Concrete Waterproofing Glossary

Packaged Concrete, Mortar, Or Grout

mixtures of dry ingredients in packages, requiring only the addition of water to produce concrete, mortar, or grout.

Pan

(1) a prefabricated form unit used in concrete joist floor construction;
(2) a container that receives particles passing the finest sieve during sieveanalysis of granular materials.

(1) a section of form sheathing that can be erected and stripped as a unit;
(2) a concrete element that is relatively thin with respect to other dimensions and is bordered by joints or edges;
(3) a region of a suspended slab system bounded by column, be

Panel Strip

a strip extending across the length or width of a flat slab for structuraldesign and construction or for architectural purposes.

Parapet

(1) the part of a wall that extends above the roof level;
(2) a low wall along the top of a dam.

Parge

to coat with plaster, particularly foundation walls and rough masonry. (See also back plastering.)

Partial Prestressing

prestressing to a stress level such that, under design loads, tensile stresses exist in the precompressed tensile zone of the prestressed member.

Particle Shape

the form of a particle. (See also elongated piece [of aggregate], and flatpiece [of aggregate].)

Pass

layer of shotcrete placed in one movement over the area of operation.

Paste Content

amount of cement paste in concrete, mortar, or the like, expressed asvolume percent of the entire mixture. (See also neat cement paste.)

Pavement (concrete)

a layer of concrete on such areas as roads, sidewalks, canals, playgrounds, and those used for storage or parking. (See also rigid pavement.)

Paving Train

an assemblage of equipment designed to place and finish a concretepavement.

Pea Gravel

screened gravel, most of the particles of which pass a 9.5 mm (3/8 in.)sieve and are retained on a 4.75 mm (No. 4) sieve.

Peak Load

the highest load sustained by a specimen or structural element during a test.

Peak Load Strength

strength computed using the peak load.

Pedestal

compression member with a ratio of height-to-least lateral dimension less than or equal to three.

Peeling

a process in which thin flakes of mortar are broken away from a concrete surface, such as by deterioration or by adherence of surface mortar to forms as forms are removed.

Pencil Rod

plain metal rod of approximately 1/4 in. (6 mm) diameter.

Penetration

an opening through which pipe, conduit, or other item passes through awall or floor.

Penetration Probe

a device for obtaining an indirect measure of the concrete compressive strength by measuring the resistance of concrete to penetration, customarily determined by the distance that a steel pin is driven into the concrete from a special gun by a precisely m

Penetration Resistance

(1) the resistance of fresh mortar or cement paste to penetration by a plunger or needle under standard conditions used to determine time of setting;
(2) the resistance of hardened concrete to penetration by a steel rod driven into the surface by a high-

Percent Fines

(1) the amount, expressed as a percentage, of material in aggregate finer than a given sieve, usually the 75 m m (No. 200);
(2) the amount of fine aggregate in a concrete mixture expressed as a percent by absolute volume of the total amount of aggregate.

Percentage of Reinforcement

the ratio of cross-sectional area of reinforcing steel to the effective cross- sectional area of a member, expressed as a percentage.

Performance-based Specification

a specification in which the requirements are stated in terms of required results with criteria for verifying compliance rather than specific composition, design, or procedure.

Periclase

a crystalline mineral, magnesia (MgO), the equivalent of which may be present in portland-cement clinker, portland cement, and other materials such as open-hearth slags and certain basic refractories.

Perlite

a volcanic glass having a perlitic structure, usually having a higher water content than obsidian and, when expanded by heating, used as an insulating material and as a lightweight aggregate in concretes, mortars, and plasters.

Permanent Setting

inelastic elongation or shortening.

Permeability

the ability of a given concrete to permit liquids or gases to pass through.

Pervious Concrete

concrete containing little, if any, fine aggregate that results in sufficient voids to allow air and water to pass easily from the surface to underlying layers.

Pervious Pavement

a pavement comprising material with sufficient continuous voids to allowwater to pass from the surface to the underlying layers.

Philleo Factor

a distance, used as an index of the extent to which hardened cement paste is protected from the effects of freezing, so selected that only a small portion of the cement paste (usually 10 percent) lies farther than that distance from the perimeter of the n

Pier

(1) a slender isolated foundation member of either plain or reinforced concrete that is cast on end in the ground;
(2) an isolated vertical masonry member whose horizontal dimension measured at right angles to its thickness is not less than three times i

Pigment

a coloring matter, usually in the form of an insoluble fine powder.

