Admixtures

Admixtures
• The term admixture as “a material other than
water, aggregates, hydraulic cement, and fiber
reinforcement, used as an ingredient of a cementitious
mixture to modify its freshly mixed, setting, or hardened
properties and that is added to the batch before or during its
mixing.
• Producers use admixtures primarily to reduce the cost
of concrete construction; to modify the properties of
hardened concrete; to ensure the quality of concrete
during mixing, transporting, placing, and curing; and to
overcome certain emergencies during concrete operations.
Admixtures
 History
• The use of natural admixtures in concrete was a logical
progression.
• Materials used as admixtures included milk and lard by
the Romans; eggs during the middle ages in Europe;
polished glutinous rice paste, lacquer, tung oil, blackstrap
molasses,
• Extracts from elm soaked in water and boiled bananas by
the Chinese; and in Mesoamerica and Peru, cactus juice and
latex from rubber plants.
• The Mayans also used bark extracts and other substances
as set retarders to keep stucco workable for a long period of
time.
Roman Admixtures
 Function
• Increase workability without increasing water content or
decrease the water content at the same workability;
• Retard or accelerate time of initial setting;
• Reduce or prevent shrinkage or create slight expansion;
• Modify the rate or capacity for bleeding;
• Reduce segregation;
• Improve pumpability;
• Retard or reduce heat evolution during early hardening;
 Function
• Accelerate the rate of strength development at early ages;
• Increase strength (compressive, tensile, or flexural);
• Increase durability or resistance to
exposure,
severe including
conditionsapplication
of of deicing salts and other
chemicals;
• Decrease permeability of concrete;
• Control expansion caused by the reaction of alkalies with
potentially reactive aggregate constituents;
• Increase bond of concrete to steel reinforcement;
• Improve impact and abrasion resistance;
 Chemical Admixtures
• Chemical admixtures are added to concrete in very
small amounts mainly for the entrainment of air, reduction
of water or cement content, plasticization of fresh concrete
mixtures, or control of setting time.
• Air-Entrainment
• Water-Reducing
• Set-Retarding
• Accelerating
• Super-plasticizers
 Mineral Admixtures
• Mineral admixtures (fly ash, silica fume [SF], and
slags) are usually added to concrete in larger amounts
to enhance the workability of fresh concrete ; to improve
resistance of concrete to thermal cracking, alkali-aggregate
expansion, and sulfate attack; and to enable a reduction in
cement content.
• Fly Ash
• Silica Fume

• Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag

 Air-Entrainment
• An air-entraining agent introduces air in the form of minute bubbles
distributed uniformly throughout the cement paste.

• The main types include salts of wood resins, animal or vegetable fats and oils
and sulphonated hydrocarbons.

• Entrained air is intentionally incorporated, minute spherical bubbles of

size ranging from 5 microns to 80 microns distributed evenly in the entire
mass of concrete.
Air Entraining Admixture
 Air-Entrainment
• The major proportion of commercial products is
based on the following chemical materials, set out
in order of probable decreasing use;
• Abietic and pimeric acid salts
• Fatty Acid salts
• Alkyl - aryl sulphonates
• Alkyl sulphonates
• Phenol ethoxylates
 Air-Entrainment: Advantages
• Durability

• Reduced bleeding and segregation because of :

• Bubble acting as extra fine filler Attachment of air bubbles with

cement particle and linking them.

• Increase in inter particle attraction caused by adsorption of air

entrainer.

and increased total surface area of constituents relative to water volume.

• Water flow between cement particles is restricted.

