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Today, concrete engineers can vary consistencies between very stiff and self-compacting. At the same time engineers can opt for a vast variety of binders. The possibility to use optimised mineral binders and 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 and the interactions particles 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 additions, SCMs and 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 the effective use of SCMs, additions and chemical admixtures for concrete could significantly contribute to solve problems induced by the challenging climatic conditions, but particularly in many countries with challenging climatic conditions, it is difficult to use them, due to lacking local supply and supply infrastructure, and often the awareness of the value of local mineral resources is missing. However, the long distance transportation of mineral resources and chemicals is not very environmentally friendly and the economic consequences are dramatic.
However, bio-based constituents and chemicals have been used in construction for ages effectively. Due to the enormous relevance of binders, fillers and rheology modifying admixtures it is worthwhile to recollect that nature provides an enormous variety of products 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 many countries in the world. However, alternatives are available, which can be found locally. In addition many agricultural wastes today are dumped, although they could be converted to reactive ashes easily.
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 binders, fillers and 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.
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. 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.
Based on the observations of the nano scale effects, it seems that higher sensitivity against variations in the constituents, the handling, or the boundary condition are the inevitable price for higher performances. However, eventually a very effective method is introduced that helps to maintain stable processes regardless of the root cause for performance changes based on an efficient in-situ process control scheme and superplasticizer and stabilising agents as counter actions.
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.
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.
Polysaccharides are incorporated into cement based Systems in order to modify the rheological properties. Typically, cellulose ethers, sphingan gums, guar gum or starch ethers are applied. Depending upon their chemistry, molecular architecture, and adsorption tendency, polysaccharides interact differently with the entire cementitious system. Some stabilising agents like diutan gum mainly affect the cementitious paste; other stabilising agents like starch tend to interact with the sand fraction and even with the coarse aggregates. Cellulose and guar gum shows more diverse performances.
Typically stabilising admixtures like polysaccharides are used, when sophisticated rheological properties are adjusted. Therefore, polysaccharides are often used in combination with superplasticisers, which are added to reduce the yield stress of concrete. This can cause interactions, particularly when the stabilising Agent shows a strong tendency to adsorb on particle surfaces. Adsorptive stabilising agents may reduce the amount of adsorbed superplasticisers, thus affecting both viscosity and yield stress, while non-adsorptive stabilising agents mainly affect the plastic viscosity independently of the superplasticiser. Due to the strong influence of superplasticisers on the yield stress, influences of the stabilising agent on the yield stress retreat into the background, so that their major effect is an increase of the plastic viscosity.
The paper provides a comprehensive overview of how different polysaccharide superplasticisers affect cementitious flowable systems and points out the challenges of the combined use of polysaccharides and superplasticisers. Based on rheometric experiments and observations of the hydration process, time dependent effects on the workability as well as of the hydration of cement are presented and discussed.
The possibility to tailor the rheology of concrete eventually opened up the path to new technologies, where design criteria are no longer limited to the compressive strength. Thus, it can be concluded that the capability to control the rheology of concrete can be considered as catalyst for many of today’s concrete innovations. In the same way rheology modifying admixtures will be key to mastering the challenges of the next decades. In many regions of the Southern hemisphere, the effective use of chemical admixtures would significantly contribute to solve problems induced by the challenging climate, but particularly in Africa there is often a lack of local supply and supply infrastructure. In Africa, concrete admixtures are largely shipped or transported from outside the continent. 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 no large variety of products available in the market. 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 and without enormous transportation distances, since these plants are typically regionally abundantly available, cheap, and they are environmental friendly. The paper presents an overview of various options for rheology modifying admixtures, that can be found in Africa, and that may become a real alternative, once their interaction within the complex cementitious system is well understood.
The cement proficiency testing (PT) scheme was set up by the German Metrology Institute (PTB) and the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) in 2012. The PT scheme was a spin-off from a European Commission and African, Caribbean and Pacific-Group of States funded project entitled SPIN – Spearhead Network for Innovative, Clean and Safe Cement and Concrete Technologies (www.spin.bam.de). The SPIN project aimed at crosslinking experts in industry and policy making bodies, with the prospect of establishing a sustainable cement and concrete construction capacity in Africa.
After a successful first pan-African proficiency testing scheme in 2012/2013, it was decided to establish the scheme permanently and independent of the SPIN project.
The main focus of setting up a testing scheme was to enable all cement testing laboratories in Africa to evaluate their competence and efficiency in cement testing and further enhance their capacity to obtain better quality products according to their environment. The acronym developed for the PT scheme is PACE-PTS (Pan-African Cement Proficiency Testing Scheme). The framework for the PT scheme was set up jointly among the organisers and the first participants. The first PT scheme was initiated in Dar Es Salaam in 2012 followed by a final workshop in Berlin in 2013. The second PT scheme began in 2014. A final workshop was organised in Dar es Salaam in 2015. The third and current scheme was started in 2016 and the final workshop is held in Yaoundé.
Polysaccharides are important rheology modifying admixtures in the building material sector.
The use of starch is becoming increasingly important, due to many ecological and economic advantages. In the construction sector, starch ethers are being used as thickeners and as means to increase the yield stress. The starch ethers that are available on the market differ in
their behaviour, which can vary greatly depending upon the binder system and mortar composition, e.g. solid volume content, binder type, additional admixtures. In view of the limited knowledge about the influence of molecular modifications associated with cement based systems, some fundamental rheological functional mechanisms were analysed in this study. The differently modified starch ethers used were derived from potatoes. They varied in their charges and degrees of hydroxypropylation. The setting and the flow behaviour of all examined variations
of starch ethers were analysed in cement pastes. In order to illustrate the effects of the starch ethers that were used, the water-cement ratio (w/c) was held constant in all the mixtures [Schmidt 2012]. The results indicated significant differences in setting and flow behaviour.