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Concrete technology was exposed to a rapid development during the last three decades. For the longest time in its history, concrete was considered as a three component System consisting of aggregates, which are bound by the hardened cement paste consisting of hydrated cement. Traditionally, the only way of adjusting the consistency of concrete was using well adjusted aggregates and grading curves and adding excess water to the concrete, accepting that the latter in return reduces strength and durability. During the last three decades, however, concrete has developed further from a three component System towards an (at least) five component system, since the use of mineral additions and Chemical admixtures has become state of the art. Both components are able to enhance the workability, the compactability, and the density of the microstructure with effects on strength, ductility and durability, while cement can be saved in parallel. Due to reasonable use of admixtures and additions, concrete can be designed to match mechanically high performance specifications. Traditionally, cement paste was considered the weakest component in concrete. Flowever, in modern concrete a good paste composition can yield highest performance, passing the role of the mechanical bottleneck towards the aggregates.
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.
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.
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.
South Africa and recently Nigeria are the only net exporter of cement in Africa, yet cements are imported into the country mainly on the basis of price competitiveness. This poses potential for scatter in the properties of the cements in the South African market as pricing seems to be the only determining factor that affects Portland cements imported. A survey of cements of grade 42.5N in the South African cement market was carried out to identify major players in the industry. The identified cements, which included four locally produced and one imported cement were then analysed for both chemical composition and physical properties in line with the Eurocode EN 196. Tests carried out include loss on ignition, chloride content, sulphate content, specific surface (Blaine), standard consistence, initial setting time, final setting time, soundness and flexural and compressive strength at 2, 7 and 28 days. The testing program was initiated as part of on-going Africa-wide cement testing competency program in partnership with BAM and PTB in Germany. The performance of the identified cements from the different local manufacturers and the imported cement were analysed and are presented in this paper. These results reveal some similarities and differences in the properties. Particularly of interest is the marked difference in the 28 days compressive strength of the cements. This paper shows that there is need for further tests across the cement industry as some of the cements failed to meet certain requirement as set by EN 196. The paper also recommends the use of proficiency testing schemes in the cement industry of the country to ensure the cement laboratories are providing results of high quality and at the same time act as a check to make sure these laboratories are not failing to meet standard requirements.
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.
The use of starch and its derivatives in concrete as an admixture to modify relevant properties of concrete is on the increase in recent times. It is known to modify the rheology, to affect the hydration kinetics of cement, and influence on initial and final setting time of cement. This paper examines the effect of cassava starch on concrete. shrinkage properties of concrete, with and without starch addition, were studied. Various percentages (0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2 %) of starches by weight of cement were added to concrete mixes prepared in the laboratory. Shrinkage tests were conducted for duration of up to one year. The result show that concretes with starch additions exhibit lower shrinkage, which is an indication the addition of starch as admixture in concrete improves the ability of the concrete reduce shrinkage problems.
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, chemical admixtures like superplasticisers and stabilising agents are extremely important for modern concrete technology. These agents have meanwhile become common practice in concrete technology, but the understanding within the entire system lags far behind their application. The macroscopic rheology of concrete in the presence of superplasticizers strongly depends upon effects on a much smaller scale such as the hydration of the cement, the adsorption of superplasticizers, and the pore solution chemistry.
The African cement, concrete and construction business is growing at rapid pace. The cement sales are expected to grow rapidly until 2050. The number of newly built cement plants increases dramatically and in addition more cements are being imported from outside the continent, e.g. from Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, and China, driven by overcapacities in the countries of origin. This causes a high number of potentials and challenges at the same time. Newly built cement plants can operate directly at best technological state of the art and thus incorporate more sustainable technologies as well as produce new and more sustainable products such as cements blended with sustainable supplementary cementitious materials such as calcined clays, and industrial or agricultural by products. At the same time the new variety of binding agent as well as the international imports, which are driven by price considerations, make the cement market prone to quality scatter. This puts pressure on the quality control regulations and institutions to ensure safety of construction, healthy application, and environmental safety for the population. The paper presents possible solutions to build up the rapidly increasing African cement production more sustainably than in the rest of the world as well as the related challenges and obstacles that need to be overcome. Based on experiences with a series of pan-African cement testing laboratory proficiency schemes conclusions are made on technical, regulative and political level.
In the last years flowable concrete has become increasingly important in applications such as, for systems with highly reinforced concrete with a complicated formwork, or sprayed concrete and 3D-printing of concrete. For all these applications it is necessary to have tailored rheological properties. Rheology can be described by values of yield stress and plastic viscosity, which can be determined for example by evaluation of rheometer measurements. But for different materials various rheometers with different geometries and stirrers are being used. To see the effects from paste in concrete, it is necessary to investigate mixes of paste, mortar and concrete, stepwise. But currently there exists no device, which is calibrated for these different systems at once. Due to this fact, conventional tests such as V-funnel efflux-time and flow diameter were determined, as well as rheometer data in different cell sizes and geometries.
In this study the assessment of rheological effects in the binder on the rheology of mortar and concrete was investigated by using combination of two rheometers.
The presence of polycarboxylate ether (PCE) based superplasticizers (SPs) has enormous influence on the early hydration of cement. C3A as the most reactive phase of Portland cement plays a significant role in early hydration reactions and affects the rheological performance. Therefore, this paper presents experimental results about the influence of delayed addition of PCEs on the Hydration of cement and C3A-gypsum pastes investigated by isothermal heat flow calorimetry. Complementary in-situ XRD was carried out on C3A pastes to analyze hydration and phase changes related to the addition of PCE.
Cement pastes with a delayed addition of PCE showed less Retardation compared to simultaneous addition. The alteration caused by PCE is much more pronounced for C3A-gypsum mixes. With a delayed addition of SP, the hydration of C3A is less retarded or even accelerated. It is obvious that there is less retardation the later the addition of SP. Furthermore, the PCE alter the hydration of C3A when added delayed and exhibit changes in kinetics and hydration rates. XRD results showed that more C3A is dissolved in the presence of PCE. Also, the gypsum depletion occurs earlier in the presence of PCE and even faster with delayed addition. Without PCE AFm starts to form just after the gypsum depletion. However, in the presence of PCE AFm already starts to form at the beginning of the hydration. Due to the faster gypsum depletion in the presence of PCE, also the transformation from ettringite into AFm begins earlier, but takes longer as without SP.
Organic/inorganic mixtures were prepared from ordinary Portland cement (OPC), water (w/c 0.22), a fluorescent dye in aqueous solution (stable at alkaline pH; BAM-I), and two different comb shape polycarboxylates (PCEs), i.e., high charge (PCE-HC) and low charge (PCE-LC), respectively. Rheological and calorimetric measurements were performed prior to optical studies in order to select PCE concentrations. Absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy of the system OPC + BAM-I (CBAM-I) revealed maxima of dye BAM-I located at 645 nm and 663 nm, respectively. In presence of PCE-HC and PCE-LC, these mixtures displayed a small red shift in reflectance and a faster decrease in intensity compared to studies with CBAM-I; however, only slight differences were observed between the different PCEs. With time, all systems exhibited a decrease in intensity of BAM-I in absorption/reflectance and emission. This could be caused by dye adsorption and possibly decomposition when in contact with cement particles or hydration products.
Chemical admixtures allow to create a variety of fresh and hardened state properties in cementitious materials. In the case of self-compacting concrete, plasticizers or superplasticizers are introduced with the aim to decrease the yield stress and the viscosity of the materials.
However, in order to prevent segregation and bleeding, and to improve the water retention of cement-based system, stabilizing agents or viscosity agents are often introduced in addition.
