ABSTRACT
Water is the most aggressive agent of decay which continuouslyattacks building materials. For this reason, the research on hydrophobic and superhydrophobic materials has increased in the last years. These treatments present a series of drawbacks, such as low-adhesion to the substrates and subsequently, low durability. In the present work we have developed an automatic rain test simulation, based on an Arduino microcontroller to automatize the process. The simulator includes temperature, flow rate, and pH sensors as main variables of rain water. The combination of these variables allows to use different cycles of assays. This portable device permits the evaluation the durability of the materials testing the chemical stability of the coatings against water contact with a continuous water dropping.
In order to test the new device, different building materials were treated with two superhydrophobic products and a commercial product and one developed in our research group (UCA). After each essay, the dynamic and static contact angle were evaluated. The UCA product maintains for all the materials the conditions of superhydrophobicity.
