Properties and applications of non-shrinkage chemical grout for repairing and strengthening of concrete structures

Abstract

Epoxy resins are widely used in structural repairing and strengthening work, but most of them typically require primer works and are vulnerable to water. To overcome such limits, a non-shrinkage chemical grout (NCG) has been developed in this research, which provides a strong chemical bond strength utilizing Silanol/Si-OH. The material characteristics of the NCG were investigated from experiments and the applications of non-shrinkage chemical grout were also provided. The experimental investigation indicates that NCG has much improved performance compared to a typical epoxy product, which implies that the NCG can be widely used for repairing and strengthening work.

Application of Hydrophilic Silanol-Based Chemical Grout for Strengthening Damaged Reinforced Concrete Flexural Members

“…The material properties of the epoxy resin, however, are easily degraded on contact with water and it even loses its original function. It has also been consistently pointed out that water-soluble epoxy is not often suitable for structural strengthening because its binding capacity is insufficient even after hardening [ 18 ]. In addition, a primer generally needs to be applied to the target member before applying epoxy to it, to ensure adequate bonding of the epoxy resin; this reduces the constructability, and in many cases, the hardening of the epoxy reduces the strength and hardness, which results in delamination at the interface with the base member [ 19 ].…”