Adhesion Strength Analysis of Synthetic Polymer Rubberized Gel on Diversely Wetted Concrete Surfaces
and Boo-Seong Kang 5,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The article is good in terms of topic and scope and provides new information to the readers, but at the same time it needs to be reorganized and restructured. The second paragraph should be titled (Materials and methods, or Methodology) and should be divided into simple sub-paragraphs, such as: materials used, mixing method, preparationofsamples, tests, etc, with mentioning all the standards used. Also, the third paragraph should be titled (Results and Discussion) so that the readers can follow the article better. Finally, the conclusions also need to be reorganized to highlight the article findings
Author Response
The authors of the Article Applsci -2325980 would like to extend thoughts of gratitude to the reviewers who took time out of their busy schedule to comment and revise this manuscript. Thanks to the reviewers’ efforts, the article has been improved substantially. The authors hope that the revisions made in this version of the draft meet the requirements on the points of amendment made by the reviewers.
The article is good in terms of topic and scope and provides new information to the readers, but at the same time it needs to be reorganized and restructured.
Comment 1
The second paragraph should be titled (Materials and methods, or Methodology) and should be divided into simple sub-paragraphs, such as: materials used, mixing method, preparation of samples, tests, etc, with mentioning all the standards used. Also, the third paragraph should be titled (Results and Discussion) so that the readers can follow the article better.
Response 1
The titles have been revised accordingly. Please refer to the revised paper lines: 142 and 225
Comment 2
Finally, the conclusions also need to be reorganized to highlight the article findings
Response 2
The conclusion has been revised in the revised version of the manuscript to reflect this point, in lines 440 to 460.
Reviewer 2 Report
In this study, the relation between viscosity of synthetic polymer 24 rubberized gel (SPRG) used for waterproofing and adhesive strength on 25 varying degrees of wetted surface is examined. All of the following comments should be addressed in detail and responded to in an appropriate manner so I can recommend the paper for publication:
(1) The authors should explain or annotate the abbreviations at their first use site. It is beneficial to readers who are not familiar with this field. E.g. The authors abbreviate SPRG several times in the Abstract.
(2) Please indicate how many specimens were tested for each mix for each test.
(3) Please indicate the standard deviation and relevant statistical tests to validate the conclusions.
(4) Methods section determines the results. Kindly focus on three basic elements of the methods section. a. How the study was designed? b. How the study was carried out? c. How the data were analyzed?
(5) The use of polymers to modify concrete materials is an interesting topic, but it has been extensively studied and the authors need to make the necessary comparisons and discussions. E.g. Mechanical and permeability properties of polymer-modified concrete using hydrophobic agent; Physico-mechanical, thermal properties and durability of foamed geopolymer concrete containing cenospheres.
(6) Please make sure your conclusions' section underscore the scientific value added of your paper, and/or the applicability of your findings/results, as indicated previously. Please revise your conclusion part into more details. Basically, you should enhance your contributions, limitations, underscore the scientific value added of your paper, and/or the applicability of your findings/results and future study in this session.
(7) - It is suggested to compare the results of the present research with some similar studies which is done before.
Add the main objective of this paper at last line in the introduction section
Please note that journal names should be abbreviated according to the ISI format. Abbreviated words should have a period. Author names should be spelled out (et al. should not be used). There are some inconsistencies and inaccuracies in punctuation and abbreviations for journal names in the references section. Authors should also refer to more recent literature. References should be listed in alphabetical order. Please do not number the references. Please carefully review the author guidelines.
Please refer to the journal web site--Guide for authors:
Author Response
The authors of the Article Applsci -2325980 would like to extend thoughts of gratitude to the reviewers who took time out of their busy schedule to comment and revise this manuscript. Thanks to the reviewers’ efforts, the article has been improved substantially. The authors hope that the revisions made in this version of the draft meet the requirements on the points of amendment made by the reviewers.
In this study, the relation between viscosity of synthetic polymer 24 rubberized gel (SPRG) used for waterproofing and adhesive strength on 25 varying degrees of wetted surface is examined. All of the following comments should be addressed in detail and responded to in an appropriate manner so I can recommend the paper for publication:
Comment 1
The authors should explain or annotate the abbreviations at their first use site. It is beneficial to readers who are not familiar with this field. E.g. The authors abbreviate SPRG several times in the Abstract.