• Workability increased due to action of air bubbles as ball bearing which

assist movement of particles each other.
Air-Entrainment: Advantages
 Water-Reducing (Plasticizers)
• A material, which either increases workability of freshly
mixed concrete without increasing water cement ratio or
maintains workability with a reduced amount of water, is
termed as water reducing admixture
• As their name implies, the function of water reducing
admixture is to reduce the water content of the mix,
usually by 5 to 10%, sometimes (in concrete of very high
workability) up-to 15%.
• Thus, the purpose of using a water reducing admixture
in a concrete mix is to allow a reduction in the water
cement ratio while retaining the desired workability or,
alternatively,to improve its workability at a given water cement
ratio.
Water-Reducing( Plasticizers)
 Water-Reducing (Plasticizers)
• The actual reduction in water depends on dose of
admixtures, cement content, type of aggregate used, ratio
of cement, fine and coarse aggregate etc.
• The chemicals used as plasticizer (water reducing
admixtures) are as follows:
• Lignosulfonic acids, derivatives and their salts.

• Hydroxylated carboxylic acids, their salts and derivatives.

• Nepthalene sulphonic acid based

• Sulfonated melamine polycondensation products

Water-Reducing (Plasticizers)
 Water-Reducing (Plasticizers)
• Dispersion Effect: Portland cement will have a
tendency to flocculate in wet concrete. These flocculation
entraps certain amount of water used in the mix and
thereby all the water is not freely available to fluidify the mix.
When cement particles are deflocculated, the water
trapped inside the flocs gets released and now available
to fluidify the mix.
• Retarding Effect: It is mentioned earlier that
plasticizer gets adsorbed on the surface of cement
particles and form a thin sheath. This thin sheath inhibits
the surface hydration reaction between water and cement
as long as sufficient plasticizer molecules are available at
the particle/solution interface.
Water-Reducing (Plasticizers)
 Water-Reducing (Plasticizers)
• Dispersion Effect: Portland cement will have a tendency
to flocculate in wet concrete. These flocculation entraps
certain amount of water used in the mix and thereby all the water
is not freely available to fluidify the mix. When cement
particles are deflocculated, the water trapped inside the
flocs gets released and now available to fluidify the mix.
• Retarding Effect: It is mentioned earlier that plasticizer
gets adsorbed on the surface of cement particles and
form a thin sheath. This thin sheath inhibits the surface
hydration reaction between water and cement as long as
sufficient plasticizer molecules are available at the
particle/solution interface.
Water-Reducing (Plasticizers)
 Water-Reducing: Advantages
• They increase the workability of the concrete
without reducing the compressive strength or without
changing water- cement ratio. This is particularly useful
when concrete pores are restricted either due to congested
reinforcement or due to thin sections
• High strength can be obtained with the same cement
content by reducing water cement ratio.
• A saving in the quantity of cement (approx. upto 10%) can
be achieved keeping the same water/ cement
ratio and workability.
Water-Reducing: Advantages
 Superplasticizers
• The admixtures capable of reducing water content by about
30% are known as super plasticizers.
• At a given water /cement ratio and water content in the
mix, the dispersing action of super plasticize increases the
workability of concrete, typically by raising the slump
from 75mm to 200 mm, the mix remaining cohesive.
• The resulting concrete can be placed with little or no
compaction and is not subject to excessive bleeding or
segregation.
Super-Plasticizers
 Superplasticizers
• There exist four main categories of super-plasticizers based
on their chemical composition:
• melamine formaldehyde condensates

• Sulfonated naphthalene formaldehyde condensates

• Modified lingo-sulfonates

• Others such as sulfonic acid esters and carbohydrate esters

Super-Plasticizers
 Superplasticizers: Advantages
• Cement content can be reduced to a greater extent keeping
the same water/cement ratio. This will lead to economy.
• Water-cement ratio can be reduced significantly keeping
same cement content and workability. This will lead to
increase in strength.
• Higher workability at very low water cement ratio like
casting concrete with heavy reinforcement..
• Reduction in permeability
• Where early strength development is required in
prestressed concrete or casting of floor, where early
access for finishing equipment is required
Superplasticizers: Advantages
Superplasticizers: Advantages
 Set-Retarding
• This type of chemical admixtures decreases the initial
rate of reaction between cement and water and thereby
retards the setting of concrete.
• It functions by coating the surface of C3S (Tri calcium
silicate) components, thus, delaying this reaction with the
water.
• Reaction products are slow to form as such the setting
and hardening of concrete are delayed reducing early
compressive strengths.
• Retardation in setting time up to 8-10 hours is possible
by suitable use of retarders.
Set-Retarding
 Set-Retarding

