Durability of Hydrophobic Treatments on Concrete Surface

疏水剂已经被早期文明使用，如玛雅人，以保护建筑物免受潮湿和气候的影响。与油漆或密封剂相比，疏水剂的优点是前者是无色的，不会形成薄膜。这使得表面在应用后几乎保持不变的外观，这对于béton brut和地标性立面非常重要。目前用于混凝土、结构和装饰石材以及砖等无机基材的疏水剂由有机硅化合物组成。由于缺乏对这些物质的耐久性的详细了解，诸如保护文化遗产遗址等实际应用的潜力在很大程度上没有得到利用。因此，本项目关注疏水剂潜在降解机制的系统研究，其结果将用于编制一个模型，可以预测其寿命。该模型将包含相关参数，如混凝土类型，疏水剂类型和气候影响。这将为开发新的疏水剂奠定基础。此外，该模型可以用来打开新的领域的应用程序的疏水处理，是无法访问的今天，由于缺乏知识的长期稳定性。这一主题具有一定的紧迫性，因为一些混凝土立面，特别是文化遗产遗址的混凝土立面，目前正在使用低质量的方法进行翻新。这将导致不可修复的表面损伤，使用合适的疏水剂可以防止这种损伤。

Hydrophobic agents have already been used by early civilisations suchas the Mayans to protect buildings from moisture and climaticinfluences. The advantage of hydrophobic agents compared to painting orsealing is that the former are colourless and do not form films. Thisresults in an almost unchanged appearance of the surface after theapplication, which is of enormous importance for béton brut andlandmarked façades. Current hydrophobic agents for inorganic substratessuch as concrete, structural and decorative dimension stones, andbricks consist of organosilicon compounds. Lacking detailed knowledgeon the durability of such substances, the potential for real-lifeapplications such as the protection of cultural heritage sites remainslargely unused. Consequently, this project is concerned with thesystematic investigation of potential degradation mechanisms ofhydrophobic agents and the results will be used to compile a model thatallows predicting their life-time. The model will contain relevantparameters such as the type of concrete, the type of hydrophobic agent,and climatic influences. This will form the basis for the developmentof new hydrophobic agents. In addition, the model can be used to opennew fields of applications for hydrophobic treatments that areinaccessible today due to a lack of knowledge the concerning long-termstability. The topic contains certain urgency, since a number ofconcrete façades in particular those of cultural heritage sites arecurrently refurbished using low quality methods. This will result inirreparable surface damages which could be prevents using suitablehydrophobic agents.