Effect of metakaolin and silica fume on the durability of self-consolidating concrete

Metakaolin (MK) is a valuable admixture for concrete/cement applications that can enhance the performance of cementitious composites through high pozzolanic reactivity, much like silica fume (SF). While SF concrete is characterized by superior mechanical and durability performance, concrete containing MK achieves comparable properties at a lower price and with better workability. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of cement replacement by MK on the durability of self-consolidating concrete (SCC); the effect of SF at similar levels of MK replacement has also been included for comparison. The durability performance of SCC was evaluated based on the results of drying shrinkage, freezing and thawing, salt scaling, and rapid chloride permeability tests. The results of these tests indicate that highly durable SCC mixtures can be produced using a high MK content with an optimum percentage of around 20%. The results also show that the durability of SCC, especially with high MK content, is higher than that of SCC containing SF.     

自密实混凝土稳定性机理及其影响因素研究新进展

自密实混凝土浇筑成型后发生离析会对力学性能和耐久性能产生不同程度的危害,这一问题决定了自密实混凝土在满足施工性能的同时必须具有足够的稳定性。而自密实混凝土高流动性、高填充性及高间隙通过性等优异的工作性能特征,又决定了其拌合物的稳定性高度敏感。从静态稳定性和动态稳定性两方面分别阐述了自密实混凝土的稳定性机理,探讨了自密实混凝土静态稳定性和动态稳定性的表征方法,从配合比参数、拌合物流变性能、施工工艺等方面讨论了影响自密实混凝土稳定性的因素,提出了自密实混凝土稳定性的研究前景。     

Use of natural zeolite as a supplementary cementitious material

Natural zeolite, a type of frame-structured hydrated aluminosilicate mineral, is used abundantly as a type of natural pozzolanic material in some regions of the world. In this work, the effectiveness of a locally quarried zeolite in enhancing mechanical and durability properties of concrete is evaluated and is also compared with other pozzolanic admixtures. The experimental tests included three parts: In the first part, the pozzolanic reactivity of natural zeolite and silica fume were examined by a thermogravimetric method. In this case, the results indicated that natural zeolite was not as reactive as silica fume but it showed a good pozzolanic reactivity. In the second part, zeolite and silica fume were substituted for cement in different proportions in concrete mixtures, and several physical and durability tests of concrete were performed. These experimental tests included slump, compressive strength, water absorption, oxygen permeability, chloride diffusion, and electrical resistivity of concrete. Based on these results, the performance of concretes containing different contents of zeolite improved and even were comparable to or better than that of concretes prepared with silica fume replacements in some cases. Finally, a comparative study on effect of zeolite and fly ash on limiting ASR expansion of mortar was performed according to ASTM C 1260 and ASTM C 1567. Expansion tests on mortar prisms showed that zeolite is as effective as fly ash to prevent deleterious expansion due to ASR.     

纳米SiO2/聚丙烯复合材料的微观结构

利用原子力显微镜和透射电镜分析了聚苯乙烯辐射接枝纳米二氧化硅粒子( SiO₂-g-PS) 填充聚丙烯( PP) 的微观结构, 并与该复合材料的拉伸和冲击强度相关联, 为探讨纳米粒子的增强增韧作用机制提供了直观证据。利用原子力显微镜进行的微划痕和纳米压痕实验, 通过与显微硬度和动态力学性能测试结果的比较, 证实了接枝改性后的纳米粒子团聚体具有承载能力, 而这些团聚体对复合材料的局部和整体力学响应不同, 揭示了团聚体增强效应的内在原因, 即在纳米粒子团聚体内部以及团聚体之间形成了特定的应力双逾渗结构。     

