Sea Water Effects on the Mechanical Strength in Concrete on Exposure to Environmental Changes and During Curing

This paper investigates the effects of sea water on the mechanical strength of concrete through experimentation. This experimental research provides a guideline of the diverse ways in which sea water affects concrete and the dependency of the factors involved. The research investigates the effects of Sea water salts like sodium chloride as a curing method at different concentration on the mechanical strength of solid concrete cubes and specimens. Concrete cubes containing immersed in seawater show an early increase in compressive strengths in 3 to 7 days with control concrete cubes at 28 days which contains sodium chloride casted and cured in seawater recorded slightly higher strength compared to control cubes. The paper examined the mechanical properties of solid concrete in exposure to sea water as as well as fresh water under some environmental conditions. The results indicate that the flexural, compressive plus split tensile strength of the concrete casted as well as cured in sea waters was higher in relation to that of concrete specimens casted as well as cured in distilled fresh H2O. The comparative difference however was not significant. The results also show that sea water negatively affect durability of concrete under various environmental conditions.