VEGETABLE OILS AS WATER REPELLENTS FOR MORTARS

H. Justnes1, T. A. stnor2 and N. Barnils Vila3

ABSTRACT: Vegetable oils from sunflower, olives, soya beans, peanuts, linseeds, corn and rapeseeds were tested as water repellents for mortars. Dosages were 0.0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 % oil by cement weight. The oils were dispersed in the mixing water by the aid of lignosulphonate. The flexural and compressive strength of 1:3 mortars with w/c = 0.50 at 1 and 28 days were measured and significant strength decrease was only noticed at 28 days for some oils at the highest dosage. The capillary water absorption and water vapor diffusion was measured on cast discs with skin as well as discs sawn from cast cylinders. In general water vapor diffused slower through discs with cast surfaces compared with sawn surfaces. Capillary water absorption was greatly reduced by the oils compared to the reference, while water vapor diffusion was only marginally reduced. Mortars with vegetable oils should thus develop pore structure with lower degree of water saturation and thereby be more durable since liquid water is a medium for most detrimental reactions. The difference in behavior between the oils is discussed in terms of their content of saturated, mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated fats, and oils with highest content of monounsaturated fatty acid perform best. Keywords: Admixtures, lignosulphonate, vegetable oil, water repellent

1. INTRODUCTION Durability issues for mortar and concrete are associated with the access of external water since all detrimental chemical reactions need water as a reaction medium. Some water-soluble aggressives for reinforced concrete, like chlorides, are transported by diffusion or in marine splash zone with capillary suction. If the concrete is added a water repellent that still allows water vapor to be transported out, it is believed that ingress of aggressives carried by liquid water will be reduced (repellent effect) and that the interior of concrete or mortar will dry out gradually and hence be less prone to degrading reactions requiring liquid water to proceed. Most organic admixtures for mortar and concrete are based on mineral oil derivatives. Future generations will need natural replacements that can secure a sustainable development, the socalled bio-admixtures. The object of this investigation is to test if different vegetable oils can function as such bio-admixtures working as water repellents. In the textbook of concrete admixtures by Rixom and Mailvaganam [1], fatty acids like oleic (18:1), caprylic (8:0) and capric (10:0) acids are listed as concrete damp-proofers and added as such to the mixture, but not vegetable oils as such. Rixom and Mailvaganam [1] also list wax emulsions and finely divided solids as calcium stearate as damp-proofers. They make one reference to vegetable and animal fat used as damp-proofers, but then as an emulsion or paste with inorganic carriers as finely divided silica.
1 2
3

Prof., SINTEF Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cement and Concrete, Norway, harald.justnes@sintef.no Er., SINTEF Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cement and Concrete, Norway, tone.ostnor@sintef.no M.Sc. from Faculty of Civil Engineering,Universitat Politchnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain

However, Chandra and Xu [2] reported that direct addition of up to 0.8 % of linseed, corn and mustard oil to mortar reduced the water absorption. They reported some hydration retardation problems and possible improper dispersion of the oil, which may have been overcome in the present study by dispersing the oil in the mixing water by lignosulphonate prior to blending. 2. EXPERIMENTAL Standard mortars were composed of ordinary Portland cement, 0-8 mm sand, lime stone filler (20% of cement weight), water and 0.3% plasticizer (40% sodium lignosulphonate) of cement weight as a dispersant for the oil. The w/c was 0.50, and the cement:sand ratio was 1:3. Every mixture consisted of 3,000 g cement, 9,000 g sand with 2.3% moisture, 600 g limestone filler and 1,293 g water with 9 g lignosulphonate. Vegetable oil was dispersed in water with lignosulphonate for one minute before adding it to the dry materials. Then all was mixed for one minute in a Hobart mixer, 1 min resting and 1 min remixing. The 7 vegetable oils were of food quality from sunflower, olive, soya beans, peanuts, linseeds, corn and rapeseed. They are closer discussed later. Every mixture was about 6 liters: six 4040160 mm prisms for testing of 1 and 28 day flexural strength (3 parallels each), two cylinders of 100200 mm for six 20 mm sawn discs for capillary suction and water diffusion experiments and three half cylinders for later chloride intrusion tests, and six cast discs of 10020 mm with surface skin for capillary suction and water vapor tests. The cast and sawn mortar slices were mounted on a metal cup with a wet sponge in the bottom. This test unit was placed in a room of 50 % RH so the driving force for vapor diffusion was the difference between this vapor concentration and 93 % RH inside the cup obtained by potassium nitrate saturated water. Three parallels were made for each mortar type and the diffusion coefficient calculated from Eq. (1) where dS indicates the amount of water vapor diffused through a cross-section A per unit time, dt, and C symbolizes the concentration difference over the thickness . dS/dt is the slope of the linear weight loss versus time plots. The mass of the sample unit was measured every 2 or 3 days until the 4 last data used in a linear regression analysis to determine the slope gave a regression factor r2 > 0.98 in order to secure a steady state condition. The methods for determining water vapor diffusion coefficient are closer described by Justnes et al [3].
dS C = Deff A dt l