Influence of clays on the shrinkage and cracking tendency of SCC

The influence of different types of clay on the shrinkage and cracking tendency of fly ash modified self-consolidating concrete (SCCF) for the application of slipform paving were investigated in this study. The mortar phase of each mix was tested for autogenous shrinkage, total free shrinkage under drying and restrained shrinkage cracking. The mechanical properties (flexural strength, compressive strength, and modulus) were studied to supplement the results of the shrinkage and cracking tests. The plain SCCF mix was compared against the clay-modified SCCF mixes, as well as conventional SCC and slipform concrete (SFC) mixes. The results showed that the very early-age autogenous shrinkage of SCCF mortar was increased by the addition of clays due to adsorption effects. The effects of the clays on total shrinkage under long-term drying were found to depend mainly on the pozzolanic reactivity, but these effects were very slight at low dosages of about 1% by mass of binder. The early-age cracking tendency was aggravated by the clays composed of purified magnesium alumino silicate and metakaolin, but little influenced by the clay composed of kaolinite, illite and silica. Overall, the SCC mixture modified with both fly ash and a small amount of clay showed comparable shrinkage and early-age cracking performances as conventional SFC.     

Linking fresh and durability properties of paste to SCC mortar

In the last years many approaches to design SCC have been developed, but it remains a very complex process since it is necessary to manipulate several variables and understand their effects on concrete behaviour (fresh and hardened state). The prediction of concrete or mortar behaviour based on paste properties will be a significant contribution to simplify SCC design. With this purpose, two statistical experimental designs were carried out, one at paste level and the other at mortar level, to mathematically model the influence of mixture parameters on fresh and durability properties. The derived numerical models were used to define an area, labelled by self-compacting zone at paste level (SCZ), where fresh properties of the paste enable the design of SCC mortar. Furthermore, in order to extend this link to durability properties, the effect of including aggregate in cement paste was evaluated by means of the electrical resistivity test.     

Intrinsic Effect of Nanoparticles on the Mechanical Rupture of Doubled‐Shell Colloidal Capsule via In Situ TEM Mechanical Testing and STEM Interfacial Analysis

The discovery of Pickering emulsion templated assembly enables the design of a hybrid colloidal capsule with engineered properties. However, the underlying mechanisms by which nanoparticles affect the mechanical properties of the shell are poorly understood. Herein, in situ mechanical compression on the transmission electron microscope and aberration‐corrected scanning transmission microscope are unprecedentedly implemented to study the intrinsic effect of nanoparticles on the mechanical properties of the calcium carbonate (CaCO₃)‐decorated silica (SiO₂) colloidal capsule. The stiff and brittle nature of the colloidal capsule is due to the interfacial chemical bonding between the CaCO₃ nanoparticles and SiO₂ inner shell. Such bonding strengthens the mechanical strength of the SiO₂ shell (166 ± 14 nm) from the colloidal capsule compared to the thicker single SiO₂ shell (310 ± 70 nm) from the silica hollow sphere. At elevated temperature, this interfacial bonding accelerates the formation of the single calcium silicate shell, causing shell morphology transformation and yielding significantly enhanced mechanical strength by 30.9% and ductility by 94.7%. The superior thermal durability of the heat‐treated colloidal capsule holds great potential for the fabrication of the functional additives that can be applied in the wide range of applications at elevated temperatures.     

Shrinkage of plain and silica fume cement concrete under hot weather

Supplementary cementing materials (SCMs) are widely used these days to improve the durability of concrete. Silica fume has gained world wide acceptance due to its high pozzolanic reactivity compared to other SCMs. While silica fume cement concrete has several advantages over other blended cement concretes its main draw back is increased plastic and drying shrinkage, particularly under hot weather conditions. This paper reports results of a study conducted to assess these properties of plain and silica fume cement concrete specimens cast and cured in the field under hot weather conditions. The effect of specimen size and method of curing on plastic and drying shrinkage and some of the mechanical properties of silica fume and plain cement concrete specimens were evaluated. Results indicated that the type of cement significantly affected both the plastic and drying shrinkage of concrete in that these values in the silica fume cement concrete specimens were more than those in the plain cement concrete specimens. As expected, the shrinkage strains in both the plain and silica fume cement concrete specimens cured by continuous water-ponding were less than that in similar concrete specimens cured by covering them with wet burlap. The results point to the importance of selecting a good quality silica fume and good curing for avoiding cracking of concrete due to plastic and drying shrinkage, particularly under hot weather conditions.     

