Effects of Magnesium Sulfate Attack on Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) Mortars

 

M. M. Amin^1,*, S. B. Jamaludin¹, F. C. Pa¹, K. K. Chuen²

 

¹School of Materials Engineering, University Malaysia Perlis, Complex Taman Muhibah UniMAP, 02600 Jejawi,  Perlis, Malaysia

²Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, University Malaysia Terengganu,  Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia

 

Received 23 May 2007; accepted 8 October 2007

 

Abstract

The chemical and mineralogical compositions in Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) were determined and cement which is low of C₃A is more easily exposed to sulfate environment. The relation between physical strength of mortars sized 150 ´ 150 ´ 150 mm and the effects of different concentrations of sulfate solutions, SO₄^2- (1%, 3% and 5%) for 3, 14 and 28 days was found to be that stronger the sulphate concentrations, the greater the sulfate attack, but in a weaker concentration situation, the attack was more efficient as the comparable damaged being achieved with smaller amount of sulphate. The morphological studies were observed under scanning electron microscope (SEM) and  the distribution of the main component, including Mg²⁺ and SO₄^2- ions, was analysed  by Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analyzer (EDS) to observe the cracks and reactions.

Keywords: Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), magnesium sulfate, sulfate attack, SEM.

 

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References

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* Corresponding author. E-mail address: mmamin@unimap.edu.my;  amin_56@yahoo.com