(1)

The capillary suction technique was performed on three parallel 20 mm slices, either sawn or cast, from each mixture. The technique usually requires 105C drying before capillary suction measurements, but since this may change the porosity or decompose oil, 1 week drying at 50C was chosen instead. After drying the discs are placed on a grating 1 mm below the water surface in a covered box. The increase in weight as specimen suck water is monitored for 4 days and plotted versus square root of time. The procedure consists of 6 important steps for the specimen:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Drying to constant weight (W1) Capillary suction for 4 days with weight monitoring Water saturation by submersion 3 days in water at 1 atm (W2) Pressure saturation by submersion 3 days in water at 80 atm (W3) The outer volume (V) is recorded by differential weighing the specimen under water and saturated surface dry in air according to the principle of Archimedes. 6. Drying the specimen to constant weight at 105C (W4) From these 6 steps, one can calculate initial moisture content, total porosity (tot), capillary porosity (cap), entrained air volume (air), average density of mortar solids (s) and dry density of mortar (d) as closer described by Justnes et al [4]. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Introduction to vegetable oils Natural fats, as vegetable oils are, consist primarily of glycerides (i.e. esters of glycerol and fatty acids) but also other lipids in minor quantities. Because of their preponderant weight in the glyceride molecules and also because they comprise the reactive portion of the molecules, the fatty acids influence greatly both the physical and chemical character of glycerides. Most oils and fats are based on about a dozen fatty acids. Especially for our study, it is important to distinguish between the saturated acids, and unsaturated acids (see Table 1). Table 1 Common saturated and unsaturated fatty acids.
Lauric acid Oleic acid Linoleic acid Linolenic acid Arachidonic acid CH3(CH2)10COOH CH3(CH2)7CH=CH(CH2)7COOH CH3(CH2)4CH=CHCH2CH=CH(CH2)7COOH CH3CH2CH=CHCH2CH=CHCH2CH=CH(CH2)7 COOH CH3(CH2)4CH=CHCH2CH=CHCH2CH=CHCH2 CH=CH(CH2)3COOH (12:0) (18:1) (18:2) (18:3) (20:4) saturated fatty acid with 12 carbon atoms (C) unsaturated fatty acid with 1 double bond and 18 C unsaturated fatty acid with 2 double bonds and 18 C unsaturated fatty acid with 3 double bonds and 18 C unsaturated fatty acid with 4 double bonds and 20 C

The difference between the vegetable oils is that saturated ones contain only single bonds between carbon atoms in their fatty acids, such as palmitic (17:0) or stearic (18:0), and are characterized by relatively high melting temperatures, while unsaturated acids have one or more pairs of carbon atoms joined by double bonds, such as oleic (18:1) or linoleic (18:2), and are low melting and chemically much more reactive. The numbers in brackets are the total number of carbon atoms followed by the number of double bonds. The glyceride (like other esters) is not chemically stable in the highly alkaline interior of a cement mortar. It will hydrolyze to glycerol, CH(OH)CH(OH)CH(OH), and fatty acid anions consuming three hydroxyl ions in the process. The carboxyl group, -COO-, of the fatty acid anion will coordinate strongly with calcium. The fatty acid will thus be stuck inside the mortar and the hydrophobic part of the molecule will create water repellency.

The characteristics of the 7 vegetable oils tested; Sunflower, Olive, Soya, Peanut, Linseed, Corn and Rapeseed (all food quality, except linseed oil, in these experiments, but less pure oil can probably be used with similar effect), are for their distribution of fatty acid classes unsaturated, mono- and poly-unsaturated summarized in Table 2 as stated on the bottles, while their specific fatty acids from a general view can be seen in Table 3 as found in literature (Gunstone, [5]). Table 2 Distribution of classes of fatty acids in the investigated vegetable oils.
Oil type
Sunflower Olive Soya Peanut Corn Rape

Saturated
11 15 16 18 14 5

Monounsaturated
21 70 19 46 33 58

Polyunsaturated
64 15 65 28 53 32

Table 3 Distribution (%) of specific fatty acids in vegetable oils in general [5]
Oil type
Sunflower Olive Soya Ground nut Linseed Corn Rape

16:0
6 10 11 13 6 13 4

18:0
5 2 4 3 3 3 2

18:1
20 78 22 38 17 31 56

18:2
69 7 53 41 14 52 26

18:3
trace 1 8 trace 60 1 10

Other
2 2 5 C20-24 2 20:1

3.2 Mechanical properties of mortars with vegetable oils The compressive and flexural strength of mortar prisms after 1 and 28 days are given in Table 4 as mean value with standard deviation for 3 parallels. In addition the total porosity as a sum of all individual porosities obtained from capillary suction of sawn discs in Table 7 is given as comparison. The total porosity is rather constant ranging from 19.2 to 21.1 vol%. The 1 day strength is not significantly lower than the reference mortars without oil, with the exception of the highest dosage (1.5% of cement weight) of linseed (22% reduction), and to a minor extent for the highest dosage of corn and rape (10-12% reduction). Chandra and Xu [2] claimed substantial retardation if the direct addition of vegetable oil exceeded 0.8 % of cement weight and reported only strength values for 7 and 28 days. The apparent less retardation (and strength loss) in this case is probably because the oil was dispersed in the water by the aid of lignosulphonate rather than added directly to the mixture. The temperature evolution in mortar in 1 liter Styrofoam boxes is plotted in Fig. 1. Although the maximum level may be dependent on the position of the thermocouple, the setting time indicated by the start of second rise in temperature is correct. It is clear that rapeseed oil addition by the present concept does not retard setting.

23.5 Temperature (C) 22.5 21.5

Temperature evolution in mortars (w/c = 0.5)

Reference, 0% oil

20.5 19.5 0 5

0.5% Rapeseed oil 1.0% Rapeseed oil

10 time (h)

15

20

Fig. 1 Temperature evolution of mortar in Styrofoam boxes, indicating that setting is not disturbed by rapeseed oil. Table 4 Compressive (c) and flexural (f) strength for mortars with vegetable oil addition after 1 and 28 days curing. For the sake of discussion the sum of porosities, sawn, obtained by capillary suction for sawn specimen in Table 7 is included as well.
Oil Type
None Sunflower

Dose (%)
0 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5

c,1 (MPa)
22.40.4 21.71.3 20.91.3 21.61.2 20.00.4 21.00.4 20.30.3 21.30.6 21.60.5 22.90.6 20.60.8 21.70.4 21.70.7 21.40.4 20.10.2 20.00.4 17.20.6 21.41.0 20.20.8 19.70.4 21.70.5 21.90.5 19.40.4

f,1 (MPa)
4.81.1 4.60.1 4.50.1 4.70.3 4.60.2 4.20.4 4.10.3 4.20.1 4.30.3 4.40.1 4.20.1 4.50.2 4.10.3 4.30.0 4.40.2 4.10.1 4.00.3 4.50.0 3.80.2 4.10.1 4.30.4 4.50.1 4.30.1

c,28 (MPa)
49.50.9 49.71.0 47.11.2 46.31.3 42.40.5 47.11.9 43.61.3 47.31.2 43.41.7 48.40.9 41.41.1 47.11.1 42.01.1 42.01.1 42.21.5 42.91.0 38.71.0 42.14.3 41.61.4 42.30.9 47.51.2 46.21.0 41.31.5

f,28 (MPa)
7.30.3 7.50.5 6.90.3 6.60.1 6.40.2 7.10.1 7.50.6 7.30.2 6.20.4 7.00.2 5.80.5 6.70.5 6.80.5 6.80.1 6.40.6 6.90.4 6.50.0 6.20.3 6.30.4 6.10.2 6.80.4 7.00.2 6.50.2

sawn
20.0 20.5 19.8 19.7 19.8 19.2 19.9 20.2 20.1 19.4 20.3 19.7 20.2 19.7 21.0 20.4 21.1 20.9 20.1 19.8 19.8 19.8 19.5