Response 1
The abbreviation for SPRG (synthetic polymer rubberized gel) is shown in line 26 and line 49, and other abbreviations have been annotated throughout the revised version of the paper.
Comment 2
Please indicate how many specimens were tested for each mix for each test.
Response 2
The details on the number of specimens and the methodology of the experiments have been provided in Lines 166-168
Comment 3
Please indicate the standard deviation and relevant statistical tests to validate the conclusions.
Response 3
The method of deriving the coefficient of determination is provided in Section 3.4, and the results are provided in Section 3.5. Table 6 shows that the correlation of increasing humidity to decrease of adhesive strength is all higher than 0.8.
Comment 4
Methods section determines the results. Kindly focus on three basic elements of the methods section. a. How the study was designed? b. How the study was carried out? c. How the data were analyzed?
Response 4
Section 2 has been revised and reorganized such that the methodology of the experiment is clearer. Please refer to the revised paper Lines 117 to 134, as well as Section 2.
Comment 5
The use of polymers to modify concrete materials is an interesting topic, but it has been extensively studied and the authors need to make the necessary comparisons and discussions. E.g. Mechanical and permeability properties of polymer-modified concrete using hydrophobic agent; Physico-mechanical, thermal properties and durability of foamed geopolymer concrete containing cenospheres.
Response 5
The main purpose is not the discussion of the polymerized modification of concrete, but testing the adhesion strength of a newly trending waterproofing material on various wetted conditions of concrete. The importance of this experiment is that with the development of new waterproofing materials that have inherently higher adhesive performance that most other types of existing waterproofing materials, they come with the downside that 1) their workability performance is low 2) and have higher costs. With these circumstances at hand, if the use of materials like SPRG are strongly advised by the designers, what the builders will do is attempt to reduce construction costs by reducing allotted work time. When these cases do occur, waiting for the recommended dry level of concrete before waterproofing application at times is a luxury builders are not willing to afford, as their perception is that the adhesion strength will still be adequate enough. The problem is that there is not yet a clearly experimented data results on SPRG like material’s adhesive strength performance on wetted concrete surface, and as the data of this article’s study results shows, the adhesive strength is quite varying. Therefore it is very important to alert contractors of these types of information through the publication of this paper.
Comment 6
Please make sure your conclusions' section underscore the scientific value added of your paper, and/or the applicability of your findings/results, as indicated previously. Please revise your conclusion part into more details. Basically, you should enhance your contributions, limitations, underscore the scientific value added of your paper, and/or the applicability of your findings/results and future study in this session.
Response 6
The response to this comment is related to the reviewer’s 5th comment, and the conclusion has been revised in the revised version of the manuscript to reflect this point, in lines 440 to 460.
Comment 7
It is suggested to compare the results of the present research with some similar studies which is done before.
Ø Add the main objective of this paper at last line in the introduction section
Response 7.1
the objective of the paper and the scope of the goals of the paper has been illustrated more clearly in the revised version of the manuscript, lines 117 to 134. As the goals of the paper is multifaceted, few lines have been used to express the main objectives.
Ø Please note that journal names should be abbreviated according to the ISI format. Abbreviated words should have a period. Author names should be spelled out (et al. should not be used). There are some inconsistencies and inaccuracies in punctuation and abbreviations for journal names in the references section. Authors should also refer to more recent literature. References should be listed in alphabetical order. Please do not number the references. Please carefully review the author guidelines.
Response 7.2
The references have been revised but please understand that reference formatting will be done once the editor of the MDPI has asserted the correct formats. It has come to the authors’ attention that during publications, editors will sometimes have different styles of referencing, thus the authors usually wait until the final revision (after peer review) to finalize the format of the references.
Reviewer 3 Report
This is a fine manuscript on the analysis of adhesion strength and waterproofing performance of synthetic polymer rubberized gel. Generally, the manuscript is well written and would be interesting to the peers in the field of Materials. However, some problems need to be revised or clarified before its final acceptance of publication.
1. the title is too long, suggest to make it more concise.
2. you have too many authors on the list, (five may be acceptable, but eight is too many)
3. move '1 introduction' onto the next page.
