TY - CONF A1 - Schmidt, Wolfram T1 - Challenges of the African environmental conditions for concrete mixture composition N2 - Concrete technology was exposed to a rapid development during the last three decades. For the longest time in its history, concrete was considered as a three component System consisting of aggregates, which are bound by the hardened cement paste consisting of hydrated cement. Traditionally, the only way of adjusting the consistency of concrete was using well adjusted aggregates and grading curves and adding excess water to the concrete, accepting that the latter in return reduces strength and durability. During the last three decades, however, concrete has developed further from a three component System towards an (at least) five component system, since the use of mineral additions and Chemical admixtures has become state of the art. Both components are able to enhance the workability, the compactability, and the density of the microstructure with effects on strength, ductility and durability, while cement can be saved in parallel. Due to reasonable use of admixtures and additions, concrete can be designed to match mechanically high performance specifications. Traditionally, cement paste was considered the weakest component in concrete. Flowever, in modern concrete a good paste composition can yield highest performance, passing the role of the mechanical bottleneck towards the aggregates. T2 - Workshop cement and concrete for Africa CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 17.08.2011 KW - Cement KW - Concrete KW - Mixture composition KW - Africa KW - Climatic conditions PY - 2011 SN - 978-3-9814281-4-8 SP - 37 EP - 49 PB - Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) CY - Berlin AN - OPUS4-24780 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schmidt, Wolfram A1 - Priebe, Nsesheye Susan A1 - Kühne, Hans-Carsten T1 - Optimising the rheology of concrete for sub-Saharan African boundary conditions / Optimierung der Rheologie von Beton für Rahmenbedingungen in Subsahara-Afrika N2 - Die Zement- und Betontechnologie in Afrika hat keine ähnlich lange Tradition wie viele Länder der nördlichen Hemisphäre. In vielen afrikanischen Ländern ist die Bauindustrie jedoch von Wachstum gekennzeichnet und hier werden Zement und Beton zukünftig zweifelsohne an Bedeutung gewinnen. KW - Africa KW - Cement KW - Concrete KW - Proficiency testing KW - Round robin PY - 2012 SN - 0373-4331 SN - 1865-6528 N1 - Sprachen: Deutsch/Englisch - Languages: German/English N1 - Geburtsname von Priebe, Nsesheye Susan: Msinjili, N. S. - Birth name of Priebe, Nsesheye Susan: Msinjili, N. S. VL - 78 IS - 09 SP - 60 EP - 67 PB - Bauverl. CY - Gütersloh AN - OPUS4-27338 LA - mul AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schmidt, Wolfram T1 - Start of round-robin test for cement testing in Africa / Start für Ringversuch zur Zementprüfung in Afrika KW - Africa KW - Cement KW - Concrete KW - Proficiency testing KW - Round robin PY - 2012 UR - http://www.bft-international.com/de/artikel/bft_2012-08_Start_fuer_Ringversuch_zur_Zementpruefung_in_Afrika_1468912.html SN - 0373-4331 SN - 1865-6528 N1 - Sprachen: Deutsch/Englisch - Languages: German/English VL - 08 SP - 54 EP - 55 PB - Bauverl. CY - Gütersloh AN - OPUS4-26429 LA - mul AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schmidt, Wolfram A1 - Kumaran, G.S. T1 - Clearing the way KW - Cement KW - Concrete KW - Africa KW - Research policy PY - 2012 SN - 0959-6038 IS - October SP - 86 EP - 88 PB - Holbrook & Son CY - Dorking AN - OPUS4-27177 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schmidt, Wolfram A1 - Sonebi, M. A1 - Brouwers, H.J.H. A1 - Kühne, Hans-Carsten A1 - Meng, Birgit T1 - Rheology modifying admixtures: The key to innovation in concrete technology - a general overview and implications for Africa N2 - Innovative admixture technology has significantly widened up the ränge of possibilities of concrete engineers. For many decades the water to cement ratio (w/c) was the major influencing factor for the performance of concrete. Due to the need to adjust a consistency, which still allowed reasonable workability, the w/c was typically significantly higher than technologically reasonable. Rheology modifying admixtures Support adjusting the concrete consistency largely independent of the w/c. It was only after the invention of the first superplasticizers that modern concrete technology significantly evolved in terms of flowability, strength, and durability, and only due to the steady evolution of the technology modern innovations, such as Self-Compacting Concrete, Ultra-High-Performance Concrete, or Engineered Cementitious Composites were made possible. Today’s superplasticizers are extremely versatile and can be adjusted to individual technologicalspecifications. However, the other side of the coin of versatility is that cementitious Systems incorporating superplasticizers have become more sensitive against