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Urbanisation, habitat, environment, infrastructure and sustainability are major global challenges of the 21st century. By planning, exploiting of resources, building, and maintaining, civil engineers and relevant adjacent disciplines have been carrying a large responsibility for the existing environmental problems. Civil engineers are responsible for 70% of all material uses in the world, and civil construction has been dominating the growth of the developing world for the next decades, with enormous impact on the global climate as well as the distribution of wealth and quality of living in the world.
Today a variety of sustainable construction concepts have been developed and discussed. Recently a UNEP report was published, which provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges and potentials in the future from a scientific and industrial point of view. Sustainable solutions based on abundantly available resources (pozzolana and clay) or on renewable instead of limited industrial by-products (e.g. agricultural waste ashes) and new construction echnologies do exist. By applying, promoting and developing the implementation of the existing knowledge into real life constructions, civil engineers also hold the key for the mitigation of the global challenges. Using best practice sustainable construction solutions is particularly of highest importance in the developing world, since the implementation at an early stage creates the highest leverage for positive effects.
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.
Potentials for sustainable cement and concrete technologies - Comparison between Africa and Europe
(2017)
The fundamental knowledge about cement and concrete has made enormous progress over the last decades, and today it would be possible to find optimised sustainable concrete solutions tailored for every given boundary framework and raw material supply. However, this knowledge barely finds implementation into practice despite the urgent global need to minimise carbon emissions and energy consumption. A major reason is that most concrete developments were historically made in the northern hemisphere, where today over-regulations and stagnating market perspectives slow down innovation drive towards higher sustainability. In most African countries, however, sustainable building is simply an urgent real-life problem. The demand for building is enormous, Standard solutions are not an option, and the pool of innovative local raw materials and concrete concepts is enormous. The paper provides a comprehensive comparison between the boundary frameworks of Europe and Africa, and it is explained why local African solutions shall be given priority over imported solutions. Examples of local African concrete solutions are given, and ideas for a rapid implementation are developed. Most of the potentially useful materials such as agricultural ashes, natural and calcined pozzolans, polysaccharides, etc. have not yet been subject to intensive research to date. Therefore, it is not unlikely to assume that with an open mind for non-Standard solutions, combined with creativity and particularly knowledge and awareness, the next generation of innovative and sustainable concretes will be developed and applied on the African continent. Therefore, the conclusion is that particularly the African continent provides the best starting position to develop better and more sustainable concrete solutions than anywhere else in the world. Hence, Africa can become a global pioneer in green cement and concrete technology with impact to the entire world.
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.
Clearing the way
(2012)
With ongoing innovation in process technology, the challenges of concrete technology are more and more focused on the rheological optimisation for these processes, since improper mixture stability or poor compaction ability negatively affect the concrete homogeneity and quality. However, along with the increasing complexity of today’s concrete mixture compositions, concrete becomes more prone to failure regarding the casting process. Variable properties of the raw materials typically cause changing workability. The reasons can be found among others in scattering water contents, physical or chemical properties of the cement or varying environmental temperatures. Robustness in the delicately adjusted rheology, however, is of utmost importance for modern and future process technology, from sprayed concrete over pumpable concrete towards 3D-printing, with regard to the long-term strength, the function and the durability. Typically, material induced changes cannot be identified easily due to the complex interactions of concrete constituents. Therefore, a precise and prompt counteraction is impossible. However, it is known that the yield stress can be controlled by addition of supplementary superplasticizer or stabilising agent. In combination with computerized process observation tools that can rapidly interpret and react on changes in the rheology, it is therefore thinkable, that only these two admixture types can adjust the rheology steadily and permanently, regardless of the actual root cause for observed macroscopic rheology change. The presentation will firstly give a comprehensive overview of effects at the interface between pore solution, particles and hydrates, which affect the rheology of fresh concrete. Secondly, ways are recommended how the rheology can be actively manipulated before eventually computerized methods are demonstrated that help to actively and rapidly assess and counteract performance scatter during steady casting processes.
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.
Chemical admixtures like superplasticisers or stabilising agents are of ever increasing importance for modern concrete technology. They liberate the workability of concrete from its dependency on water content, and thus, open the gate towards innovative and future oriented concrete technologies such as self-compacting concrete. Today, admixture addition has become common practice in concrete technology, but the understanding of their highly complex mode of operation is extremely difficult and demands for understanding of processes within the range between nanometres and centimetres. Due to its complex time-dependent, multi-phase and multi-scale behaviour, flowable concrete systems are highly complicated and cannot be described comprehensively by simple models. It is therefore extremely challenging to identify the relevant parameters that predominantly control flow phenomena on different size scales, since these may occur on any scale between the nano scale (e.g. superplasticizer adsorption) and macro scale (e.g. grading of the aggregates). The present study discusses fundamental mechanisms at the interface between particle or hydrate surfaces and the fluid phase at a very early stage of concrete formation, and links these effects to macroscopic flow phenomena. Methods are discussed that appear promising interdisciplinary tools for enhancement of the understanding of the relevant interactions that are responsible for the macroscopic flow of flowable concrete.
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.
In order to observe the effect of the aggregate phases between 2 mm and 16 mm without overlap with rheological effects induced by the cement hy-dration and without interactions with a threshold fine sand particle size that affects both, paste and aggregates, rheological experiments were conducted on a limestone filler based paste mixed with aggregates up to 16 mm. Vari-ous aggregate fractions were blended and mixed with the replacement paste in different volumetric ratios.
The dry aggregates’ flow coefficients were determined and compared to yield stress and plastic viscosity values at different aggregate volume fractions. The results indicated that the flow coefficient is not a suitable parameter to predict the performance of the aggregates in the paste. It was shown that the yield stress of pastes is largely determined by the blend of different aggregate fractions, while the plastic viscosity to large extend depends upon the coars-est aggregate fraction.
Based on the results, ideal aggregate composition ranges for minimised yield stress are presented. For the plastic viscosity no such grading curves to achieve minimum values could be found, but high viscosity curves are identified.