Er.-Chirag-K-Baxi
Er. Chirag K Baxi, Director, Prudent Forensic Consultancy Private Limited., & General Manager, K K Retroflex Solutions

Of course, structural rehabilitation and construction chemicals walk hand in hand and by matching shoulders to shoulders.

Rehabilitation of a damaged structure is a process like treating a wounded patient which needs some external medicines, some injectables and some finishing bandages. Similar is the process of rehabilitating a damaged structure.

Just as the treatment starts with laboratory tests for the patient, the tests (non destructive or semi destructive) are carried out on the structure to know the damage potential and severity. Immediately the role of (construction) chemicals begin.

  1. Wounds of corrosion on the concrete and steel structures are cleaned and applied with a proper coating for its healing and protection.
  2. Some extra protective padding (similar to the cotton padding) in form of sacrificial anodes are then placed around the damaged portion of the structure).
  3. Next stage of the treatment is injectables for the internal treatment which is for an invisible damage. This is of course with a purpose of increasing the immunity of the damaged member to resist further abuse.
  4. Once all these actions are done, then comes a final stage of bandage. Just as it is done with the help of cotton and medicines in case of a wound, it is done with chemicals and additional reinforcement for damaged concrete members.
  5. Curing the damaged human organ or a concrete member is the ultimate goalpost which is then achieved with the set of medicines / chemicals and instruments / tools and tackles.
  6. Repairing a wound and rehabilitating a damaged concrete member have similar analogy which is incomplete without medicines / (construction) chemicals.

Construction chemicals and construction additives / supplements are often treated with similar thrust while both have different functioning. Construction chemicals have more effectiveness to “heal the wounds” of the structure while construction additives / supplements augment particular functionality or property or parameter for which it is used.

This makes a sense when construction chemicals are to be used for a chemical / petrochemical / agrochemical industry / refinery / dairies etc because compatibility of chemicals for their reactivity with the chemicals present around the damaged members stands on highest priority of all selection factors.