Olive

Soya

Peanut

Linseed

Corn

Rape

The 28 day strength is not dramatically lower than the reference (< 15%), with the exception of the highest dosage of linseed oil (22% reduction). Flexural strengths are not reduced to any

larger degree than the compressive strengths. This means that the oils or their decomposition products do not seem to obstruct the degree of hydration and is thus coordinated towards the hydration products CSH and CH rather than the surface of unreacted cement grains. The transport of water from one part of the microstructure to another may however be obstructed when the hydration has proceeded far enough to enrich the oil concentration to become an important phase in the liquid (i.e. intact oil droplets may block pores). 3.3 Water vapor diffusion of mortars with vegetable oils The effective diffusion coefficients, Deff, and the correlation factor, r2, from the linear regression analysis of the average mass loss versus time curve (dS/dt in Eq. 1 is the slope) of three specimens are listed in Table 5 for both sawn (indicate interior water movement) and cast discs (includes effect of surface skin). The results in Table 5 show clearly that the vapor diffusion through the mortar is dominated by the surface skin of cement paste (63% reduction) as seen from the difference between sawn and cast reference mortar. The oil addition do not lower the vapor diffusion coefficient further for cast specimen, but reduces it relative to the reference for the sawn specimen, sometimes to the level of the cast specimen. The latter effect indicates that there can be some pore blocking by remaining oil droplets, but they may however be degraded by alkaline moisture over time. The samples at the time of measurement were in the order of 2-3 months old. Table 5 Effective water vapor diffusion coefficient, Deff (10-6m2/s), for mortars with different vegetable oil additions. The linear regression factor, r2, is included as well to indicate the soundness of the fit to obtain Deff.
Sawn discs Deff (10-6m2/s) r2
0.85 0.56 0.42 0.34 0.37 0.39 0.35 0.49 0.36 0.35 0.40 0.37 0.36 0.40 0.38 0.37 0.46 0.38 0.36 0.47 0.45 0.9946 0.9807 0.9940 0.9873 0.9989 0.9948 0.9840 0.9859 0.9968 0.9994 0.9991 0.9988 0.9981 0.9984 0.9973 0.9968 0.9995 0.9999 0.9997 0.9998 0.9984 -

Oil type
None Sunflower

Dosage (%)
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5

Cast discs Deff (10-6m2/s) r2

0.31 0.29 0.29 0.26 0.28 0.30 0.26 0.35 0.29 0.31 0.31 0.33 0.32 0.36 0.27 0.29 0.34 0.32 0.31 0.33 0.34 0.36 0.9987 0.9984 0.9879 0.9885 0.9985 0.9931 0.9980 0.9809 0.9981 0.9982 0.9980 0.9971 0.9967 0.9985 0.9959 0.9961 0.9989 0.9994 0.9991 0.9988 0.9984 0.9976

Olive

Soya

Peanut

Linseed

Corn

Rape

The effective water vapor diffusion coefficient for the present reference mortar with w/c = 0.50, was a little higher (Deff = 0.8510-6 m2/s) than previously measured by Justnes et al [3] on mortar with w/c = 0.55 (Deff = 0.7110-6 m2/s). However, the RH in the cup was then 100% (water may then condense in capillary pores), rather than 93% RH at present. More interesting is it to observe that the reduction in Deff relative to the reference by 5 % polymer addition in the form of latex (Justnes et al [3]) often was less (depending on type) than for the addition of 1% vegetable oil (present study). 3.4 Capillary suction of water by mortars with vegetable oils The parameters derived from the capillary suction test; initial moisture, capillary porosity, entrained air, solid density and dry density, are listed in the case of cast discs for all 23 mixtures in Table 6 and for sawn discs in Table 7. The water absorption versus square root of time profiles for mortars with rape seed oil is plotted in Fig. 2.
Sawn mortar discs with vegetable oils
Water absorption (kg/m2) 0,40 0,30 0,20 0,10 0,00 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 Time, sqrt(s)

REF. I 0.5%RAPE 1%RAPE 1.5%RAPE

Cast mortar discs with vegetable oils

Water absorption (kg/m2) 0,40 0,30 0,20 0,10 0,00 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 Time, sqrt(s) REF. I 0.5%RAPE 1%RAPE 1.5%RAPE

Fig. 2 The water absorption of sawn (upper) and cast (lower) discs of mortars with 0.0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 % rapeseed oil added.