environmental influences, such as the environmental temperature, which may cause unwanted effects or demand for supplementary admixture use such as stabilizing admixtures. Hence, concrete mixture composition with admixtures demands for a high level of expertise and offen there is lack of awareness about the mode of Operation of rheology modifying admixtures among concrete technologists. The paper gives a comprehensive overview about rheology modifying admixtures such as superplasticizers or stabilizing agents, and how they can be used depending upon the application in the most favourable way. Based on experiences with the sub-Saharan African concreting boundary conditions, which exhibit many challenges in terms of environmental boundary conditions and construction site logistics, conclusions are finally drawn, how admixtures can be used in the most beneficial way to improve the concrete casting Situation. KW - Rheology KW - Admixtures KW - Concrete KW - Superplasticizers KW - Polycarboxylate ether KW - Viscosity modifying agents PY - 2013 SN - 2224-3224 SN - 2225-0956 VL - 5 SP - 115 EP - 120 PB - International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works CY - New York, NY, USA AN - OPUS4-30948 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Schmidt, Wolfram A1 - Radlinska, A. A1 - Nmai, C. A1 - Buregyeya, A. A1 - Lai, W.L. A1 - Kou, S. ED - Uzoegbo, H.C. ED - Schmidt, Wolfram T1 - Why does Africa need African concrete? An observation of concrete in Europe, America, and Asia - and conclusions for Africa N2 - Portland cement, as we know it today, has its origin in Great Britain approximately 170 years ago. Since then, concrete technology has spread out to Europe, the United States, and Japan, where it became a key component for rapid industrial development. Europe, the Unites States and many Asian countries today have developed a high level of technology regarding concrete construction. However, each of them has a unique history and as a result, different “concrete philosophy” depending upon the social, environmental and financial boundary conditions, as well as their evolution throughout the years and local construction traditions. As a result, the word concrete may refer to rather different materials in America, Europe, and Asia. Apart from South Africa, most sub-Saharan African countries cannot look back on a similarly long cement and concrete history. Cement and concrete are rather new materials and not yet well established. This gives African engineers the unique opportunity to learn from past mistakes and to develop a concrete technology, which refers to the best available practice. However, in many sub-Saharan African countries, standards and regulations are adopted (preferably from Europe or the US) without consideration of the historical background of these standards. Although this practice helps saving resources for the implementation, it does not necessarily yield the best result in the African environment, and also from an economic point of view it might come back disadvantageously due to unnecessary overdesigning. By comparing the differing states-of-the-art in North America, Europe, and Asia, this paper emphasizes, how regional conditions determine the practice of concrete technology in the sub-Saharan area. It is therefore important for Africa to develop a unique African concrete technology, which is perfectly fitted to the specific local conditions, even if it may vary distinctively from the established practice elsewhere. The paper concludes that African nations should effort into adapting existing principles that have proved to function well rather than adopting existing standards. T2 - ACCTA - International conference on advances in cement and concrete technology in Africa 2013 CY - Johannesburg, South Africa DA - 28.01.2013 KW - Cement KW - Casting environment KW - Concrete KW - Durability KW - Standards PY - 2013 SN - 978-3-9815360-3-4 SP - 1139 EP - 1147 AN - OPUS4-27767 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Akindahunsi, A. A. A1 - Schmidt, Wolfram A1 - Uzoegbo, H.C. A1 - Iyuke, S.E. ED - Uzoegbo, H.C. ED - Schmidt, Wolfram T1 - The influence of starches on some properties of concrete N2 - Starches and its derivatives are known to exhibit viscosity modifying characteristics. In an ongoing work, the influence of com and cassava starches on some properties of concrete such as compressive strength, heat of hydration and creep are examined. Various percentages (0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2 %) of starches by weight of cement were added to concrete mixes prepared in the laboratory. Preliminary results of compressive strengths showed that both starches have some positive impact (e.g. there was 5.3 % increase in strength due to a 1 % addition of com starch by weight of cement in comparison to the control while cassava starch of the same percentage gave 4.9 % increase in strength) at certain percentages of starch