Installations, sulfur concrete

After 1- years, the Portland cement concrete control samples at Corpus Christi that were installed contiguous to and intermixed with the sulfur concrete test samples showed total disintegration, whereas the sulfur concrete exhibited no identifiable attack (figure 2). In the summer of 1979, the ongoing maintenance needs at the Corpus Christi plant placed rehabilitation of a cellhouse basement floor in a priority position. The opportunity to perform the repair work on a full-scale basis, utilizing Bureau of Mines technology for sulfur concrete in lieu of portland cement concrete, was accomplished by an agreement for a demonstration project executed between the Bureau of Mines and Asarco. 

Figure 1. Sulfur concrete sump for installation in the zinc electrolyte pumping circuit.

Potentially every parameter of cost involved in sulfur concrete is a variable. The cost of sulfur and the cost to modify it, the availability and capacity of mixing equipment and the daily volume of material mixed, and the labor requirement at the mixing installation are variable factors for a specific project. Added to these variables are the normal parameters of a concrete jobsite preparation, form construction and grade delineation, transport, placement, finish, joint practice, and other items constituting the total concrete installation. Finally, a cost comparison must be made versus the local cost of Portland cement concrete, which is highly variable in different locations. 

U.S. Bureau of Mines (36,32). The industrial use of sulfur concretes in corrosive environments has been pioneered by the U.S. Bureau of Mines. In cooperation with metal smelting and fertilizer industries USBM has installed test sections of SC in several locations where PCC deteriorates in a matter of a few months. 

Sulfur mortar could also be used to produce entire brick walls on the ground to be installed in the manner of tilt-up concrete walls. Only the forms in which the bricks are set and in which the molten sulfur is cast would differ. To demonstrate the concept, the wood form shown in Figure 1 was constructed large enough to hold six sub-size clay bricks. These bricks were actually 3% in. long by 1% in. wide by 1 in. thick. The bricks were evenly spaced by inserting 3/16-in. diameter wire at... 

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