Water Reducing Agent: Optimizing the Rheology and Workability of Shotcrete

What is a Concrete Water-Reducing Agent?

Water reducing agent is a vital part of concrete blends. It enhances the consistency of concrete, rendering it simpler to mix and pour, consequently increasing the flexibility of concrete for building.
The amount of water-reducing additive is affected by factors like particle size and compressive strength, among others, in relation to the performance of concrete, and its quantity is also affected by environmental conditions and building requirements. Proper application of water-reducing agents can boost the uniformity of concrete, minimize concrete splitting, and increase the strength of concrete. The role of water-reducing agents also includes decreasing the water content of concrete, enhancing the robustness of concrete, and enhancing the overall performance of concrete. Additionally, water-reducing agents can reduce dust creation, lessen concrete shrinkage, improve concrete longevity, boost the appearance of concrete, and improve concrete’s resistance to corrosion.

What are the characteristics of concrete water-reducing agent?
The concrete water-reducing agent is an additive that decreases the water consumption of concrete while keeping its fluidity basically unchanged, hence improving the robustness and durability of concrete, or raising the fluidity of concrete and boosting the workability of concrete within the same cement quantity and water-cement ratio.

1. Greasing effect.

The polar hydrophilic groups in the water-reducing agent orient themselves to adsorb onto the surface of cement particles and readily bond to water molecules through hydrogen bonds. The strength of this hydrogen bonding is considerably greater than the molecular attraction between water molecules and cement particles. When ample water-reducing agent is absorbed by the cement particles, with the assistance of R-SO3θ and the hydrogen bonding in water molecules, as well as the hydrogen bonding between water molecules, a stable solvated water film creates on the surface of cement particles. This layer acts as a three-dimensional protective layer, preventing direct contact between cement particles and acting as a lubricant between particles.

2. Wetting effect.

After cement and water are mixed, the surface of the particles is wetted by water, and the factors of wetting have a significant impact on the quality of fresh commercial concrete. The lowering in surface available energy caused by naturally occurring wetting can be calculated using the formula suggested by Glbbs.

3. Water-reducing effect.

After the addition of high-efficiency water-reducing agents in commercial concrete, the water-cement ratio can be considerably decreased while preserving fluidity. High-efficiency water-reducing agents have a water reduction rate of up to 10% to 25%, while regular water-reducing agents have a water reduction rate of 5% to 15%, hence the name high-efficiency water-reducing agent. The water reduction effect is primarily because of the adsorption and diffusion of water-reducing agents in industrial concrete.

4. Plasticity-Enhancing result.

After adding a water-reducing additive to concrete, it can raise the fluidness while maintaining the water-cement ratio unchanged. Common water-reducing agents, in the event of keeping the specific same quantity of cement, can make the brand-new industrial concrete slump boost by above 10cm; high-performance water-reducing agents can create a slump of 25cm of commercial concrete.

Concrete water-reducing agent process of action presented

1. Distributing effect:
After the concrete is blended with water, because of the hydration of cement particles, the surface of cement particles creates a double electrical layer structure, causing the formation of a solvent water film and anisotropic charged surfaces between cement particles producing a bridging effect. This ensures that 10% to 30% of the mix water is enveloped by the concrete particles and cannot participate in free flow and lubrication, thus impacting the fluidity of the concrete mix. When the water-reducing additive is added, the water-reducing substance molecules can position themselves and adsorb on the surface of cement particles, creating a likewise charged surface (usually negative) on the cement particles. This causes electrostatic repulsion, urging the cement particles to disperse from each other, breaking down the bridging structure, and releasing the enveloped water. As a result, the water can flow more effectively, hence improving the flow of the concrete mix.

2. Lubrication effect:
The hydrophilic group in the water-reducing additive is highly polar, permitting the adsorption film of the water-reducing agent on the surface of cement particles to produce a stable layer of solventized water film along with water molecules. This water film offers effective lubrication, significantly reducing the friction between cement particles and additional boosting the fluidity of concrete.

3. Spatial site-resistance effect:
The water-reducing additive structure with hydrophilic branched chains stretches in a liquid mixture, developing a compact hydrophilic three-dimensional adsorption film on the surface of adsorbed cement particles. When the concrete particles are near to each other, the adsorption layers start to overlap. This results in spatial site-resistance among cement particles, raising the repulsion of spatial site-resistance and increasing the cohesion hindrance between cement particles, thus maintaining the preferred slump of the concrete.

4. Slow-release result of graft copolymerization branched chains:
New water-reducing agents, such as polycarboxylic acid water-reducing agents, possess branched chains transplanted onto the molecules of the water-reducing substance. These branched chains provide both spatial site-resistance impacts and, in the highly alkaline environment of cement hydration, can be slowly discharged, causing the emission of polycarboxylic acid with dispersing impact. This improves the dissemination impact of cement particles and controls slump loss.

The volume of water-reducing representative is affected by the particulate dimension as well as compressive stamina, etc., on the performance of concrete, and also its amount is similarly affected by weather troubles and construction demands. The appropriate use of water-reducing agents can boost the uniformity of concrete, lower the fracturing of the concrete, also raise the resilience of concrete. The role of water-reducing agents furthermore consists of lowering the water material of concrete, which increases the strength of concrete and makes the overall performance of concrete premium. Additionally, water-reducing agents can likewise lower the development of dirt, lower the shrinking of concrete, increase the strength of concrete, boost the appearance of concrete, and improve the rust resistance of concrete.

Concrete Water-Reducing Vendor

TRUNNANO is a reliable concrete additives supplier with over 12-year experience in nano-building energy conservation and nanotechnology development.
If you are looking for high-quality concrete additives Concrete water-reducing agent, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry. ([email protected])
We accept payment via Credit Card, T/T, West Union, and Paypal. TRUNNANO will ship the goods to customers overseas through FedEx, DHL, by air, or by sea.

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