Study on the Attack of Concrete by External Sulfate under Electric Fields

The research on and application of electric fields to promote the rapid infiltration of ions into cement concrete have been widely explored. Still, there are few studies on the migration of sulfate ions using electric fields. In this paper, a new test method is designed using the principle of electric fields, that is, to accelerate the attack of sulfate into concrete under the action of the electric field, to test the resistance of concrete to sulfate attack. By testing different water–cement ratios, different pulse frequencies, different ages, and different soaking environments, the influence of the electric field on the sulfate resistance of concrete was analyzed. The results show that the compressive strength of concrete in a sulfate attack environment is smaller than that of conventional attack and water immersion environment when the water–cement ratio is 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5 under the action of the electric field and increases with the increase of water in the water–cement ratio. Compared with a 14 day test, the compressive strength of concrete in a sulfate attack environment decreased by 1.9%, 8.6%, and 2.9%, respectively, at 28 days, which was faster than that of conventional attack and water immersion. The compressive strength of the concrete in the sulfate attack environment during the full immersion test and the semi-immersion test is smaller than that of the conventional attack and water immersion, and the semi-immersion test method is more obvious than the full immersion test method. The microscopic morphology of the test group, the water group, and the solution group were compared. From the microscopic morphology comparison, it can be seen that the electric field accelerates the diffusion of sulfate ions into the cement concrete and accelerates the reaction of sulfate ions with the relevant components in the cement concrete. Given the demand for concrete to resist sulfate attack under the action of the electric field, developing new and efficient protective materials is an important research direction. At present, the market lacks protective materials specifically for such an attack environment. This paper provides the theoretical basis and technical support for improving the effectiveness of concrete surface protection technology and engineering practices.