Effects on the water-cement system

In order to understand more fully the effect that water-reducing admixtures have on the plastic properties of fresh concrete, and to gain an insight into the mechanism of action of this category of materials, it is useful to study the effect on the water-cement system. The topic can be considered from the... 

The effects of water-reducing admixtures on the water-cement system... 

Latex-modified mortar and concrete have a markedly improved water retention over ordinary cement mortar and concrete. The water retention is dependent on the polymer-cement ratio. The reasons for this can probably be explained in terms of the hydrophilic colloidal properties of latexes themselves and the inhibited water evaporation due to the filling and sealing effects of impermeable polymer films formed. Accordingly, a sufficient amount of water required for cement hydration is held in the mortar and concrete and, for most latex-modified systems, dry cure is preferable to wet or water cure. This is also examined in Sec. 2.1. 

Locher [2] investigated the effect of cement fineness, determined by the parameters of RRSB equation, such as x — particle size (determining such a diameter that 63.2% particles are smaller than x ), n—slope of the straight line determining the half of width of normal distribution, on the water demand of cement. At constant n, the reduction of x parameter from 20 to 13 pm in the n-x system leads to the significant growth of water demand (Fig. 6.1). The C3A reactivity, as well as the specific surface of cement are shown in Fig. 6.1 too. 

Let us consider a particular example of the effect of RS substances on the water resistance of adhesive-bonded joints. Adhesives based on imsaturated polyester resins, such as PN-1, are distinguished by low water resistance. The influence of water on a steel joint cemented by such an adhesive actually results in some initial increase of the specific electrical resistance along the adhesive-steel interface and then in an abrupt drop (Fig. 5.5). The increase is explained by more complete consumption of the monomer in the system. When ATG is added to the adhesive (which decreases the interphase tension) the specific electrical resistance stabilizes after a drop. The decrease seems to be related to the processes of relaxation of the internal stresses in the adhesive interlayer. The stresses facilitate the diffusion of liquids in polymeric materials, in particular the stress concentration at the polymer-metal interface. 

Organic peroxide-aromatic tertiary amine system is a well-known organic redox system 1]. The typical examples are benzoyl peroxide(BPO)-N,N-dimethylani-line(DMA) and BPO-DMT(N,N-dimethyl-p-toluidine) systems. The binary initiation system has been used in vinyl polymerization in dental acrylic resins and composite resins [2] and in bone cement [3]. Many papers have reported the initiation reaction of these systems for several decades, but the initiation mechanism is still not unified and in controversy [4,5]. Another kind of organic redox system consists of organic hydroperoxide and an aromatic tertiary amine system such as cumene hydroperoxide(CHP)-DMT is used in anaerobic adhesives [6]. Much less attention has been paid to this redox system and its initiation mechanism. A water-soluble peroxide such as persulfate and amine systems have been used in industrial aqueous solution and emulsion polymerization [7-10], yet the initiation mechanism has not been proposed in detail until recently [5]. In order to clarify the structural effect of peroxides and amines including functional monomers containing an amino group, a polymerizable amine, on the redox-initiated polymerization of vinyl monomers and its initiation mechanism, a series of studies have been carried out in our laboratory. 

The zeta potential is the difference in potential between that of the total dispersed system and that of the layer at the interface of the dispersed particles (in this case cement) and the dispersing medium (water). Many studies have been made of the effect of superplasticizers on the zeta potential of the cement-water system from which the following conclusions can be drawn ... 

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