Water and admixtures

Water should be free of substances that may affect concrete quality. It can be water from any water supply company or other source provided it conforms to CEN EN 1008 (2002) for the EU. 

Chemical additives (admixtures) may be used to improve workability, to reduce permeability, to vary the hydration temperature so as to be mixed and placed at low temperatures, to accelerate the development of strength during the first stages of curing, to increase frost-thaw resistance and to improve durability. In all cases, the addition of any additive is allowed, provided the required strength and other properties of the concrete are satisfied. 

The incorporation of entrained air into a mix enables the concrete to withstand better the action of frost and de-icing salts. The use of air-entraining admixture also improves workability. 

It is noted that the addition of certain additives slightly decreases the concrete strength, despite its positive effects. Early studies found that the addition of air-entraining admixture reduces the concrete s compressive and tensile strength (HRB 1971 Teychenne et al. 1975). The average reduction on the concrete s compressive and tensile strength was found to be at the 5% and 4% level, respectively, for every 1% by volume of additive in the mixture (Teychenne et al. 1975). 

The structural requirements and performance of concrete should comply with national requirements, such as CEN EN 13877-2 (2013) for the EU and ASTM C 94 (2013) or AASHTO M 157 (2013) for the United States. The constituents of the concrete should also comply with national specifications such as CEN EN 206 (2013) and CEN EN 13877-1 

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If the specification for concrete is correct, there should be no need for addition of water at the site. EN 206 forbids any addition of water and admixture at delivery, unless in special cases where, under the responsibility of the producer, it is used to bring the con-... 

The SSC matrix used in this study is composed of Super Sulfated Cement (SSC), water and admixture. Proportioning criteria are ... 

For special high strength appHcations, ie, up to 69 MPa (10,000 psi), special formulations of Pordand cement concretes have been developed. These ate based on the use of chemical and mineral admixtures. The typical mineral admixtures ate fumed siUca and other po22olanics. The chemical admixtures ate generally chemicals termed supetplastici2ets that allow very low water to cement ratios, ie, between 0.4 and 0.25, and reduce the amount of water needed to provide plasticity or dow to the concrete. PubHc works appHcations take just under 32% of the total Pordand cement market streets and highways represent 68% of this usage, and water and waste account for 23%. 

Charcoal is generally satisfactorily activated by heating gently to red heat in a crucible or quartz beaker in a muffle furnace, finally allowing to cool under an inert atmosphere in a desiccator. Good commercial activated charcoal is made from wood, e.g. Norit (from Birch wood), Darco and Nuchar. If the cost is important then the cheaper animal charcoal (bone charcoal) can be used. However, this charcoal contains calcium phosphate and other calcium salts and cannot be used with acidic materials. In this case the charcoal is boiled with dilute hydrochloric acid (1 1 by volume) for 2-3h, diluted with distilled water and filtered through a fine grade paper on a Buchner flask, washed with distilled water until the filtrate is almost neutral, and dried first in air then in a vacuum, and activated as above. To improve the porosity, charcoal columns are usually prepared in admixture with diatomaceous earth. 

Suitable organic solvents, such as ether, benzene, naphtha and the like, are more soluble than in water. This makes it possible to separate them from other substances which may accompany them in the water solution but which are not soluble in the solvents employed. Hence, one application of solvent extraction is the analytical determination of unsaponifiable oils and waxes in admixture with fatty material by submitting the mixture to vigorous saponification with alcoholic potash or, if necessary, sodium ethylate, and to dilute the product with water and extract with petroleum ether. The soaps remain in the aqueous solution while the unsaponifiable oils and waxes dissolved in the ether. The addition of a salt to an aqueous solution prior to extraction is sometimes practiced in some processes. In older processes, SOj is employed in the separation of aromatic and highly saturated hydrocarbons, taking advantage of the much greater solubility of the solubility of the aromatics and... 

Equation (18) was applied by Margules (1895) to calculate the heats of admixture of water and alcohol from the vapour-pressure data of Regnault the results agreed with the direct determinations of Winkelmann (1873). 

Specifically, the improved solidification (cementation) technology involves the use of (a) a special dry powder admixture for the generation of a nonsoluble crystalline formation deep within the pores and capillary tracts of the concrete—a crystalline structure that permanently seals the concrete against the penetration or movement of water and other hazardous liquids from any direction (b) special nonmetal reinforced bars for enhancing the concrete block s tensile and compressive strengths and (c) a unique chemical crystallization treatment for the waterproofing and protection of the concrete block s surface. 

