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Eingeladener Vortrag
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Innovative admixture technology has significantly widened up the ränge of possibilities of concrete engineers. For many decades the water to cement ratio (w/c) was the major influencing factor for the performance of concrete. Due to the need to adjust a consistency, which still allowed reasonable workability, the w/c was typically significantly higher than technologically reasonable. Rheology modifying admixtures Support adjusting the concrete consistency largely independent of the w/c. It was only after the invention of the first superplasticizers that modern concrete technology significantly evolved in terms of flowability, strength, and durability, and only due to the steady evolution of the technology modern innovations, such as Self-Compacting Concrete, Ultra-High-Performance Concrete, or Engineered Cementitious Composites were made possible. Today’s superplasticizers are extremely versatile and can be adjusted to individual technologicalspecifications. However, the other side of the coin of versatility is that cementitious Systems incorporating superplasticizers have become more sensitive against environmental influences, such as the environmental temperature, which may cause unwanted effects or demand for supplementary admixture use such as stabilizing admixtures. Hence, concrete mixture composition with admixtures demands for a high level of expertise and offen there is lack of awareness about the mode of Operation of rheology modifying admixtures among concrete technologists. The paper gives a comprehensive overview about rheology modifying admixtures such as superplasticizers or stabilizing agents, and how they can be used depending upon the application in the most favourable way. Based on experiences with the sub-Saharan African concreting boundary conditions, which exhibit many challenges in terms of environmental boundary conditions and construction site logistics, conclusions are finally drawn, how admixtures can be used in the most beneficial way to improve the concrete casting Situation.
During the last three decades concrete has emerged from a rather simple mass construction material based on only the three components cement, water, and aggregates towards a high performance material, which can be adjusted for high performance applications and according to ultimate user specifications. The reason for the rapid evolvement was the increasing awareness about how the rheology of concrete can be improved without negatively affecting the mechanical properties of concrete. Hence, mineral additions and in particular Chemical admixtures have been the most influential factors for the technological boost since approximately the 1980s.
The incorporation of superplasticizers into concrete mixture compositions eventually facilitated concrete engineers to improve the workability properties without need to increase the water-cement-ratio (w/c) and furthermore to significantly reduce the w/c without loss of workability. This finally resulted in concrete with higher performance and specified properties. Fillers are basically used to improve the particle packing of cementitious Systems, but they can also be used beneficially to support the rheology, since they modify the water demand and may interact with superplasticizers as well.
Finally, supplementary admixtures like polysaccharides have become more populär in the field of mortar, plaster, and grout technology. They can have a variety of rheological effects on cementitious Systems, which can be used to individually adjust their performance.
The possibility to control the rheology and the significantly widened ränge of consistencies that can be adjusted opened up the gates for modern concrete and any type of high performance concrete. Therefore, without doubt, it can be concluded that the capability to control the rheology of concrete Systems can be considered as the catalyst for the invention of the many recent mortar and concrete innovations such as polymer modified cementitious composites (PCC) self-compacting concrete (SCC), high-performance concrete (HPC), ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) or engineered cementitious composites (ECC).
Therefore, understanding the rheology of cementitious Systems and how to control the workability by the use of Chemical admixtures is the key to innovations in concrete technology.
However, the other side of the coin of versatility is that sophisticated cementitious Systems have become more sensitive. Hence, concrete mixture composition with admixtures demands for a high level of expertise and often there is lack of awareness about the mode of Operation of rheology modifying admixtures among concrete technoiogists. The paper gives a comprehensive overview about rheology modifying constituents such as superplasticizers, stabilising agents, and mineral fillers, and how they can be used depending upon the application in the most favourable way.
Rheological optimisation for flowable mixture compositions specified for African boundary conditions
(2013)
To date concrete technology is not yet well established in sub-Saharan Africa but considering the construction technological challenges of the region, without doubt, concrete will play a major role in future. The social, economic, and geographic boundary conditions distinguish greatly from those that can be found in many other regions of the world, where concrete is considerably well established. Düring the last decades, concrete technology underwent a rapid evolution process, but in most countries, where concrete is already well established, innovations are difficult to be brought into practice, Africa, currently has the opportunity and potential, of directly establishing the best available practice in concrete technology.
The conclusion is drawn that self-compacting concrete (SCC) or highly flowable concrete is a reasonable solution for African construction sites. Since on most African construction sites the disadvantageous concreting environment is the most crucial factor for the concrete quality, the outstanding workability properties outweigh any disadvantages of SCC.
Based on this consideration, concepts are developed, how to bring about robust SCC cost-efficiently and reliably into practice as pre-mixed dry compound under consideration of local materials such as rice husk ashes, bagasse ashes, natural pozzolans, cassava starch and lignosulphonate.
Rwanda is a landlocked country in the East Africa. It is surrounded by Uganda, Tanzania, Congo and Burundi. Rwanda is a fast developing country and it spends most of its revenues to import fossil fuels from either through Mombasa Port in Kenya or Dar es Salaam port in Tanzania because the energy production in Rwanda is not sufficient for its development.
Transporting the fuels from these ports, add on to the cost of all materials, cement industry being no exception. There are three cement companies in Rwanda. The cement industries could not run in full production due to the shortage of fuel. Moreover, Rwanda is importing all the construction materials such as steel, roofing materials, etc from its neighbouring countries. This increases the cost of construction and the common man find difficult to own a house. In order to sustain the energy needs of Rwanda, different sources of energies should be focused. They are Peat, Geothermal, Methane gas, solar, wind, waste materials and Municipal wastes. Without affecting the environment, there is an urgent need to find a solution on sustainable energy in Rwanda. This paper discusses about the possible sources of energy in Rwanda which will improve the energy sustainability and turn the economy of Rwanda.