Pipe Column

column made of steel pipe, often filled with concrete.

Pipe Pile

a steel pipe generally driven with open ends to firm bearing and then excavated and filled with concrete.

Pitting

development of relatively small cavities in a surface; in concrete, localized disintegration, such as a popout; in steel, localized corrosion evident as minute cavities on the surface.

Placement

(1) the process of placing and consolidating concrete;
(2) a quantity of concrete placed and finished during a continuous operation (often inappropriately referred to as pouring).

Placing

the deposition, distribution, and consolidation of freshly mixed concrete in the place where it is to harden (often inappropriately referred to as pouring).

Plain Concrete

structural concrete with no reinforcement or with less reinforcement than the minimum amount specified for reinforced concrete in the applicable building code.

Plain Pavement

unreinforced concrete pavement.

Plastic Cement

a cement manufactured for plaster and stucco applications consisting of ablend of cement and lime that may include pozzolans, fillers, or additives to increase plasticity, workability, and crack resistance of the cement and the plaster.

Plastic Consistency

the consistency at which a mixture subjected to a constant shearing stress undergoes increasing deformation without rupture.

Plastic Shrinkage

shrinkage that takes place before cement paste, mortar, grout, or concrete sets.

Plastic-shrinkage Crack

surface crack that occurs in concrete before initial set.

Plasticity

the property of freshly mixed cement paste, concrete, or mortar that determines its resistance to deformation or ease of molding.

Plasticity Index (PI)

the range of water content in which a soil remains plastic, evaluated as the numerical difference between liquid limit and plastic limit, as calculated according to ASTM D4318 (also called plasticity).

Plasticizer

(1) a material that increases the plasticity of a fresh cementitious mixture;
(2) a substance added to a material to improve the material’s flexibility.

Plumb

vertical or to make vertical.

Point of Inflection

the point on the length of a structural member subjected to flexure where the bending moment is zero and the curvature changes from concave to convex or convex to concave (also called point of contraflexure).

Poisson’s Ratio

the absolute value of the ratio of transverse strain to the corresponding longitudinal strain resulting from uniformly distributed axial stress below the proportional limit of the material.

Polish Or Final Grind

the final operation in which fine abrasives are used to hone a surface to itsdesired smoothness and appearance.

Polyethylene

a thermoplastic high-molecular-weight organic compound used in formulating protective coatings or, in sheet form, as a protective cover for concrete surfaces during the curing period, or to provide a temporary enclosure for construction operations.

Polymer

the product of polymerization or, more commonly, a rubber or resin consisting of large molecules formed by polymerization.

Polymer Concrete

concrete in which an organic polymer serves as the binder.

Polymer-cement Concrete

a mixture comprising hydraulic cement and aggregate combined at the time of mixing with organic monomers or polymers that are dispersed in water.

Polymer-impregnated Concrete

a hydrated hydraulic-cement concrete that has been impregnated with a monomer that is subsequently polymerized.

Polymerization

the reaction in which two or more molecules of the same substance combine to form a compound containing the same elements and in the same proportions but of higher molecular weight.

Polystyrene Resin

synthetic resins, varying from colorless to yellow, formed by thepolymerization of styrene on heating with or without catalysts, which may be used in paints for concrete, for making sculptured molds, or as insulation.

Polyurethane

reaction product of an isocyanate with any of a wide variety of other compounds containing an active hydrogen group, also used to formulate tough, abrasion-resistant coatings.

Polyvinyl Chloride

a synthetic resin prepared by the polymerization of vinyl chloride, used in the manufacture of nonmetallic waterstops for concrete.

Ponding

(1) the creation and maintaining of a shallow pond of water on the surface of a concrete slab to assist curing;
(2) accidental or incidental occurrence of a shallow pond or ponds on a nominally flat surface of concrete;
(3) a condition in which a horizo

Popout

the breaking away of small portions of a concrete, mortar, and plaster surface due to localized internal pressure that leaves a shallow, typically conical, depression.

Porosity

the ratio, usually expressed as a percentage of the volume of voids in a material to the total volume of the material including the voids.

Portland Blast-furnace Slag Cement

a hydraulic cement consisting of an intimately interground mixture of portland-cement clinker and granulated blast-furnace slag or an intimate and uniform blend of portland cement and fine granulated blast-furnace slag in which the amount of the slag cons

Portland Cement

a hydraulic cement produced by pulverizing portland-cement clinker and usually with addition of calcium sulfate to control setting.

Portland-cement Clinker

a partially fused product of kiln that is ground to make cement.

Portland-pozzolan Cement

a hydraulic cement consisting of an intimate and uniform blend of portlandcement or portland blast-furnace slag cement and fine pozzolan produced by intergrinding portland-cement clinker and pozzolan, by blending portland cement or portland blast-furnace

Portlandite

a crystalline calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH) 2 ).

Post

vertical formwork member used as a support (also called shore, prop, and jack).

Post Shore

individual vertical member used to support loads.
(1) adjustable timber single-post shore – individual timber used with a fabricated clamp to obtain adjustment and not normally manufactured as a complete unit.
(2) fabricated single-post shore
Type I: sing

Post-tensioning

method of prestressing reinforced concrete in which tendons are tensionedafter the concrete has attained a specified minimum strength or a specifiedminimum age.

Pozzolan

a siliceous or silico-aluminous material that will, in finely divided form and in the presence of moisture, chemically react with calcium hydroxide at ordinary temperatures to form compounds having cementitious properties (there are both natural and artif

Pozzolanic

of or pertaining to a pozzolan.

Pozzolanic Reaction

reaction between calcium hydroxide and the oxides in a pozzolan resulting in reaction products having cementitious properties similar to the products that result from the hydration of portland cement.

Pozzolanic-activity Index

an index that measures pozzolanic activity based on the strength of cementitious mixtures containing hydraulic cement with and without the pozzolan, or containing the pozzolan with lime.

Preblended Grout

a hydraulic-cement grout that is a commercially available mixture of hydraulic cement, aggregate, and other ingredients that requires only the addition of water and mixing at the job site (also called premixed grout).

Precast Concrete

concrete cast elsewhere than its final position.

Precast Pile

a reinforced pile manufactured in a casting plant or at the site but not in itsfinal position. (See also cast-in-place pile.)

Preplaced-aggregate Concrete

concrete produced by placing coarse aggregate in a form and later injecting a portland cement-sand grout, usually with admixtures, to fill the voids.

Preservation

the process of maintaining a structure in its present condition and arresting further deterioration. (See also rehabilitation, repair, and restoration).

Preshrunk Concrete (mortar Or Grout)

(1) concrete that has been mixed for a short period in a stationary mixer before being transferred to a transit mixer;
(2) grout, mortar, or concrete that has been mixed 1 to 3 hours before placing to reduce shrinkage during hardening.

Prestress

(1) to place a hardened concrete member or an assembly of units in a state of compression before application of service loads;
(2) the stress developed by prestressing, such as by pretensioning or post-tensioning. (See also prestressed concrete, prestres

Prestressed Concrete

structural concrete in which internal stresses have been introduced to reduce potential tensile stresses in concrete resulting from loads.

Prestressing Steel

high-strength steel elements such as wire, bar, or strands used to impartprestress forces to concrete. (See also prestress, prestressed concrete,pretensioning, and post-tensioning.)

Principal Stress

maximum and minimum stresses at any point acting at right angles to the mutually perpendicular planes of zero shearing stress, which are designated as the principal planes.

Proportion

to select proportions of ingredients to make the most economical use of available materials to produce mortar or concrete of the required properties. (See also mixture.)

Proportional Limit

the greatest stress that a material can sustain without any deviation from proportionality of stress to strain. (See also Hooke’s law.)

Protected Paste Volume

the portion of hardened cement paste that is protected from the effects of freezing by proximity to an entrained air void. (See also Philleo factor and spacing factor.)

Pull-through Failure

a failure mode in which the anchor body pulls through the expansion mechanism without development of the full steel or concrete capacity.

Pullout Failure

a failure mode in which the anchor pulls out of the concrete without development of the full steel or concrete capacity.

Pulse Velocity

the speed at which a pulse of ultrasonic compressional stress waves travel through a material.

Pumice

a highly porous and vesicular lava usually of relatively high silica content composed largely of glass drawn into approximately parallel or loosely entwined fibers, which themselves contain sealed vesicles.

Pumicite

naturally occurring finely divided volcanic ash composed of angular and porous particles of siliceous glass and varying proportions of crystal fragments differing from pumice only in grain size. (See also pumice.)

Pumping (of Pavements)

the ejection of water or water and solid materials such as clay or silt along transverse or longitudinal joints and cracks and along pavement edges caused by downward slab movement activated by the passage of loads over the pavement after the accumulation