addition to concrete at 28 days. The creep and hydration results shows the starch additions compares well and in some instance performs better. T2 - ACCTA - International conference on advances in cement and concrete technology in Africa 2013 CY - Johannesburg, South Africa DA - 28.01.2013 KW - Starches KW - Concrete KW - Compressive strength KW - Heat of hydration KW - Creep PY - 2013 SN - 978-3-9815360-3-4 SP - 637 EP - 645 AN - OPUS4-27756 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Schmidt, Wolfram ED - Priebe, Nsesheye Susan ED - Schmidt, Wolfram T1 - Why Africa can spearhead innovative and sustainable cement and concrete technologies globally N2 - The perception of concrete in the society as well as in the politics is rather negative. This becomes obvious in the fact that the phrase “concrete jungle” has become synonym for hapless living with no perspectives. In politics and research funding, it is also not easy to create a broader audience, since concrete is falsely considered as old-fashioned material that is sufficiently understood today and does not need further considerations, particularly compared to allegedly newer materials. However, particularly since the last two decades the technology has completely changed. Binders of today are no more the same binders as used before, and concrete mixture compositions of today diverge quite significantly from compositions in the past. There is little understanding world-wide about that. This causes that potentials the concrete technology bears are wasted. In the broadly found opinion that concrete is old-fashioned and ugly, it is ignored that architectural sins are not inherent to the material, which actually is extremely versatile and CO2-friendly compared to all other construction materials available. It is also ignored that 98% of the outer Earth’s crust are made of the elements cement and concrete are made from, and therefore it will be an illusion to believe that the complementary 2% can create materials to develop regions and infrastructures in less developed areas in the world. For betterment in Africa the infrastructural development should have highest priority, since poor connections between settlements are responsible for enormous Price increases [2], and urban traffic congestion is responsible for an incredible loss of productivity. It is not unrealistic to assume that earners that are dependent on a car get stuck in traffic about 3-4 hours per day in cities like Lagos, Nairobi or Dar es Salaam. However, the traffic congestions do not only affect the car owners negatively but the living of the entire urban population every day. Besides infrastructure, housing should be the other priority, since a large part of the African population does not live in adequate condition. This is a societal problem, since unequal Distribution of wealth is a major driving force for instability in societies. The latter has a global impact, since 8 many phenomena that can be observed all over the world such as political radicalism, xenophobia, terrorism, and migration can often be linked to instable societies. However, the importance of infrastructure has an even wider range. Most African countries go through a change process recently. In order to strengthen very positive perspectives, the focus in politics and research funding is put on issues such as agriculture, energy, and health, which are without doubt extremely important issues. However, it is typically overlooked that all enhancements in these areas can only become effective, when an infrastructure is created to support the implementation of better concepts. Mobility is the key to a prosperous future, and mobility can only be granted by infrastructural construction activities. Hence, compared to many other regions in the world, cement and concrete technologies have a significantly higher relevance in Africa. T2 - 2nd Symposium on Knowledge Exchange for Young Scientists (KEYS) CY - Accra, Ghana DA - 7.6.2016 KW - Cement KW - Concrete KW - Sustainability KW - Carbon dioxide KW - Polysaccharides KW - Cassava KW - Rheology PY - 2016 SN - 978-3-9817853-1-9 N1 - Geburtsname von Priebe, Nsesheye Susan: Msinjili, N. S. - Birth name of Priebe, Nsesheye Susan: Msinjili, N. S. VL - 2 SP - 7 EP - 19 PB - Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) CY - Berlin AN - OPUS4-40974 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Schmidt, Wolfram ED - Beushausen, Hans T1 - Application of a cusum control system for enhanced robustness of the flow properties of self-compacting concrete N2 - Control chart systems are used in quality management systems to keep production processes stable. In concrete production they are often applied for the control of the compressive strength. The most efficient control chart systems are cumulated sums (cusum), which help to observe deviations from a targeted value. Unlike alternative observation chart systems that focus on process data evaluation, cusum