The main ingredients of retarders are as follows:

•Ligno-sulphonic acids and their salts. e.g. Na, Ca or NH4,
•Hydro-carboxylic acids and their salts.
•Carbohydrates including sugar.
•Inorganic salts based on flourates, phosphates, oxides, borax and
magnesium salts.
 Set-Retarding: Advantages
• Improves workability, cohesion and extends setting time,
provides protection against delays and stoppages and
facilitates keeping workable concrete for extended period .
• In the large construction, good workability of the
concrete throughout the placing period and prevention of
cold joints is ensured by adding retarders in the concrete.
• Extended setting time minimise risks of long distance
delivery in hot weather, improves pumpability of concrete
by extended setting period and improved workability of
concrete.
 Set-Retarding: Advantages
• Reduces bleeding and segregation where poor
sand grading are unavoidable.
• Reduces adverse environmental effects of
various nature on concrete and embedded steel
by considerable reduction in permeability.
 Effect of use of Retarder
• Retarding admixture forms a film around the cement
grain that prevent or delays the reaction with water.
After some times, this film breaks and normal hydration
takes place.
 Accelerating Admixtures
• These admixtures when added to concrete,
mortar or grout increases the rate of hydration
of hydraulic cement, shortens the time of set,
accelerates the hardening or development of
strength of concrete/ mortar.
• These admixtures function by interaction with
C3S (Tri- calcium silicate) component of the cement
thus increasing the reaction between cement and water
Accelerating Admixtures
 Accelerating Admixtures
• Many substances are Known to Act as accelerators for
concrete. They include Alkali Hydroxides, Silicates, Fluoro-
Silicates, Organic Compounds, Calcium Formates, Calcium
Nitrates, Calcium Thio Sulphate, Aluminium Chlorides,
Potassium Carbonates, Sodium Chlorides & Calcium
Chlorides.
 Accelerating Admixtures: Advantages
• Shortens the setting time of cement and therefore increases
the rate of gain of strength.
• Enables earlier release from precast moulds thus speeding
production.
• Reduces segregation and increase density and compressive
strength.
• Cures concrete faster and therefore uniform curing in
winter and summer can be achieved.
• Reduces water requirements, bleeding, shrinkage and time
required for initial set.
Effect of use of Accelerating Admixtures
 Mineral Admixtures
• Mineral admixtures are finely divided siliceous
materials which are added to concrete in relatively
large amounts, generally in the range 20 to 70
percent by mass of the total cementitious material.
 Ecological Advantage
• Power plants using coal as fuel and metallurgical
furnaces producing cast iron, silicon metal, and
ferrosilicon alloys are the major sources of byproducts that
are being produced at the rate of millions of tonnes every
year in many countries.
• Dumping of these by-products into landfills and streams
amounts to a waste of the material and causes serious
environmental pollution.
• Disposal as concrete aggregate or for road base
construction is a low-value use which does not utilize the
pozzolanic and cementitious potential of those materials.
 Ecological Advantage
• With proper quality control, large amounts of
many industrial by-products can be incorporated
into concrete, either in the form of blended
portland cement or as mineral admixtures.
• Whenever a pozzolanic and/or cementitious
byproduct can be used as a partial replacement for
portland cement in concrete, it represents significant
energy and cost savings.
 Advantage
• It has been amply demonstrated that the best
pozzolans in optimum proportions mixed with Portland
cement improves many qualities of concrete, such as:
• Lower the heat of hydration and thermal shrinkage;
• Increase the water tightness;
• (Reduce the alkali-aggregate reaction;
• Improve resistance to attack by sulphate soils and sea water;
• Improve workability;
• Lower costs.
 Pozzolanic Reaction
• Pozzolana + Calcium Hydroxide + C – S – H (Gel)
Water
Reaction exercises a
• beneficial
The mechanism
effect by
onwhich
the properties
pozzolanic of concrete is the same
irrespective of whether a pozzolanic material is added to
• Concrete inthe form of a mineral admixture or as a
component of blended portland cement.
• Pozzolanic (e.g., low-calcium fly ash),
• Cementitious (e.g., granulated iron blast-furnace slag),
• Both cementitious and pozzolanic (e.g., highcalcium fly
ash)
 Classification
• Natural materials: have been processed for the sole
purpose of producing a pozzolan. Processing usually
involves crushing, grinding, and size separation;
in some cases it may also involve thermal
activation.
• By-product materials: are not the primary
products of the industry producing them.
Industrial byproducts may or may not require
any processing.
 Natural Pozzolans
• Volcanic glasses: Santorini Earth of Greece, Bacoli
Pozzolan of Italy, and Shirasu Pozzolan of Japan are
examples of pozzolanic materials which derive their lime-
reactivitycharacteristic mainly from the unaltered
aluminosilicate glass.
• Volcanic tuffs: Pozzolans of Segni-Latium (Italy), and
trass of Rheinland and Bavaria (Germany),represent typical
volcanic tuffs.
• Calcined clays or shales: clay and shales will not
show appreciable reactivity with lime unless the crystal
structures of the clay minerals present are destroyed by heat
treatment
Natural Pozzolans
 Natural Pozzolans
• Diatomaceous earth: This group of pozzolans is
characterized by materials of organic origin.
• Diatomite is a hydrated amorphous silica which is
composed of skeletal shells from the cell walls
of many varieties of microscopic aquatic algae.
The largest known deposit is in California.
 Artificial Pozzolans
• Fly ash
• Blast Furnace Slag
• Silica Fume
• Rice Husk ash
• Metakaoline
• Surkhi.
 Fly Ash
• Fly ash is finely divided residue resulting from the
combustion of powdered coal and transported by the
flue gases and collected by electrostatic precipitator.
• Fly ash is the most widely used pozzolanic material all over
the world.
• The importance and use of fly ash in concrete has
grown so much that it has almost become a common
ingredient in concrete, particularly for making high
strength and high performance concrete.
• The utilisation of fly ash as a supplementary
cementitious material. High volume fly ash concrete is a
subject of current interest all over the world.
Fly Ash In Concrete
 Fly Ash
• The use of fly ash as concrete admixture not only
extends technical advantages to the properties of concrete
but also contributes to the environmental pollution control.
• There are two ways that the fly ash can be used: one way is
to inter grind certain percentage of fly ash with cement
clinker at the factory to produce Portland pozzolana cement
(PPC) and the second way is to use the fly ash as an
admixture at the time of making concrete at the site of work.
• One of the important characteristics of fly ash is the
spherical form of the particles. This shape of particle
improves the flowability and reduces the water demand. The
suitability of fly ash could be decided by finding the
dry density of fully compacted sample.
Fly Ash
 Effect of Fly Ash on Fresh Concrete

