Water penetration is another dangerous effect on pavements with concrete or cement treated base., If water is stored within the pavement, it will be susceptible to hot and low temperatures. Hot temperatures, typically in tropical countries, will cause the formation of water steam within the concrete. On the other hand, low temperatures will cause ice formation. Both are dangerous for the pavement body, because it can “explode” from inside,causing well-known effect like potholes.

To see the clearer picture of WPPS, it is essential to understand the mechanism, which is the main cause of the water penetration.

As cement hydrates during the curing process , very small channels called “capillary” are formed on the surface (see figure 4). Unfortunately, these “capillaries” have the physical attribute to raise water. Therefore,you can speak of the “capillary rise of water”. These capillaries can be very deep, so that water can be led also very deep into the pavement.

It is very hard to avoid the formation of capillaries during the curing process; therefore you have to look for a mechanism, which is capable of blocking this physical
phenomenon in a different way.

Here again,the answer to the problem is Renolith Water Penetration Protection System (WPPS),which provides a mechanism with the ability to block the capillary rise of water

Renolith adds micro-pores to the pavement with concrete or cement treated base (see figure 5), which are distributed throughout the pavement body randomly.

These micro-pores settled in, or in the near of the capillaries, building small “caverns”. These caverns break the physical attribute of the capillaries to raise water. That means, water is able to rise up to the level of the first micro-pore (see figure 5).

Therefore, water is unable to rise as deep as in the pavement with concrete or cement treated base, when Renolith is used.

To summarise, Renolith reduces the water penetration of the road base dramatically with no severe effects, caused by temperatures of the change hereof, like potholes. This is again saving time and money because of the less need of maintenance. On the other hand, Renolith based roads are very versatile in their use: There will be no problems using Renolith based roads in tropical countries or in countries, where they have a perma-freeze ground.