as shown in
Fig. 3. Previous study by Moreira et al. [27] showed poor performance
of water-based acrylic resin under capillary absorption
compared with other types of surface treatment materials. This
agrees with findings of the present study since concrete cylinders
coated with acrylic gained more mass in the beginning of the
experiment than the other coated cylinders. It is also possible that
the acrylic solution partially fill the concrete surface pores, allowing
salt crystals to grow and damage the acrylic film. In addition,
acrylic is a relatively brittle material [32,44] and may not sustain
the strains due to salt crystallization.