• Use of right quality fly ash, results in reduction of

water demand for desired slump.
• With the reduction of unit water content, bleeding and
drying shrinkage will also be reduced.
• Since fly ash is not highly reactive, the heat of hydration
can be reduced through replacement of part of the
cement with fly ash. The reduction of temperature rise for
30% substitution of fly ash.
Effects of Fly Ash on Hardened Concrete

• Fly ash, when used in concrete, contributes to the strength

of concrete due to its pozzolanic reactivity. However,
since the pozzolanic reaction proceeds slowly, the initial
strength of fly ash concrete tends to be lower than that of
concrete without fly ash.
• Due to continued pozzolanic reactivity concrete develops
greater strength at later age, which may exceed that of
the concrete without fly ash.
• Fly ash concrete should be cured for longer period. In
this sense, fly ash concrete used in under water structures
such as dams will derive full benefits of attaining
improved long term strength and water-tightness.
 Durability of Concrete
• Sufficiently cured concrete containing good
quality fly ash shows dense structure which
offers high resistivity to the infiltration of deleterious
substances.
• It is also recognised that the addition of fly ash
contributes to the reduction of the expansion
due to alkali-aggregate reaction.
 High Volume Fly Ash Concrete (HVFA)
• High volume fly ash concrete is a concrete where in 50 to 60%
fly ash is incorporated. It was first developed for mass
concrete application where low heat of hydration
primary consideration. was of
•Subsequent work has demonstrated that this type of concrete
showed excellent mechanical and durability properties
required for structural applications and pavement
constructions.
•Due to very low water content of high volume fly
ash concrete, the use of superplasticizer becomes necessary
for obtaining workable concrete. Use of air-entraining admixtures
is also concurrently used.
 Silica Fume
• Silica fume, also referred to as micro silica or condensed
silica fume, is another material that is used as an artificial
pozzolanic admixture.
• It is a product resulting from reduction of high purity
quartz with coal in an electric arc furnace in the
manufacture of silicon or ferrosilicon alloy.
• Silica fume rises as an oxidised vapour. It cools, condenses
and is collected in cloth bags.
• It is further processed to remove impurities and to
control particle size. Condensed silica fume is
essentially silicon dioxide (more than 90%) in non
crystalline form. Since it is an airborne material like fly ash,
it has spherical shape. Influence on Fresh Concrete
Silica Fume
 Silica Fume
• It is extremely fine with particle size less than 1
micron and with an average diameter of about 0.1 micron,
about 100 times smaller than average cement particles .
Silica fume has specific surface area of about 20,000 m2/kg
against 230 to 300 m2/kg.
• Silica fume has become one of the necessary
ingredients for making high strength and high
performance concrete. In India, silica fume has been
used very rarely. Nuclear Power Corporation was one of
the first to use silica fume concrete in their Kaiga and Kota
nuclear power projects.
• Silica fume was also used for one of the flyovers at
Mumbai where, for the first time in India 75 MPa
concrete was used (1999). Silica fume is also now specified
for the construction of proposed Bandra-Worli sea link project
at Mumbai.
Silica Fume
 Silica Fume
• Silica fume, also referred to as micro silica or condensed
silica fume, is another material that is used as an artificial
pozzolanic admixture.
• It is a product resulting from reduction of high purity
quartz with coal in an electric arc furnace in the
manufacture of silicon or ferrosilicon alloy.
• Silica fume rises as an oxidised vapour. It cools, condenses
