TY - JOUR A1 - Schmidt, Wolfram A1 - Mota, Berta A1 - Ramirez Caro, Alejandra T1 - The action of aggregates on concrete rheology N2 - Most factors acting on concrete rheology work at an extremely small-scale level. Influencing factors in the millimetre or centimetre area are essentially restricted to sand and aggregates. The latter, however, make up 50 to 70% of the total volume of most concretes – a fact often ignored in research on controlling concrete processing properties. Whereas suitably chosen concrete admixtures and additives can influence rheology in a very targeted manner, sand and aggregates are less suitable for controlling rheology but nonetheless contribute to the rheology of the Overall system. The actions of sand and aggregate can impose themselves upon the actions of admixtures and additives and, in unfavourable circumstances, even render them redundant. For this reason, any results concerning the processability of binding agent systems can only be transferred to concrete with great care. It is important to better understand the action of sand and aggregates in order to be able to harmonise them in such a way that they complement the action of superplasticisers positively, instead of working against them. Savings on costs can also be made by this targeted fine-tuning. KW - Rheology KW - Aggregates KW - Viscosity KW - Yield stress KW - Concrete PY - 2018 VL - 3 SP - 42 EP - 49 PB - ad-media GmbH CY - Cologne AN - OPUS4-47045 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ramirez Caro, Alejandra A1 - Pauli, Jutta A1 - Mota, Berta A1 - Simon, Sebastian A1 - Schmidt, Wolfram A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute T1 - C⁠3A passivation with gypsum and hemihydrate monitored by optical spectroscopy N2 - Tricalcium aluminate (C⁠3A) is found with less than 10% wt. of the total composition; however, during hydration, C⁠3A plays an important role in the early hydration of cement in the presence of gypsum as a set retarder. The aim of this investigation is to assess the suitability of optical spectroscopy and a dye-based optical probe to monitor early hydration of C⁠3A in the presence of gypsum and hemihydrate. Optical evaluation was performed using steady-state fluorescence and diffuses reflectance spectroscopy (UV-VisDR). Phase characterization during hydration was done with in-situ X-ray diffraction. UV-VisDR with a cyanine dye probe was used to monitor the formation of metastable phases and was employed together with fluorescence spectroscopy, to follow the Aggregation and disaggregation of the dye during hydration. In conclusion, for the first time, a cyanine dye was identified as a feasible and stable probe to monitor C⁠3A hydration changes in the presence of calcium sulfate. KW - Dye KW - Photoluminescence KW - Fluorescence KW - Reflection spectroscopy KW - Cement KW - Hydration KW - Method development PY - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconres.2020.106082 VL - 133 SP - 106082 PB - Elsevier Ltd. CY - Amsterdam AN - OPUS4-50952 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -