Toward an accelerated biodeterioration test to understand the behavior of Portland and calcium aluminate cementitious materials in sewer networks

Sewer networks contain many aggressive and corrosive agents for pipe materials. One type of damage can be ascribed to concrete corrosion by biogenic sulfuric acid. According to field data, cementitious materials have different behaviors depending in particular on cement type: Those made with calcium aluminate cement (CAC) offer better performance than those made of ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The development of an accelerated and accurate laboratory test is essential to better understand the mechanisms involved for all cementitious materials. However, to define such a test, some additional knowledge is required. The present study deals with in situ experiments in order to determine the biochemical parameters influencing the behaviors of OPC and CAC materials. Based on these determinations, supplemented by laboratory studies, it can be concluded that abiotic oxidation of hydrogen sulfide, bioreceptivity of the mineral surface, and growth of bacterial strains depend greatly on cementitious material types. All these results, complemented by literature data, lead to consideration of what the best parameters are to study biodeterioration of cementitious materials, and have been helpful in designing the biodeterioration chamber tested