It has also been shown [254] that a commercial petroleum sulfonate surfactant which consists of a diverse admixture of monomers does not exhibit behavior typically associated with micelle formation (i.e., a sharp inflection of solvent properties as the concentration of surfactant reaches CMC). These surfactants exhibit gradual change in solvent behavior with added surfactant. This gradual solubility enhancement indicates that micelle formation is a gradual process instead of a single event (i. e., CMC does not exist as a unique point, rather it is a continuous function of molecular properties). This type of surfactant can represent humic material in water, and may indicate that DHS form molecular aggregates in solution, which comprise an important third phase in the aqueous environment. This phase can affect an increase in the apparent solubility of very hydrophobic chemicals. 

Serine.—Its ester is contained in the fractions which distil between ioo° and 130° at O 5 mm. The mixed esters contained in this fraction are treated with a small quantity of water and then with five to six volumes of petroleum ether, which precipitates serine ester as an oil the oil is then shaken up with petroleum ether to remove admixtures as far as possible and is hydrolysed with baryta water. On removal of the baryta it crystallises when the solution is concentrated, and it is purified by treatment with alcohol, which dissolves other substances which are also present, and recrystallisation from water. Its )8-naph-thalene sulpho-derivative. 

Addition of a new section on miscellaneous admixtures including shotcrete admixtures, corrosion inhibitors, and admixtures for recycling wash water and plastic concrete. 

It can be seen, therefore, that only three chemical materials form the basis of all the water-reducing admixtures, i. e. lignosulfonate, hydroxycarboxylic acid, and hydroxylated polymers. 

The accelerating water-reducing admixtures are simple blends of either calcium chloride, nitrate, thiocyanate or formate with a lignosulfonate or a hydroxycarboxylic acid salt. In some cases it may not possible to obtain a completely sediment-free solution and agitation of store tanks may be necessary. Typically, a mixture of approximately 33% calcium chloride and 4% calcium lignosulfonate by weight in water would be used. 

Air-entraining water-reducing admixtures containing lignosulfonates can be based on impure lignosulfonate raw materials, as stated earlier, where only 2-3% additional air is required. However, this air may not be of the amount, type, and stability required, therefore additions of surfactants are made. Several different types can be used but in the majority of cases they are based on alkyl-aryl sulfonates (e. g. sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate) or fatty-acid soaps (e.g. the sodium salt of tail-oil fatty acids). Additions of these types will allow incorporation of sufficient stable air of the correct bubble size to meet durability requirements under freeze-thaw conditions. 

In the form of sodium salts all are very soluble and have low freezing points, so that solidification in winter conditions is unlikely. Figure 1.8 shows the types and formulae of materials which have been reported to find application in the formulation of this type of water-reducing admixture. However, the only materials finding widescale application in formulations are the salts of gluconic and heptonic acids. 

The three categories of major ingredients discussed above for the formulation of water-reducing admixtures account for the majority of commercially available products, but there may be limited use of insitol [28], polyacrylamide [29], polyacrylic acids [30] and polyglycerol [31]. 

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... 

Water-reducing admixtures are not adsorbed equally by the various anhydrous and hydrated cement constituents and in studies with calcium lignosulfonate, the approximate maximum adsorption figures shown in Table 1.5 have been obtained [38,39], In addition, adsorption isotherms have been studied at various ages of C3A hydration [36] and it has been shown that it is the initial hydration products (less... 

In the absence of knowledge of the surface area of cement hydrates available for adsorption at the time of addition, it is difficult to estimate how many layers of water-reducing admixture molecules are adsorbed, but attempts have been made [40] indicating that over 100 layers may be formed with calcium lignosulfonate and salicylic acid at normal levels of addition. However, these calculations were based on specific surface areas of 0.3-1.0 m g-l, whereas other studies [27, 38, 39] have indicated... 

The nature of the bond between the molecules of the water-reducing admixture and the surface of the cement constituent hydrates has been described as ionic group outwards in many references [33, 42,], mainly based on work [33, 43] showing migration of cement particles under the influence of an electric current when lignosulfonate molecules are adsorbed on the surface. Similar results have been reported for hydroxycarboxylic acids [44], Other relevant data are summarized below ... 

The addition of a water-reducing admixture to a cement suspension can be shown to disperse the agglomerates of cement particles into smaller particles [33,38, 47] and can be seen clearly in photomicrographs as shown in Fig. 1.21. Maximum dispersion occurs at a level of 0.3-0.5% by weight of calcium lignosulfonate [33, 34] which would indicate the presence at the surface of about 0.2-0.4% calcium lignosulfonate. The separation of particles results in an increase in the surface area of the system by 30-40% [33, 38], which may explain the more rapid rate of cement hydration after the initial retardation period. 

These observations on the aqueous phase are consistent with the concept of the adsorption of water-reducing admixtures on to the initial hydrates of C3A and C3S with a corresponding modification of the normal process of... 

There has been a considerable study of the effect of various water-reducing admixtures on the pure phases and also on ordinary Portland cement. The following points summarize the general observations. 

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