EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF CHLORIDE TRANSPORT INTO DOUBLE LAYERED COMPONENTS WITH CONCRETE AND RENDERING MORTAR

This work studied the influence of rendering mortar layer on chloride transport into concrete structures. Concrete specimens rendered with three different mortar mixtures and two rendering thickness were used. Five of the six faces of the specimens were coated with epoxy resin to simulate unidirectional flux. The specimens were subjected to weekly wetting and drying cycles in a sodium chloride solution for 49 days. At the end, total chloride profiles were obtained. Results show that rendering mortars influence chloride transport into concrete and this is more accentuated for less porous mortars and with higher cement content. There is also a chloride accumulation close to the interface mortar-concrete region, which is explained by the differences on chloride transport ability between mortar and concrete. Although mortars are more porous than concrete, they can represent an additional protection against chloride penetration into concrete.