observations react very rapidly on systematic process changes in processes. Therefore, the cusum method is particularly suitable if immediate counteractions have to be taken, like in the case of fresh concrete properties of self-compacting concrete (SCC), which can have severe influences on the durability and mechanical strength of concrete. The rheology of SCC can be affected by an enormous variety of influencing factors, from raw material properties to handling or environmental temperature. The present study shows that regardless of the material based influencing parameter for a rheology change, a steady slump flow can be achieved only by adding supplementary superplasticizer in case of loss of flow and adding stabilising agent (ST) in case of increased flow if the respective V-mask indicates a systematic change. A reference SCC was artificially manipulated in order to achieve realistic experimental data for flowability and flowability changes due to changes in the raw material properties. The results point out that productions with applied cusum methods were capable of keeping the target slump flow deviation within approximately 1% only, while productions without applied cusum method deviated up to 14% and more from the target. T2 - fib Symposium 2016. Performance-Based Approaches for Concrete Structures. CY - Cape Town, South Africa DA - 21.11.2016 KW - Concrete KW - Self-compacting concrete KW - cusum KW - control chart KW - quality control KW - robustness PY - 2016 SN - 978-2-88394-121-2 SP - 106-1 EP - 106-10 PB - Fédération internationale du béton ( fib) CY - Lausanne, Switzerland AN - OPUS4-40976 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Schmidt, Wolfram T1 - Promising bio-based rheology modifying agents for concrete N2 - Today, concrete engineers can vary consistencies between very stiff and self-compacting. The possibility to tailor rheological properties of concrete eventually opened up the path to multiple new technologies, where design criteria are no longer limited to the Young’s modulus and the compressive strength, but often comprise additional added value. It can therefore be concluded that the capability to control the rheology of concrete systems can be considered as the catalyst for concrete innovations such as polymer modified cementitious composites (PCC) self-compacting concrete (SCC), high-performance concrete (HPC), ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) or strain hardening cement based composites (SHCC). In the same way rheology modifying admixtures will become key parameters in mastering the challenges of the next decades such as: - Additive manufacturing/3D-printing - Overcoming pumping height limitations - Casting at extreme temperatures - Tailored rheology at delivery In many regions in the Southern hemisphere, and particularly in Africa, the effective use of chemical admixtures for concrete could significantly contribute to solve problems induced by the challenging climatic conditions, but particularly in Africa it is difficult to use them, due to lacking local supply and supply infrastructure. For Africa, concrete admixtures are largely shipped or transported from Europe, the Arabian Peninsula, or Asia. The long distance transportation of chemicals is not very environmentally friendly and the economic consequences are dramatic: the agents are difficult to purchase, expensive, and there is not a large variety of products available in the market. However, bio-based chemicals have been used in construction for ages effectively. Due to the enormous relevance of rheology modifying admixtures it is worthwhile to recollect that nature provides an enormous variety of chemicals that can be used readily or with low processing. Today, the use of petrol based polycarboxylate ether superplasticizers has become quite common in concrete technology due to their versatility, but their uncomplicated and cost efficient availability is limited in most countries in Africa. However, alternatives are available, which can be found in many regions. Plant extracts have been used to modify the properties of concrete for long time. These plants are typically regionally abundantly available, cheap, and they are environmental friendly. They do not require special caring for seedlings, weeding or manuring to grow since they grow wildly. The talk will present an overview of various options for rheology modifying admixtures, that can be found in nature, and that may become a real alternative, once their interaction within the complex cementitious system is well understood. T2 - Rheologie komplexer Fluide: Theorie, Experiment und Anwendung, DRG/ProcessNet | Gemeinsame Diskussionstagung CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 13.3.2017 KW - Africa KW - Cement KW - Concrete KW - Admixtures KW - Polysaccharides KW - Cassava KW - Starch KW - Triumfetta Pendrata A. Rich KW - Nkui PY - 2016 AN - OPUS4-40979 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -