Application Of Polymer Concrete In Repair Of Concrete Structures: A Literature Review

Use of concrete as a structural material has increased in recent years. It has been found that some concrete structures, even when constructed with high performance concrete, start to deteriorate long before reaching their designed service life. In these cases, cracks occur after the structure has been completed for a few years, which results in the shortening of service life and lowering in durability. Finally as is obvious, durability modification in concrete must be considered in construction or in repair of damaged structures. The durability of a concrete repair is dependent on many factors. In fact, failure of a concrete repair material is more likely to occur due to incompatibility between the repair material and concrete or high shrinkage levels. Moreover, other factors can lead to cracking and debonding, which allows chloride, carbon dioxide or detereoriative agents to penetrate. Based on some research that is presented in this paper, it is proved that polymer concrete has high acid, salt and freeze-thaw resistance in comparison with conventional concrete, high chemical stability under corrosive environments for a long period of time, high compressive strength, low conductivity, high resistance to permeation of water and shows its maximum strength, maximum shrinkage etc. at a young age. A combination of these characteristics makes polymer concrete an attractive choice in repair.