4. the format of the reference needs to be unified. Compare Ref (1) and (4)
5. suggest to cite more high-level papers, such as:
Dong Youkou, Cui Lan, Zhang Xue. (2022). Multiple-GPU for three dimensional material point method based on single-root complex. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 123, 1481-1504.
Youkou Dong, Zhexian Liao, Qingbing Liu, Lan Cui. (2023). Potential failure patterns of a large landslide complex in the Three Gorges Reservoir area. Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment, 82(1), 41.
Sun, Q.L., Wang, Q., Shi, F.Y., Alves, T., Gao, S., Xie, X.N., Wu, S.G., Li, J.B., 2022. Runup of landslide-generated tsunamis controlled by paleogeography and sea-level change. Communications Earth & Environment 3, 244.
6. better to change the format of the numbers on the vertical axis of figure 2.
7. better to add more figures to twelve.
Author Response
The authors of the Article Applsci -2325980 would like to extend thoughts of gratitude to the reviewers who took time out of their busy schedule to comment and revise this manuscript. Thanks to the reviewers’ efforts, the article has been improved substantially. The authors hope that the revisions made in this version of the draft meet the requirements on the points of amendment made by the reviewers.
General comment by reviewer:
This is a fine manuscript on the analysis of adhesion strength and waterproofing performance of synthetic polymer rubberized gel. Generally, the manuscript is well written and would be interesting to the peers in the field of Materials. However, some problems need to be revised or clarified before its final acceptance of publication.
Comment 1
The title is too long, suggest to make it more concise.
Response 1
The title has been changed to the following: Adhesion Strength Analysis of Synthetic Polymer Rubberized Gel on Diversely Wetted Concrete Surface
Comment 2
You have too many authors on the list, (five may be acceptable, but eight is too many)
Response 2
Author list has been changed to include 6. Authors ask for the reviewers’ understanding as this research is in part of a funded project, coordinated internationally and across university and private company institutions, therefore it is imperative that we include all the involved members.
Comment 3
Move '1 introduction' onto the next page.
Response 3
The title of section 1, “1. Introduction” has been moved to the next page (the authors believe this was an unintended result due to format editing done by the MDPI editors)
Comment 4
the format of the reference needs to be unified. Compare Ref (1) and (4)
Response 4
The references have been revised but please understand that reference formatting will be done once the editor of the MDPI has asserted the correct formats. It has come to the authors’ attention that during publications, editors will sometimes have different styles of referencing, thus the authors usually wait until the final revision (after peer review) to finalize the format of the references.
Comment 5
Suggest to cite more high-level papers, such as:
Dong Youkou, Cui Lan, Zhang Xue. (2022). Multiple-GPU for three dimensional material point method based on single-root complex. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 123, 1481-1504.
Youkou Dong, Zhexian Liao, Qingbing Liu, Lan Cui. (2023). Potential failure patterns of a large landslide complex in the Three Gorges Reservoir area. Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment, 82(1), 41.
Sun, Q.L., Wang, Q., Shi, F.Y., Alves, T., Gao, S., Xie, X.N., Wu, S.G., Li, J.B., 2022. Runup of landslide-generated tsunamis controlled by paleogeography and sea-level change. Communications Earth & Environment 3, 244.
Response 5
The particular examples provided are too irrelevant to the content of the paper, but higher quality and recent papers have been included in the revised version of the article. As per the request of the reviewer, authors did include one of the proposed article.
Comment 6
better to change the format of the numbers on the vertical axis of figure 2.
Response 6
Format for the vertical axis of Figure 2 has been revised. Please refer to the revised version of the manuscript.
Comment 7
better to add more figures to twelve.
Response 7
The authors could not clearly understand the reviewer instructions. If the intended meaning was to indicate that more figures should be included in page. 12, the concern is that there are no more required figures to illustrate the results of the study. While the study itself is quite important, (and the authors have gone to a greater effort to clarify the importance of this article) it is important to present the results in such a way that is simple and easy to understand, such that readers will not have a difficult time in understanding the work.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
All required modifications have been made, and the article can now be accepted for publication.
ِAll the best for authors
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors have revised the manuscript.
Reviewer 3 Report
My concerns have been appropriately tackled. So it is suggested to accept for publication.
