Abstract
Urea is one of the most used nitrogenous fertilizers used in the world. Although it does not chemically react with hardened concrete, but a lot of damage is reported from parts of manufacturing plant where urea comes in contact with concrete. There is a need to understand the mechanism of this damage caused by crystallization of urea inside the concrete. Severe damage is observed at the locations where flexural cracking is expected. Therefore, it is proposed to test concrete cubes with induced cracks of different crack width. The damage was monitored using ultrasonic pulse velocity measurements and measuring crack width using travelling microscope. The results show good agreement with damage mechanism in the structure.
