of seawater and feshwacer on compressive svength,