TY - CONF A1 - Ramge, Peter A1 - Schmidt, Wolfram A1 - Kühne, Hans-Carsten ED - Uzoegbo, H.C. ED - Schmidt, Wolfram T1 - Effect of the storage of cement on early properties of cementitious systems N2 - As soon as cement is mixed with water, the hydration reaction starts to set of. The progression of the hydration process is governed by the amount and the availability of water and its possibility to access the unhydrated cement grain surfaces. For a total hydration cement theoretically requires water amounting approximately 0.38 of its own mass. Nevertheless, due to the cement’s highly hygroscopic nature, already the moisture in the ambient air can cause first hydration reactions to set in upon the cement grain surfaces. Such pre-hydration processes have an effect on the cement's properties. Dpending on the specific conditions during the storage the significance of the impact on certain properties can vary. If cement is consumed soon after production and is transported only short distances in a silo wagon to its final destination for immediate use without further stock transfer, the effects are rather negligible. However, if cement is delivered in bags, transported over long distances, shifted serval times and stored for longer time periods until it is finally consumend, these effects can be quite severe. Due to the actual logistical situation with comparably few cement plants, large delivery distances and partially less developed infrastructures, the latter scenario pictures the situation for the most cases in Africa quite well. In order to verify the relevance of the pre-hydation for practical application, a series of tests was conducted at the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM). The influence of the cement storage on gresh and hardened concrete properties was investigated for different concrete and mortar types. The investigations show that the impact of the storage conditions is more pronounced for specialized concretes with high sophisticated optimized mixture compositions containing admixtures. Nevertheless, the effects also occur for ordinary concrete and should not be ignored. 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 - Storage KW - Ambient conditions KW - Hydration KW - Pre-hydration KW - Atmospheric humidity PY - 2013 SN - 978-3-9815360-3-4 SP - 339 EP - 347 AN - OPUS4-27757 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 - JOUR A1 - Schmidt, Wolfram A1 - Brouwers, H.J.H. A1 - Kühne, Hans-Carsten A1 - Meng, Birgit T1 - The working mechanism of starch and diutan gum in cementitious and limestone dispersions in presence of polycarboxylate ether superplasticizers N2 - Polysaccharides provide high potential to be used as rheology modifying admixtures in mineral binder systems for the construction industry such as concrete or mortar. Since superplasticizers have become state of technology, today, concrete is more and more adjusted to flowable consistencies. This often goes along with the risk of segregation, which can be effectively avoided by adding stabilising agents supplementary to superplasticizers. Stabilising agents are typically based on polysaccharides such as cellulose, sphingan gum, or starch. Starch clearly distinguishes in its effect on rheology from other polysaccharides, mainly due to the strong influence of amylopectin on the dispersion and stabilisation of particles. Based on rheometric investigations on cementitious and limestone based dispersions with different volumetric water to solid ratios, the mode of operation of modified potato starch is explained in comparison to a sphingan gum. It is shown that the stabilising effect of starch in a coarsely dispersed system is mainly depending upon the water to solid ratio and that above a certain particle volume threshold starch mainly affects the dynamic yield stress of dispersions, while plastic viscosity is affected only to a minor degree. Sphingans operate more independent of the particle volume in a coarsely dispersed system and show significantly higher effect on the plastic viscosity than on the yield stress. In systems incorporating superplasticizers, influences of both stabilising agents on yield stress retreat into the background, while both observed polysaccharides maintain their effect on the plastic viscosity. KW - Cement KW - Limestone KW - Rheology KW - Stabilising agent KW - Coarsely dispersed systems KW - Diutan gum KW - Starch ether PY - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3933/ApplRheol-23-52903 SN - 1430-6395 SN - 0939-5059 VL - 23 IS - 5 SP - 52903-1 EP - 52903-12 PB - Kerschensteiner CY - Lappersdorf AN - OPUS4-29932 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -