| Alkaline Salts: |
A material's ability to loosen inert minerals when wet and after hydration. Engineering Note: Under concrete slabs and concrete walls, for example, it is the moisture (as high vapour pressure) exerting through the concrete, surrounded by air in which partial vapour pressure is rather low on the surface, allowing water to pass from the mineral salts into air. The remaining salts are called efflorescence. See Efflorescence. |