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Concrete Chemicals & Ready-Mixed Concrete: 2.construction Chemicals.: There Are Many Chemicals Used As
Concrete Chemicals & Ready-Mixed Concrete: 2.construction Chemicals.: There Are Many Chemicals Used As
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, concrete is used for many purposes. In many
construction sites, we have to modify its nature to suit the
circumstances. For example, we may have a situation where we have
to increase the workability without decreasing its strength and
produce self competing concrete. We may have another situation
where we have to retard or accelerate the setting time. We may have
to make it rock hard in a very short time, to plug a leakage. There are
yet other situations as in concrete water tanks where we want
waterproof the concrete. Special chemicals are being manufactured
that can be added to the concrete for these purposes. In this chapter,
we will briefly deal with some of them. Another practice that is
becoming prevalent in our major cities is the use of mixed concrete
delivered at site of work in special trucks in rotating drums. This is
called Ready Mixed Concrete (RMC). In this chapter, we will also deal
briefly with the concrete chemicals used for these purposes.
CONCRETE CHEMICALS
Chemicals used in concrete construction can be divided into two
groups as follows:
Set Accelerators
Set accelerators are the substances added to concrete to accelerate
setting of concrete. Some of them are so active that a "stonehard
concrete" can be obtained in about two minutes. When cement is
mixed with silicate (available in the market in consistency of honey) to
form into the consistency of a putty, it can be pushed into crevices to
stop leakages as the mix sets hard in about 2 minutes. The product
by trade name aquarigid available in the market is one such
substance. A field trial must always be conducted when using these
materials.
BRAND NAME
DESCRIPTION
USE
Sikament FF (T)
Sikament 600
Plastiment BV 40
Plastiment R1
Plastocrete Plus
A
concrete
/
mortar
admixture in liquid form
that acts both as a highly
efficient
plasticizer
and
waterproofing compound.
Sigunit L
Sigunit Powder I
Sika
901
Sika
Finish
Surface A
universal
concrete
admixture
to
improve
pumpability of lean mixes
and to protect pumps &
pipes from excessive wear.
Combination Chemicals
Waterproofing Admixture
Waterproofing admixtures are the chemicals which we can add to
cement mortars or to concrete mixes to make them waterproof.
Concrete is porous due to the presence of water in excess of that
required for hydration of cement. This water tends to form capillary
pores in the hardened concrete. Some of these chemicals when added
to concrete or cement mortar are meant to cause contraction of
capillaries. Some chemicals are meant to form crystallization products
and block the capillary. Others convert the water-absorbing capillary
forces into water-repelling capillary forces due to the hydrophobic
(tendency to repel-water) effect of the chemical constituents. They are
available either in the powder form or in the liquid form. They are also
mixed in cement mortar to form waterproof mortar. The following are
some of the popular dampproofers popular in India:
CONSTRUCTION CHEMICALS
In this section, we will give a brief account of some of the
construction chemicals.
1. Mould-releasing agents.
For easy release of the moulds (shuttering) from
hardened concrete, it was the practice to apply materials such as
burnt engine oil, crude oil, etc. on the shuttering before
concreting. (They are still used as they are very low in cost.)
These mould releasing oils do not leave a good surface for
subsequent plastering. Nowadays, we have specially
formulated efficient substances for this purpose. Separate
materials are available for timber, plywood, steel, etc.
2. Concrete-curing compounds.
Where it is difficult to cure concrete by water, we may
coat the moist concrete surface with curing compounds so that
the moisture in the concrete is retained for the concrete to get
cured. They usually get peeled off after 28 days. Most of them are
fully efficient only for 24 hours, reducing in efficiency to about
60% in 14 days. Usually, they consist of synthetic resins, wax,
chlorinated rubber, etc.
3. Bonding aids for plastering of concrete.
The traditional method for plastering a cast concrete
surface like the underside of a concrete floor (ceiling) is to hack
the surface to form a key between the structure and the plaster.
This is especially necessary when we use mould-releasing oils.
Liquid polymer bond aids in ready-to-use form are now available
for this purpose.
Plastering should be carried out as early as possible within a
waiting period of 60 to 90 minutes after the application of this
bonding agents. Most of them are latex based.
READY-MIXED CONCRETE
In the major cities in India, for construction in congested places, it
is difficult to find space for storing aggregates and mixing concrete at
the site. Also in many cases, it is difficult to lift the concrete to large
height by employing manual labour. Employing and managing a very
large team of labourers is very difficult. Moreover, the work by labour
is very slow and time consuming. If a work such as a machine
foundation has to be cast continuously without construction joints,
then we have to work continuously during day and night if we employ
labour. In such cases, concrete can be placed by concrete pumps
very fast and with ease. Pumpable concrete has to be produced using
designed mix and additives. Many companies have started ready mix
plants located away from the centre of the city where concrete can be
mixed by using batching plants. Any concrete required can be
designed and mixed here by these plants to specific requirements of
strength workability, pumpability, etc. The transporting trucks being
heavy, delivery can be made in places where there are good roads.
In city neighbourhoods, where the roads are meant to take only light
loads, these trucks can damage the roads and give trouble.
As the batching plants are located at large distances from the
site of work, the concrete has to be transported to the site in special
trucks with rotating drums. The concrete mixed at the plant is dosed
with retarding agents and discharged into these drums. The drums rest
inclined more or less horizontally on the trucks and rotate
continuously and slowly so that the concrete is kept agitated all along
the journey. This prevents premature setting of concrete and concrete
is delivered at the site in the plastic condition. The drums can be
tilted to discharge their contents at the site to the pumps to be
pumped to the exact place required.
Most of the ready mix concrete is placed by concrete pumps,
which are pumps specially designed for lifting concrete to large
heights (up to 400 m) and large horizontal distances (up to 2000 m).
In such cases, we design the concrete by the principles for "design of
pumpable concrete" which can flow through a pipe without
segregation. Ready mixed pumpable concrete is used today in most
of the multistoreyed building constructions in the major cities in
India. The owners of the ready mixed plants also give the necessary
concrete pumps on hire. However, it has been found in practice that
while ordering ready mix concrete, we have to make a very good
to
CONCLUSION
Concrete admixtures form an important class of modern
construction material. It is an essential component in production "of
high-strength, self-compacting ready mixed and pumpable
concretes. Ready-mixed pumpable concrete is becoming more and
more popular in all the principal cities of India. In addition there are
many other construction chemicals like mould reliasing agents we
use in the construction industry.