Abstract—The corrosion of steel reinforcement in concrete is a major problem for the construction industry. Corrosion affects the durability of reinforced concrete structures which will lead to their failure. One of the main causes or concrete corrosion is chloride ions from deicing salt. The aim of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of different test methods for measuring chloride penetration in concrete. Also investigate how the chloride penetration changed with different impregnant coatings on the concrete was examined. All the experiments were carried out on concrete cubes. Sorptivity test was carried out to examine the water uptake of the concrete cubes by considering uncoated as well as coated with impregnate materials in tap and salt water. The results showed that more water ingress into the concrete cubes immersed in the tap water. Salt ponding experiment were carried out on treated and untreated specimens and, chemical analysis method, Voltard’s, was used to measure the depth of penetration of chloride ions into concrete samples. The Salt ponding tests on the cubes immersed in the salt water showed that the highest chloride concentration were in the increment of 5 mm and the concentration decreased with depth. The chloride ions concentration was similar for all the cubes at 20 mm depth. This suggests that deeper coring is required to determine the depth to which the chloride ions reach. The untreated concrete cube had higher chloride content than the treated cubes. 

Index Terms—sorption test, salt ponding test, impregnate materials, chloride ingression, corrosion, Volhard’s methods

Cite: M N Balakrishna, M M Rahman, D A Chamberlain, Fouad Mohammad, and Robert Evans, "Evaluation of Test Methods for Impregnant Materials in Concrete," International Journal of Structural and Civil Engineering Research, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 213-227, November 2013.