State-of-the-art report on use of nano-materials in concrete

Nanotechnology application to concrete presents an innovative approach to improve concrete properties based on the ability to manipulate the cementitious material at an atomic scale. This paper presents a review of the nano-materials that have been used in concrete. The literature survey revealed that four nano-materials are most often used to modify concrete properties; these include nano-silica (nano-SiO₂), nano-titanium dioxide (nano-TiO₂), carbon nano-tubes (CNTs) and carbon nano-fibres (CNFs). All of these four nano-materials have shown improvement in many concrete properties. Both nano-TiO₂ and nano-SiO₂ reduce bleeding and segregation, and improve mechanical and transport properties. CNFs and CNTs tend to adversely affect the fresh properties due to agglomerations, which are overcome when a surfactant or ultrasonic mixer is used. However, both CNFs and CNTs significantly improve the mechanical properties of concrete. This paper also discusses how concrete durability is improved when nano-materials are added to concrete. In addition, this paper identifies several research needs based on the gaps in the current state of knowledge on using nano-materials in concrete.     

Use of nano-silica to increase early strength and reduce setting time of concretes with high volumes of slag

The effects of nano-silica (NS) on setting time and early strengths of high volume slag mortar and concrete have been experimentally studied. Effects of NS dosages, size and dispersion methods on strength development of high volume slag mortars were also investigated. A constant water-to-cementitious materials ratio (w/cm) 0.45 was used for all mixtures. The results indicate that the incorporation of a small amount of NS reduced setting times, and increased 3- and 7-day compressive strengths of high-volume slag concrete, significantly, in comparison to the reference slag concrete with no silica inclusion. Compressive strength of the slag mortars were increased with the increase in NS dosages from 0.5% to 2.0% by mass of cementitious materials at various ages up to 91 days. The strengths of the slag mortars were generally increased with the decrease in the particles size of silica inclusions at early age. Ultra-sonication of nano-silica with water is probably a better method for proper dispersion of nano-silica than mechanical mixing method.     

Fracture behaviours of epoxy nanocomposites with nano-silica at low and elevated temperatures

An investigation was conducted to characterize fracture behaviours of nano-silica modified epoxies at low and elevated temperatures. A nano-silica dispersed epoxy (Nanopox XP 22/0516, Hanse-Chemie, Germany) with 40 wt% silica nano-particles was used as modifier to toughen an epoxy resin, Araldite F (Bisphenol A based, Ciba-Geigy). Fracture toughness and other mechanical properties were measured using standard compact tension (CT), tensile and flexural specimens to elaborate the effects of nano-silica particles on fracture behaviours of epoxy nanocomposites at different temperatures, −50, 0, 23, 50 and 70 °C. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) was utilized to define the glass transition temperature (T _g) upon the addition of different amounts of nano-silica particles. Fracture toughness of the nano-silica modified epoxies was clearly increased at 23 °C and 50 °C, but the role of nano-silica particles in enhancing the fracture toughness became less pronounced at 0 °C and −50 °C and disappeared at 70 °C.     

Influence of limestone powder used as filler in SCC on hydration and microstructure of cement pastes

In recent years, self-compacting concrete (SCC) has gained wide application in the construction industry. As for high performance concrete (HPC) and traditional concrete (TC), the microstructural properties of SCC are the main factors, which determine the material properties, i.e. the mechanical properties, transport properties and the durability behaviour.In order to investigate the development of the microstructure of SCC, the microstructural parameters of the paste including porosity, pore size distribution and phase distribution are determined by means of mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and the derivative thermogravimetric analysis (DTG) are used to identify the phase constituents. These parameters as studied for self-compacting concrete are compared with high performance concrete and traditional concrete. The specimens of self-compacting cement paste (SCCP) are made with water/binder ratio 0.41 and 0.48, the high performance cement paste (HPCP) with w/c 0.33 and traditional cement paste (TCP) with w/c 0.48. The measurements are performed at different hydration stages, i.e. at 1, 3, 7, 14, 28 and 56 days.The result of this research shows that the pore structure, including the total pore volume, pore size distribution and critical pore diameter, in the SCCP is very similar to that of HPCP. The fact that limestone powder does not participate in the chemical reaction was confirmed both from thermal analysis and BSE image analysis.     

