Joint sealants in concrete structures in wet conditions: Staff report

Abstract

Sealants originally introduced for the building industry have increasingly been used in civil engineering structures. To traditional materials have been added new products, apparently offering better performance, but even these have proved unsatisfactory. A major source of difficulty has been the lack of objective information for specifiers and, in particular, lack of information on the long-term behaviour of sealants, especially in situations where they are in contact with water or other liquids. CIRIA and the Water Research Centre have been investigating the problem with the aim of producing guidelines on sealants and their use. The report on the first phase, Technical Note 128, was published recently and was introduced at a symposium. This paper summarises the report and the introductory remarks at the symposium.