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.
The African environment for the construction with concrete differs greatly from the Situation that can be found in Europe, Japan or North America. Europe can look back upon a concrete tradition of more than 150 years. Standardising documents and guidelines exist since more than 100 years, which formed the foundation of modern Standards that are adopted and applied and in many regions of the world. The technological developments in cement production are also strongly influenced by environmental conditions of the Northern hemisphere. In contrast, with the exception of South Africa, in most countries of sub-Saharan Africa, cement production started in the 1950s to 1960s, followed by a period of political and economical disturbances in many countries. As a result, there have not been serious approaches towards customised Solutions for the construction with concrete for the specific boundary conditions of sub-Saharan Africa. In most countries Standards from overseas are applied. Today, most African economies are growing at a rapid pace and construction activities in infrastructure and housing are urgently required to support and keep up the economic verve. Concrete technology will become of major interest in this context, since no other material can be produced similarly efficiently based on raw materials, which can be found largely only locally. In order to produce concrete with high efficiency, the local boundary framework has to be taken into account. Sub-Saharan Africa exhibits special peculiarities that are not covered by the recently applied technological guidelines and Standards. These need to be addressed to in local codes of practice in order to maximise the benefit of concrete technology.
Innovative admixture technology has significantly widened up the ränge of possibilities of concrete engineers. For many decades the water to cement ratio (w/c) was the major influencing factor for the performance of concrete. Due to the need to adjust a consistency, which still allowed reasonable workability, the w/c was typically significantly higher than technologically reasonable. Rheology modifying admixtures Support adjusting the concrete consistency largely independent of the w/c. It was only after the invention of the first superplasticizers that modern concrete technology significantly evolved in terms of flowability, strength, and durability, and only due to the steady evolution of the technology modern innovations, such as Self-Compacting Concrete, Ultra-High-Performance Concrete, or Engineered Cementitious Composites were made possible. Today’s superplasticizers are extremely versatile and can be adjusted to individual technological specifications. However, the other side of the coin of versatility is that cementitious Systems incorporating superplasticizers have become more sensitive against environmental influences, such as the environmental temperature, which may cause unwanted effects or demand for supplementary admixture use such as stabilizing admixtures. Hence, concrete mixture composition with admixtures demands for a high level of expertise and offen there is lack of awareness about the mode of Operation of rheology modifying admixtures among concrete technologists. The paper gives a comprehensive overview about rheology modifying admixtures such as superplasticizers or stabilizing agents, and how they can be used depending upon the application in the most favourable way. Based on experiences with the sub-Saharan African concreting boundary conditions, which exhibit many challenges in terms of environmental boundary conditions and construction site logistics, conclusions are finally drawn, how admixtures can be used in the most beneficial way to improve the concrete casting Situation.
Influence of the type of viscosity-modifying admixtures and metakaolin on the rheology of grouts
(2013)
The Viscosity-modifying admixtures (VMAs) contribute to the control of the rheology of grouts and are used to enhance plastic viscosity, cohesion, stability, and resistance to bleeding of cement-based systems. This paper reports the results of an investigation on the effect of type of VMAs, namely two types of diutan gums and a welan gum and metakaolin (MTK), plus a superplasticiser, on the rheology behaviour of cement grouts. All mixes were made with polycarboxylic superplasticiser at 0.6% and 0.9%. The dosages of VMAs were 0.05%, and 0.10%, with a fixed water-to-binder ratio of 0.40. The investigated fresh properties of the grouts included the mini-slump flow, plate cohesion, and rheology parameters: namely yield value and plastic viscosity. The rheological parameters were obtained using a vane viscometer. Control grouts (with and without superplasticiser and VMA) were also tested and compared to mixes containing VMAs. The results indicated that the incorporation of MTK reduced the fluidity and increased the plate cohesion and yield stress, and plastic viscosity due to the higher surface area of MTK. The diutan gum grouts improved the grout fresh properties and rheology compared to the welan gum grouts.
African cement inffastructure is quite complex. Apart from Northern Africa and South Africa in particular, cement plants are scarce resulting in highly unstable cement pricing. Clinker and cement are imported from overseas, e.g. from Portugal, Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, and China. Imports are typically determined by the lowest price, and as a result the countries of origin of products vaiy regularly yielding large scatter of properties. Quality control and a good quality infrastructure are thus of utmost importance for the safety of the popuiace, an issue, which is actually often neglected. With funding of the German Metrology Institute (PTB) and Support of the SPIN project, a proficiency testing scheme for cement testing according to EN 196 was set up for African laboratories. Proficiency testing schemes, also called round robins. are interlaboratory performance comparisons allowing participants to evaluate themselves against pre-established criteria. Thev are a powerful tool to help laboratories improve their performance as well as demonstrate their competences to accreditation bodies or Customers. 26 laboratories from 20 nations, 18 of which from Africa, participated. The BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing acted as coordinator and provider of the scheme. The aim of the round robin was to interpret the submitted data further beyond the pure statistic analyses. The data provided a positive picture of the performance of the participants in general, but it also exhibited a number of technical fields that need improvement. The paper provides the general results of the scheme and analyses identified strengths and weak points based on the submitted and non submitted data as well as on discrepancies from the EN 196 procedures during measurements. The application of EN Standards for material testing is critically discussed and since quality infrastructure is also always an issue between industrial and political stakeholders, suggestions for the mitigation of the identified shared problems are given.