Properties of self-compacting concrete prepared with coarse and fine recycled concrete aggregates

In this study, the fresh and hardened properties of self-compacting concrete (SCC) using recycled concrete aggregate as both coarse and fine aggregates were evaluated. Three series of SCC mixtures were prepared with 100% coarse recycled aggregates, and different levels of fine recycled aggregates were used to replace river sand. The cement content was kept constant for all concrete mixtures. The SCC mixtures were prepared with 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% fine recycled aggregates, the corresponding water-to-binder ratios (W/B) were 0.53 and 0.44 for the SCC mixtures in Series I and II, respectively. The SCC mixtures in Series III were prepared with 100% recycled concrete aggregates (both coarse and fine) but three different W/B ratios of 0.44, 0.40 and 0.35 were used. Different tests covering fresh, hardened and durability properties of these SCC mixtures were executed. The results indicate that the properties of the SCCs made from river sand and crushed fine recycled aggregates showed only slight differences. The feasibility of utilizing fine and coarse recycled aggregates with rejected fly ash and Class F fly ash for self-compacting concrete has been demonstrated.     

Use of spent foundry sand and fly ash for the development of green self-consolidating concrete

In the United States alone, the foundry industry discards up to 10 million tons of sand each year, offering up a plentiful potential resource to replace sand in concrete products. However, because the use of spent foundry sand (SFS) is currently very limited in the concrete industry, this study investigates whether SFS can successfully be used as a sand replacement material in cost-effective, green, self-consolidating concrete (SCC). In the study, SCC mixtures were developed to be even more inexpensive and environmentally friendly by incorporating Portland cement with fly ash (FA). Tests done on SCC mixtures to determine fresh properties (slump flow diameter, slump flow time, V-funnel flow time, yield stress, and relative viscosity), compressive strength, drying shrinkage and transport properties (rapid chloride permeability and volume of permeable pores) show that replacing up to 100% of sand with SFS and up to 70% Portland cement with FA enables the manufacture of green, lower cost SCC mixtures with proper fresh, mechanical and durability properties. The beneficial effects of FA compensate for some possible detrimental effects of SFS.     

A comprehensive investigation into the effect of aging and coarse aggregate size and volume on mechanical properties of self-compacting concrete

The popularity of self-compacting concrete (SCC), as an innovative construction materials in concrete industry, has increased all over the world in recent decades. SCC offers a safer construction process and durable concrete structure due to its typical fresh concrete behavior which is achieved by SCC’s significantly different mixture composition. This modification of mix composition may have significant effect on the hardened mechanical properties of SCC as compared to normal vibrated concrete (NVC). Therefore, it is necessary to know whether the use of all rules and relations that have been formulated for NVC in current design codes based on years of experience are also valid for SCC. Furthermore, this study represents an extensive evaluation and comparison between mechanical properties of SCC using current international codes and prediction equations proposed by other researchers. Thus, in this experimental study, major mechanical properties of SCC are investigated for twelve SCC mixes with wide spectrum of different variables i.e. maximum coarse aggregate size, coarse aggregate volume and aging. In the present study, an extensive body of data reported by many researchers for SCC and NVC has been used to validate the obtained results.     

Transport properties of self compacting concrete with limestone filler or fly ash

The durability of a cementitious material is greatly influenced by the permeability of the material for potentially aggressive substances. As the pore structure of self compacting concrete (SCC) might be different in comparison with traditional concrete (TC), some changes in durability behaviour may occur. At this moment however, it is unclear how significant these differences will be with regard to the concrete practice. In this paper, the gas and water transport in SCC with limestone filler or fly ash is investigated experimentally. Nine different concrete compositions are considered: one TC and eight SCC mixtures. Some important parameters like the water/cement (W/C) and cement/powder ratio (C/P), type of filler (limestone filler and fly ash), type of aggregate and type of cement are considered. The results of the gas and water transport are discussed and linked to experimental data concerning pore volume. Lower transport properties can be obtained by using fly ash instead of limestone as filler material, by lowering the W/C ratio, decreasing the C/P ratio at a constant W/C ratio or using blast furnace slag cement instead of portland cement. The effect of changing from gravel to crushed limestone is small. SCC is differing strongly of TC with respect to the apparent gas permeability. This difference is probably due to the differences in pore volume, as seen from MIP results.     