Table 6 Initial moisture, capillary porosity, cap, air content, air, average density of solids, s, and dry sample density, d, obtained by the capillary suction technique for cast discs of mortars with different vegetable oil additions.
Oil Type
None Sunflower

Dose (%)
0 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5

Initial moist (%)

2.10.1 2.20.2 2.50.1 3.50.0 3.40.1 3.00.1 3.40.4 3.30.1 2.90.2 3.10.2 3.20.1 2.90.1 3.00.1 3.30.2 2.80.1 2.20.1 2.40.1 2.40.0 2.40.6 3.00.3 2.6+0.2 2.40.0 2.40.1

cap (vol%)
13.5+0.1 14.30.3 13.20.1 10.50.5 7.90.6 9.00.4 6.20.4 4.70.1 11.80.3 8.30.6 8.20.1 8.90.2 7.10.3 5.10.3 12.40.3 7.90.2 7.40.4 10.10.3 7.60.7 6.40.3 9.00.8 6.20.1 5.50.2

air (vol%)
2.70.1 2.60.2 2.70.0 4.50.7 7.50.9 6.20.3 9.5+0.6 9.90.3 4.30.3 6.60.7 7.50.5 6.10.3 8.90.4 10.30.1 4.80.3 7.70.3 9.20.6 5.90.7 8.91.0 8.70.6 8.00.7 8.90.1 9.70.3

s (kg/m3)
25672 25841 25569 247819 239135 244810 233512 23474 25265 243518 240610 24599 237216 23114 248716 242710 238816 247518 237442 237713 241528 239310 23648

d (kg/m3)
21993 21938 219411 21824 216820 219717 215613 22034 220012 22021 21769 221212 217310 21618 212223 22146 218812 22009 217040 21967 217147 222210 22095

Olive

Soya

Peanut

Linseed

Corn

Rape

The first to be noticed from Tables 6 and 7 is that the air content (air) seems to increase with increasing oil addition. This is not the case, but rather the oil reducing the water absorption so much that even 4 days suction followed by 2 days water submerging is not sufficient to fill all the capillaries. Thus, when the samples are placed in the pressure tank, the unfilled capillaries will be saturated and erroneously be interpreted as air. Summing up initial moisture, capillary moisture and entrained air should then give the correct total porosity. This is done in Table 4 and is rather constant for all mixtures, indicating that the total air content does not vary too much between the mixtures. Thus, the apparent air content can be a good measure of the resistance to capillary suction and used to rank the efficiency of vegetable oils: Cast disc, 0.5% addition: Rape > olive peanut corn > linseed > soya > sunflower Cast disc, 1.0% addition: Olive > rape = peanut = corn > linseed > soya > sunflower Cast disc, 1.5% addition: Peanut > olive rape > linseed > corn > soya = sunflower Sawn disc, 0.5% addition: Olive > linseed rape > corn peanut > soya > sunflower Sawn disc, 1.0% addition: Olive > peanut > rape > linseed corn > soya sunflower Sawn disc, 1.5% addition: Peanut olive > rape > corn soya > linseed sunflower Even though the ranking seems to shift somewhat depending on dosage and whether the discs were cast or sawn, the three oils; olive, rape and peanut, seems to give the best water repellence. As seen from Tables 2 and 3, these are also the oils with the most monounsaturated fatty acid.

The content of polyunsaturated fat does not play a role, as soya and sunflower overall do not perform as well. Table 7 Initial moisture, capillary porosity, cap, and air content, air, average density of solids, s, and dry sample density, d, obtained by the capillary suction technique for sawn discs of mortars with different vegetable oil additions.
Oil Type
None Sunflower

Dose (%)
0 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 1.5

Initial moist (%)

2.40.1 2.60.1 3.00.3 3.60.1 3.70.2 3.30.3 3.20.2 4.10.2 3.4+0.1 3.80.1 3.90.1 3.40.0 3.20.1 3.60.0 3.10.1 2.90.1 3.00.1 2.90.1 2.90.1 3.20.1 2.90.0 3.10.1 3.30.1

cap (vol%)
14.80.8 15.41.0 13.71.0 12.61.0 11.11.3 10.81.0 8.30.7 7.40.4 13.00.5 11.91.2 10.80.7 12.00.9 9.70.9 7.30.6 13.00.5 12.71.1 12.90.7 13.61.0 12.61.1 10.92.4 12.11.3 10.11.3 8.20.9

air (vol%)
2.80.1 2.50.2 3.10.1 3.50.2 5.00.4 5.10.1 8.40.3 8.70.4 3.70.2 3.70.0 5.60.1 4.30.2 7.30.2 8.80.2 4.90.0 4.80.1 5.20.3 4.40.2 4.60.1 5.70.1 4.82.2 6.60.1 8.00.2

s (kg/m3)
25606 25765 25275 25052 244211 24699 23524 235712 251611 25035 24459 250810 24122 233510 247411 248610 24588 250011 24888 245428 24988 24397 23846

d (kg/m3)
215725 215227 2151+22 215522 213322 217029 212415 214324 215421 216833 214126 217231 214621 212923 212223 214136 211122 213329 214634 215542 216631 216137 215623