and is collected in cloth bags.
• It is further processed to remove impurities and to
control particle size. Condensed silica fume is
essentially silicon dioxide (more than 90%) in
noncrystalline form. Since it is an airborne material like fly
ash, it has spherical shape. Influence on Fresh Concrete
 Influence on Fresh Concrete
• Water demand increases in proportion to the amount
of micro-silica added. The increase in water
demand of concrete containing micro-silica will be about
1% for every 1% of cement substituted.
• Therefore, 20 mm maximum size aggregate
concrete, containing 10% micro-silica, will have an
increased water content of about 20 litres/m3
• Measures can be taken to avoid this increase by
adjusting the aggregate grading and using super-
plasticizers.
 Influence on Fresh Concrete
• The addition of micro-silica will lead to lower
slump but more cohesive mix. The micro-silica make
the fresh concrete sticky in nature and hard to handle.
• It was also found that there was large reduction in
bleeding and concrete with micro-silica could be
handled and transported without segregation. .
• It is reported that concrete containing micro-silica is
vulnerable to plastic shrinkage cracking and,
therefore, sheet or mat curing should be considered.
 Influence on Hardened Concrete
• Concrete containing micro silica showed
outstanding characteristics in the development of
strength. It has been also found out that
modulus of elasticity of micro silica concrete is
less than that of concrete without micro silica at the
same level of compressive strength.
 Rice Husk Ash
• Rice husk ash is obtained by burning rice husk In a
controlled manner without causing environmental
pollution.
• When properly burnt it has high SiO2 content and
can be used as a concrete admixture. Rice husk ash
exhibits high pozzo lanic characteristics and contributes
to high strength and high impermeability of concrete.
• India produces about 122 million ton of paddy every year.
Each ton of paddy producers about 40 kg of RHA. There
is a good potential to make use of RHA as a
valuable pozzolanic material to give almost the same
properties as that of microsilica.
Rice Husk Ash
 Surkhi
• Surkhi, was the commonest pozzolanic materials used in
India.
• Surkhi is an artificial pozzolana made by powdering
bricks or burnt clay balls. In some major works, for
large scale production of surkhi, clay balls are specially
burnt for this purpose and then powdered.
• By its nature, it is a very complex material differing
widely in its qualities and performances. Being derived
from soil, its characteristics are greatly influenced by
the constituent mineral composition of soil, degree of burning
and fineness of grinding.
• Because of the complexity of problem there has been
much confusion on account of contradictory results
obtained by various research workers.
Surkhi
 Surkhi
• Now the terminology “Calcined Clay Pozzolana” is
used instead of the word surkhi, giving specific
property and composition to this construction material.
IS 1344 of 1981 covers the specification for calcined
clay pozzolana for use in mortar or concrete. IS 1727
of 1967 covers the methods of test for pozzolanic
materials.
Surkhi
 Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag
(GGBS)
• Ground granulated blast-furnace slag is a
nonmetallic product consisting essentially of silicates
and aluminates of calcium and other bases. The
molten slag is rapidly chilled by quenching in water
to form a glassy sand like granulated material. The
granulated material when further ground to less than
45 micron will have specific surface of about 400 to
600 sq m/kg(blaine)
• The performance of slag largely depends on the
chemical composition, glass content and fineness of
grinding.
Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag
(GGBS)
 Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag
(GGBS)

