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Eingeladener Vortrag
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Why Africa can spearhead innovative and sustainable cement and concrete technologies globally
(2016)
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.
Fünf verschiedene Messverfahren wurden zur Partikelgrößenanalyse von nanodispersen ZrO₂-Pulver verglichen. Mit der Laserstreulichtanalyse, der dynamischen Lichtstreuung (heterodyne DLS und homodyne DLS-PCS), der Sedimentationsanalyse im Zentrifugalfeld und der Ultraschallspektrometrie wurden wässrige ZrO₂-Suspensionen mit verschiedenen Feststoffkonzentrationen hinsichtlich ihrer Partikelgrößenverteilung analysiert. Als Referenz diente die REM-Analyse zur Ermittlung der Primärpartikelgröße (ca. 40 nm). Mit den hier vorgestellten Messverfahren konnten in den entsprechenden Suspensionen nur Sekundärpartikel im Bereich von 105 nm bis 224 nm detektiert werden, die somit auf das Vorhandensein von Aggregaten bzw. harten Agglomeraten hinweisen.
Time-resolved in situ investigation of Portland cement hydration influenced by chemical admixtures
(2016)
Numerous admixtures are used in the building practice to customize the properties of the cement paste during application. The influences of admixtures on the course of cement hydration and formation of hydrate phases have to be considered. Polycarboxylate ether (PCE) based polymeric superplasticizers (SPs) are known to retard the setting of the cement paste. The extent of the retardation differs depending on the molecular structure of the SP. Additionally, the presence of a stabilizing agent (SA) in the cement paste has a retarding side effect on the setting. The initial cement hydration processes and the detailed mechanisms of the retardation influenced by PCEs, as well as their interactions with particular SAs, are insufficiently understood. Up to now, only the results of phenomenological studies were taken into account to describe this retardation process. A detailed structure analysis monitoring the change of the phase composition during the hydration was never applied. Both SP and SA affect the adsorption of the sulphate ions on the clinker particles, causing changes in the formation of ettringite during the initial hydration, and are therefore a crucial part of the setting process itself. Here, the initial hydration of cement influenced by the interaction of SP and SA was monitored in situ by synchrotron X-ray diffraction. The high time resolution of the measurements allowed a continuous detection of the hydrates formed. The hydration was followed from the starting point of water addition and for couple of hours afterwards. The hydration of the levitated cement pellets containing starch as SA was initialized by adding aqueous solutions of different commercial SPs. Changes in the ettringite formation were detected in comparison to the reference hydration of pure cement.
Nowadays, superplasticizers (SPs) are widely used to increase fluidity and reduce water content in concrete; thus, allowing better workability for final applications. The present study will focus on the hydration effect using comb shape polycarboxylates (PCEs), which are known to allow a very low water/cement ratio (w/c of 0.20) or less.Optical methods have been successfully used for the analysis and monitoring of the interactions between a broad variety of nanoscale and molecular systems like nanoparticles of various chemical composition and different types of organic ligands or biomolecules.This encouraged us to assess the potential of these methods, and particularly fluorescence, for the investigation of the interactions that occur at the interface between hydrate surfaces of cement particles and PCE at a very early stage of concrete formation and to differentiate between the impact of PCE’s molecular structures on such interactions.
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.
Over the course of the last decades, concrete construction has significantly changed from mass application towards sophisticated more innovative, future oriented, and performance based materials technology. Today concrete no longer consists of cement, water, and aggregates, but can be enhanced significantly by using supplementary additions and chemical admixtures. Advancements in admixtures eventually facilitated the development of new concrete types such as self-compacting concrete (SCC) and high performance concrete (HPC) by uncoupling the workability from the water-cement ratio (w/c).
While for traditional concrete types the major mixture parameter for the workability and strength were the w/c and the grading of the aggregates, for SCC and HPC the performance parameters are more complicated and the performance depends highly on the powder components. This makes the system more sophisticated and in parallel more prone to scatter during the production. The complexity and difficulty to predict the effects of changes in the process and mixture makes it very difficult to identify the right potentials for savings.
There is a wide range of research worldwide on supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) such as fly ash and slag for substituting pure cement. Such materials are suitable to be considered in a cementitious system with ordinary Portland cement (OPC) due to their high pozzolanic properties. In addition, majority of the SCMs are said to significantly improve concrete properties especially in terms of increased strength and durability. Unfortunately, the production of such SCMs is not entirely eco-friendly and also limited to certain parts of the world, hence one has to look at alternative options.
The issue of availability of resources is a strong concept that is ever-increasing, and the use of more eco-friendly SCMs in a cementitious system is furthermore attractive. Hence this paper addresses the use of eco-friendly SCMs in concrete such as rice husk ash (RHA). Despite the fact that extensive research has been done on this material, its application in a cementitious system to obtain sufficient concrete properties is still rather limited. In a country like Tanzania, high strength concrete construction is applicable in special construction cases but certainly not a high priority. Majority of construction is still undertaken using normal strength concrete. In a ternary cementitious system consisting of OPC, RHA and other readily available resources such as limestone filler (LSF), normal strength concrete can still be produced having good performance and suitable for regular on-site construction. This paper explains a possible application of obtaining sufficient concrete properties from the available resources.
The paper addresses numerical modelling of fresh self-compacting concrete. In the previous studies, a numerical tool for casting prediction is built based on the assumption that fresh concrete behaves as a yield-stress fluid and treating zones with rebars as porous media. The present contribution discusses the determination of material parameters, which are required as an input for numerical simulations of casting processes.
Interactions between waste paper sludge ashes and superplasticizers based on polycarboxylates
(2016)
In many industrial nations, about two third of the paper demand is covered by recovered paper. A major process step within the treatment of waste paper is the de-inking. It is a floating process yielding paper sludge as a waste product. About 50 % of this residue is used as a fuel. In several cases it is burnt at temperature of about 850 °C and thereafter the accrued ashes are collected in the flue gas filter. During the combustion, kaolinite and calcium oxide generate gehlenite and larnite. Calcite is the main component of waste paper sludge ash (PA).The chemical and mineralogical composition of PA suggests using it as a supplementary cementitious material.
In modern construction materials technology, workability aspects gain importance, since for most modern materials the rheology and compaction ability are relevant for the operation at a hardened state. It was observed that PA significantly increases the water demand of powder systems, which can cause serious problems during the casting of mineral binder systems containing PA. It is therefore obvious that binder systems containing PA might demand for the use of superplasticizers. Superplasticizers are polymers with anionic backbone that cause electrostatic and steric repulsion effects upon adsorption on surfaces of particles and hydration phases.
In this paper interactions between superplasticizers and waste paper sludge ashes are discussed and analysed. Based on observations of changes in the zeta potential and the dispersion of the particle system, the influence of the charge density of superplasticizers is observed and time dependent effects are demonstrated.
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 selfcompacting concrete. Meanwhile admixtures have become common practice in concrete technology, but the understanding of these highly complex polymers in the entire concrete system lags far behind their application. 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.