THE EFFECTS OF SALINE WATER ON SOME PROPERTIES OF CONCRETE WITH ESCRAVOS

ABSTRACT

This research investigated the impact of seawater in the Nigerian delta's Excravos area on the producing of concrete. It is commonly recognized that applying seawater to concrete during mixing does not significantly affect its strength or other properties, but in specific circumstances, it can cause the reinforcement to corrode. This project investigated what effects saline water had on some properties of concrete. These properties include the setting time, the workability, the compressive strength and the durability of concrete. The saline water for this project was gotten from the Escravos River in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria, while the fresh water was obtained from the Civil Engineering Laboratory University of Benin. The Escravos River water sample was tested to be highly saline having a salinity of 18,541.16 ppm with pH of 7.6 and hardness of 820.1. The experiment was conducted in the Civil Engineering Laboratory. A total of forty-five 100m x 100m x 100m cubes were cast with a water/cement ratio of 0.45 and a design mix ratio of 1:1.56:2.9. Fifteen cubes were cast with saline water as the mixing water and thirty cubes were cast with fresh water as mixing water. These cubes were allowed to cure differently with fifteen cubes cast with saline water being cured with saline water, fifteen cast with fresh water and then cured with fresh water, and fifteen cubes cast with fresh water then cured with saline water. All the concrete cubes were cured and tested at 3, 7, 14 and 28 days for the compression strength test and at 28 days for the water absorption test.