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Why is sulphate-resisting cement not used in marine concrete?

The main components of Portland cement are tricalcium silicate, dicalcium silicate, tricalcium aluminate and tetracalcium aluminoferrite. In sulphate-resisting cement, it contains a low amount of tricalcium aluminate in order to avoid sulphate attack. Otherwise, tricalcium aluminate would react with sulphates to form calcium sulphoaluminate and gypsum that cause expansion and crack the concrete structure.

However, for marine concrete sulphate-resisting cement should not be used because tricalcium aluminate has high affinity for chloride ions. This is based on the possible reaction of chloride ions and tricalcium aluminate to form calcium chloroaluminate hydrate as suggested by P. Kumar Mehta (1991) and the reduction of which may increase the rate of chloride attack to the concrete marine structure and result in faster corrosion of steel reinforcement in marine structures.

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This question is taken from book named – A Self Learning Manual – Mastering Different Fields of Civil Engineering Works (VC-Q-A-Method) by Vincent T. H. CHU.

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Kanwarjot Singh

Kanwarjot Singh is the founder of Civil Engineering Portal, a leading civil engineering website which has been awarded as the best online publication by CIDC. He did his BE civil from Thapar University, Patiala and has been working on this website with his team of Civil Engineers.

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