Olive

Soya

Peanut

Linseed

Corn

Rape

According to Gunstone [5] the ranking of oil production tonnage in the world is soya > palm > rape > sunflower as the 4 big ones. Palm has not been tested, but it is medium in monounsaturated (40%) and unusual high in saturated (44%), so its performance remains unclear. However, among those tested, rape oil seems to be the best candidate for industrial application in mortar, considering both production volume and performance. In addition, it can easily be grown in colder climates than palm. Chandra and Xu [2] tested linseed, corn and mustard oil, both cooked and uncooked. They tested capillary suction for 0.5 and 0.8 % additions for 2 days only (or 55 min = 426s) and 0.5 % corn had reached the level of the reference at this time (2 days). From the water absorption profile of mortar with 0.5 % corn oil in this study, it can be extracted that water absorption after 4 days is 0.26 kg/m2 as compared to 0.36 kg/m2 for the reference. At 2 days the value is 0.25 versus 0.36 kg/m2. The difference in performance seems to be the lack of proper distribution of the oil by Chandra and Xu [2], since it was added directly to the mixer rather than being dispersed in the mixing water first. Another difference is that they dried their specimen at 105C before testing, instead of the 50C used here. This may have destroyed some of the oil.

Justnes et al [3] and Justnes and ye [6] performed similar capillary absorption test for polymer latices and redispersible polymer powders. The lowest polymer dosage was 5 % of cement weight, and as a general impression even the best polymers did not perform as good as for instance 1% rapeseed oil. 4. CONCLUSION Vegetable oils can be used as water repellents for mortars in rather small amounts (0.5-1.5 % of cement weight), in particular if a good distribution is secured by dispersing the oil in the mixing water prior to blending. Oils with high content of monounsaturated fatty acids seem to be most effective; like olive, peanut and rapeseed. Considering the worlds production of different oils and performance, oil from rapeseeds seems to be most attractive from a concrete technology perspective, in particular since it easily can be grown also in colder climates. At the same time as the 4 day water absorption is reduced by more than 1/3 by 1% rapeseed oil, the water vapor diffusion coefficient in the interior is not reduced more than to the level of the cement paste skin of the reference mortar. Thus, a mortar with vegetable oil exposed to weather should develop a drier interior over time and the penetration of water born aggressives like chlorides should be reduced. For these reasons, mortar or concrete with vegetable oil addition should be more durable than without.
REFERENCES 1. Rixom, R. and Mailvaganam, N., Chemical Admixtures for Concrete, 3. Ed., 1999, E&FN Spon, London, Chapter 4.2 The chemistry of damp-proofers pp. 150-153. 2. Chandra, S. and Xu, A., Influence of Vegetable Oils Addition on Portland Cement Mortars, 7th International Congress on Polymers in Concrete (ICPIC), Oostende, Belgium, July 3-5, 1995, pp. 187-192. 3. Justnes, H., Reynaers, T. and Van Zundert, W., Moisture Transport in Polymer Cement Mortars based on Latices and Redispersible Polymer, 9th International Congress on Polymers in Concrete (ICPIC), Bologna, Italy, September 15-18, 1998, pp. 633-645. 4. Justnes, H., Thys, A., Vanparijs, F and Van Gemert, D., Porosity and Diffusivity of Concrete with Long-term Compressive Strength Increase due to Addition of the Set Accelerator Calcium Nitrate, 9th International Conference on Durability of Building Materials and Components, March 17-20, 2002, Brisbane, Australia. 5. Gunstone, F., Fatty Acid and Lipid Chemistry, Blackie Academic and Professional, London, 1st Edition, 1996 (ISBN 0 7514 0253 2). 6. Justnes, H. and ye, B.A., "Capillary Suction of Water by Polymer Cement Mortars", The RILEM TC-113 International Symposium on Properties and Test Methods for Concrete-Polymer Composites, Oostende, Belgium, July 6, 1995, pp. 29-37.