• There are two methods for making Blast

Furnace Slag Cement. In the first method
blast furnace slag is inter-ground with cement
clinker along with gypsum.
• In the second method blast furnace slag is
separately ground and then mixed with the
cement.
 Performance of GGBS in Concrete
• The replacement of cement with GGBS will reduce the unit
water content necessary to obtain the same slump.
• This reduction of unit water content will be more pronounced
with increase in slag content and also on the fineness of
slag. This is because of the surface configuration and particle shape
of slag being different than cement particle.
• In addition, water used for mixing is not immediately lost,
as the surface hydration of slag is slightly slower than that of
cement
• Reduced heat of hydration
• Refinement of pore structures
• Reduced permeabilities to the external agencies
• Increased resistance to chemical attack.
 (Flexible Concrete)

Victor Li
His Flexible Concrete Bends But Doesn’t Break
An engineering professor at the University of Michigan (UM), Li has developed
a new type of flexible concrete known as an engineered cement composite
(ECC)
Conventional concrete is made by mixing sand, cement, and aggregates such as
gravel and then activating it by adding water.
ECC resembles regular concrete but can weigh up to 40 percent less, consisting
mostly of the same ingredients except for the coarse aggregates.
It has small polyvinyl alcohol fibers embedded within it, 8-12 millimeters long
and about 40 microns in diameter, about half the thickness of a human hair.
They have a nanometer-thick surface coating that allows them to slip rather
than break under heavy loads.
 Victor Li
His Flexible Concrete Bends But Doesn’t Break