Construction and characterization of polymer concrete containing waterborne acrylic resin with low permeability to chlorine and water ions

In this paper, the effect of three waterborne acrylic resins on physical, mechanical, stability, and permeability of concrete was investigated. For this purpose, concrete samples were prepared with a mass ratio of water to cement and solid-resin to cement equal to 0.445 and 0.05, respectively. Compressive stress tests of 7, 28, and 56 days, tensile strength, chlorine ion accelerated migration, capillary water absorption and initial and final water absorption on the test specimens were performed. It was observed that acrylic resin could act as a superplasticizer and reduce the amount of water needed to increase the fluidity of fresh concrete. Adding a resin with a minimum film formation temperature (MFFT) above the operating temperature reduces the chlorine ion penetration depth and coefficient by 14%. As a general result, it can be said that by accepting a reduction of 20-30%reduction in compressive strength of concrete structures, the fluidity of the fresh concrete, physical and penetration properties of the concrete mix can be increased by the use of the waterborne acrylic resin with MFFT higher than ambient temperature.