Among these admixtures, polysaccharides are most commonly used. The aim of this study is to provide an understanding of competitive or synergetic effects induced by the combination of hydroxypropyl guar stabilizing agents (HPG) and superplasticizers on cement pastes. Two polycarboxylate superplasticizers (PCE) exhibiting different charge densities and one HPG were studied. It was found that the combination of HPG with PCE superplasticizer strongly affects the rheological behavior of cement pastes. Despite the presence of HPG, the viscosity of the pastes strongly decreased with increasing dosage of PCE until it became close to the viscosity of a cement paste with PCE only. However, the use of HPG in combination with PCE allows maintaining a significant yield stress in the cement paste compared to PCE alone. The increase in the charge density of the PCE seemed to amplify the drop of the viscosity and to reduce the gain on the yield stress induced by HPG. The results also highlight a delay in the setting-time of the cement paste by adding HPG and PCE. The delay induced by HPG is significantly lower than that generated by PCEs. However, the combination of the both kind of admixtures leads to a slightly shorter setting-time compared to the PCE alone.
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.
The presence of polycarboxylate ether (PCE) based superplasticizers (SPs) has an enormous influence on the early hydration of cement. The hydration is retarded and the timing of formation and the morphology of hydrates is affected. This short paper presents experimental results about the influence of delayed addition time of PCE SPs on hydration of cement and alite pastes, investigated by isothermal heat flow calorimetry. For cement as well as for alite pastes the hydration is retarded with SP, whereby the high charge PCE has a stronger retarding effect than the low charge PCE. The retardation caused by PCE is much more pronounced for alite than for cement mixes. If PCE is added later to the mix, the induction period is shortened and the hydration is accelerated compared to simultaneous addition. This applies for cement and alite pastes. With delayed PCE addition the alite shows a clearly less retarded setting and main hydration than after simultaneous addition. It is obvious that for alite pastes there is less retardation the later the addition of SP.
Chemical admixtures allow to the create a variety of fresh and hardened state properties in cementitious materials. In the case of self-compacting concrete, plasticizers or superplasticizers are introduced with the aim to decrease the yield stress and the viscosity of the materials. However, in order to prevent segregation and bleeding, and to improve the water retention of cement-based system, stabilizing agents or viscosity agents are often introduced in addition. Among these admixtures, polysaccharides are most commonly used.
The aim of this study is to provide an understanding of competitive or synergetic effects induced by the combination of hydroxypropyl guar stabilizing agents (HPG) and superplasticizers on cement pastes. Two polycarboxylate superplasticizers (PCE) exhibiting different charge densities and one HPG were studied. It was found that the combination of HPG with PCE superplasticizer strongly affects the rheological behavior of cement pastes. Despite the presence of HPG, the viscosity of the pastes strongly decreased with increasing dosage of PCE until it became close to the viscosity of a cement paste with PCE only. However, the use of HPG in combination with PCE allows maintaining a significant yield stress in the cement paste compared to PCE alone. The increase in the charge density of the PCE seemed to amplify the drop of the viscosity and to reduce the gain on the yield stress induced by HPG.
The results also highlight a delay in the setting-time of the cement paste by adding HPG and PCE. The delay induced by HPG is significantly lower than that generated by PCEs. However, the combination of the both kind of admixtures leads to a slightly shorter setting-time compared to the PCE alone.
The paper showed that the STA behave completely different in pastes with LSF and cement, respectively, as well as with or without PCE. While STA can affect plastic viscosity and yield stress in LSF and cement pastes, the addition of PCE causes that the STA have mainly an impact on plastic viscosity, except DGUM and ST-low. The performance of STA in LSF and cementitious systems can vary greatly due to different ionic strengths of the liquid phase. The charges due to modification of the starches have an intense influence on the rheological properties in pastes. The combined use of PCE and STA can lead to a significant increase of the plastic viscosity without a strong effect to the yield stress.
For the evaluation of the effectivity of STA the ionic strength of the liquid phase and the solid volume fraction of the binder have to be taken into account. Further influences can arise from grain size and aggregate content as well as the temperature, which were not discussed in this paper.
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.