The fluid transport properties of HCWA–DSF hybrid supplementary binder mortar

It has been demonstrated in several past studies that high calcium wood ash (HCWA) can be effectively used in combination with densified silica fume (DSF) as supplementary binder material to enhance the mechanical performance of concrete. The experimental investigation was conducted to study the effect of the inclusion of HCWA and DSF on the durability properties of high strength cement mortar produced. A total of twelve different mix designs of mortar were fabricated with the use of HCWA at various cement replacement levels of 0–20% in combination with 7.5% densified silica fume (DSF) and subjected to various durability tests. The durability assessments performed include tests on water absorption, air permeability, porosity and degree of carbonation. A significantly lower degree of water absorption, porosity and carbonation was observed for cement mortars with HCWA contents of 2–8% used in combination with 7.5% DSF by weight of binder as compared to an equivalent pure cement mortar.     

Experimental study of the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) of model rock-filled concrete (RFC)

Rock-filled concrete (RFC), a new type of concrete that was developed mainly for large scale concrete construction, has a different casting process than conventional concrete: large rocks are piled into the formwork first, then self-compacting concrete (SCC) is poured in and fill the voids of the rock skeleton under gravity due to its high flowability. One of the key issues about RFC lies in its large interfaces between the SCC and rocks. In this paper, laboratory-scale model RFC consisting of coarse aggregates (simulating rocks) and cement grout (simulating SCC) was cast to simulate RFC in construction. The effects of different factors (aggregate size, rheology of cement grout, etc.) on the properties of the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) between cement paste and aggregates of model RFC were investigated using Backscatter Electron (BSE) and nanoindentation techniques. Furthermore, by comparing the results of BSE and nanoindentation at identical regions, the relationship between porosity and elastic modulus was found to agree well with empirical formulas, bridging the microstructure with the mechanical properties of concrete.     

液相法原位修饰纳米SiO_2对ESBR的补强作用

采用原位表面修饰纳米SiO2补强乳聚丁苯橡胶(ESBR),借助修饰界面与基体作用力的差异,分析了原位表面修饰纳米SiO2对ESBR的补强机理,以及由此引起复合材料力学性能、硫化加工、动态力学性能的变化。实验表明,可反应性纳米SiO2RNS-D对ESBR力学性能具有更好的补强效果;这是因为与可分散性纳米SiO2DNS-2相比,RNS-D表面修饰的双键表现出较强的反应活性,其强劲的界面结合作用和密集的交联结构提高了RNS-D的补强作用,界面作用力的差异也深刻地影响着硫化体系的加工和动态力学性能。     

Mechanical properties of prestressed self-consolidating concrete

Since the mix design of self-consolidating concrete (SCC) differs from that of conventional concrete, mechanical properties of SCC may differ from those of vibrated concrete. An experimental program was performed to evaluate mechanical properties of SCC used for precast, prestressed applications. Sixteen SCC mixtures with a fixed slump flow of 680 ± 20 mm were prepared with different mixture parameters, including binder content and binder type, w/cm, dosage of viscosity-modifying admixture, and sand-to-total aggregate volume ratio. Two high-performance concrete mixtures that represent typically concrete used for precast, prestressed applications were investigated for the control mixtures. They were proportioned with 0.34 and 0.38 w/cm and had slump values of 150 mm. Mechanical properties of SCC were compared to code provisions to estimate compressive strength, elastic modulus, and flexural strength. The modified ACI 209-90 and CEB-FIP MC90 codes are found to provide good estimate for compressive strength prediction. The AASHTO 2007 model can provide good prediction of the elastic modulus and flexural strength of SCC.