Waterproofing additive to make concrete water-impermeable
By Edit Team | May 17, 2016 11:43 am SHARE
One of the leading producers of building chemical products and technologies, MC-Bauchemie has come up with an integral waterproofing additive called MC-Special DM. It addresses the concern to make concrete water-impermeable and therefore more durable and sustainable. For a fast developing nation like India, the focus should be to reduce maintenance costs of structures and for that one needs to adopt latest material technologies for the production of waterproof concretes. MC-Special DM is one such waterproofing additive which provides concrete with that extra safeguard and durability to make the concrete itself impermeable. MC-Special DM has helped address this concern. By making its application simple opens up doors for use of this innovation in a wide range of applications, where water ingress, as a problem is critical. At the same time, there was the need to make this innovation local, sustainable and green.
The concept of the product is international; the make-up of the product is local. MC-Special DM provides integral-waterproofing properties to concrete by combining three characteristics into one product:
Reduction of capillary pores
Special additives in MC-Special DM make the concrete more workable. This property helps concrete achieve compactability thereby reducing compaction and capillary pores. Reduced porosity means, less transport of water through the cement matrix, giving concrete a line of defense against water ingress.
MC’s Revolutionary DySC Technology
MC-Special DM uses advanced microfine hydraulic and pozzolanic nano particles to affect a structure of densest packing in the cement matrix. The cement matrix is subsequently densified by a complex process called Dynamic SynCrystallisation (DySC).
The strength and permeability of a cement-based material is based on hydration of clinker components, to form C-S-H gel and Ca(OH)2. The specialnano-particles use Ca(OH)2, in presence of water, to recrystallise and form new more stable C-S-H phases. One gram of this crystallising nano-pozzolan can react with more than 1000 gm of Ca(OH)2 in concrete, which means its reactivity is much higher than most pozzolans. Therefore the most porous part of the cementitious matrix, (Ca(OH)2), is converted to stable C-S-H type crystals.
Over time this process continues and the structure of the matrix becomes more refined, overall porosity decreases, micro-cracks are sealed and pore volume is minimised. This DySC process thus makes concrete watertight.
Hydrophobic Pore Blocking
In addition to the mechanisms above, MC-Special DM has special additives, which converts the water-absorbing capillary forces into water repellant capillary forces due to the hydrophobic effect of the constituent. It is formulated and designed to prevent the passage of water through capillaries of the concrete, making it further impermeable.
Features apart, MC-Special DM provides a host of benefits to the use:
• Ease of use
• Better impermeability for the concrete itself
• Ease of use in further incorporating waterproofing systems
• Increased durability of RCC
• Reduced maintenance and repair costs over life cycle of the structure
• Better green ratings for the structure
• Ability to use the product for multiple applications, e.g. basements, bathrooms, foundations, slabs, etc.
• No changes in properties of fresh concrete, i.e. customers can easily mix and match this product into their existing mix designs.
Application area for MC-Special DM include concretes all kinds of basements, top exposed slabs, floor slabs, plinth slabs, concrete for wet rooms, bathrooms, water-tanks, underground pipes, tunnels, precast elements, shotcrete, elevator pits, swimming pools or any other applications that demand impermeability of the concrete.
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