PROPERTIES OF CONCRETE

Lecture 08
Admixtures
 Lecture Contents
• Introduction to admixtures
• Effect of admixtures on properties of concrete
• Use of admixtures
• Types of admixtures
ADMIXTURES
 WHAT THEY ARE?
• Materials added to the concrete besides
cement, water and aggregate.
• To improve the properties of the concrete
required.
• Added before or during mixing.
• Admixtures can be divided in 2 groups that is:
a) Chemical admixtures
b) Mineral admixtures
 USES OF ADMIXTURES
1. To reduce the cost of concrete construction.
2. To achieve certain properties in concrete more
effectively than by other means.
• When properties cannot be made by varying the
composition of basic material
• To maintain the quality of concrete during the
stages of mixing, transporting, placing, and curing
in adverse weather conditions.
• To overcome certain emergencies during
concreting operations
PROPERTIES WHICH ADMIXTURES ACHEIVE
• Improve workability of fresh concrete
• Improve durability by entrainment of air
• Reduce the water required
• Accelerate setting & hardening & thus to produce high early strength
• Aid curing
• Impart water repellent / water proofing property
• Retard setting
• Improve wear resistance (hardness)
• Offset / reduce shrinkage during setting & hardening
• Impart colour to concrete
• Offset or reduce some chemical reaction
• Reduce bleeding
• Reduce the evolution of heat
 LIMITATIONS
• Unlikely to make a poor concrete better

• Not a substitute for good concrete practice

 HOW APPLIED?
• Most admixtures are supplied in a ready-to-
use form and added at plant or jobsite.
• Pigments and pumping aids are batched by
hand in VERY small amounts
• Never pre-mix admixtures before adding them
to the concrete
• The order and timing of admixture addition
can be critical.
 TYPES OF ADMIXTURES
1. Air-entraining admixtures - AEA
2. Water-reducing admixtures
3. Plasticizers
4. Accelerating admixtures
5. Retarding admixtures
6. Hydration-control admixtures
7. Corrosion inhibitors
8. Shrinkage reducers
9. Alkali-silica reactivity inhibitors
10. Colouring admixtures
11. Miscellaneous admixtures such workability,
bonding, damp proofing, permeability
reducing, grouting, gas-forming, and pumping
admixtures
 AIR ENTRAINING ADMIXTURES
• Foaming agents, gas producing chemicals
– introduces millions of tiny, stable bubbles of uniform size
that are uniformly distributed throughout the mix (usually
about 5% of the volume).
• Improves properties of fresh concrete
– workability, cohesion
– reduces segregation and bleeding .
• Properties of hardened concrete
– For every 1% of air there is a 4% loss in strength.
• Minimised by the reduction in water content
– Improves durability
• Frost action
ACTION AGAINST FROST
FIGURES SHOW CRACKING AND SCALING DUE TO POOR AIR ENTRAINMENT IN CONCRETE
 WATER-REDUCING ADMIXTURES
• Used to reduce the amount of water necessary to
produce a concrete of a given consistency
• To increase the slump for a given water content
• To obtain specified strength at lower cement content
• Increases workability with faster gain of strength
• Increase the slump, reduce water content, save
cement
• Disadvantages, it has the risk of corrosion
• Typical water reducers reduce the water content by
approximately 5% to 10%.
 WATER-REDUCING ADMIXTURES
• Materials:
– Lignosulfonates.
– Carbohydrates.
– Hydroxylated carboxylic acids.
• The effectiveness of water reducers on
concrete is a function of their chemical
composition, concrete temperature, cement
composition and fineness, cement content,
and the presence of other admixtures.
 SUPERPLASTICIZER (HIGH RANGE WATER
REDUCERS)
• By adding to a hydraulic binder, gives very high
workability and allows a large decrease in water
content for a given workability
• Allows the particles to be more workable where it
enable working with low w/c ratio
• Enhances hydration process, increases strength
• Eliminate concrete segregation & allow good
dispersion of cement particles in water, accelerating
the rate of hydration.
 SUPERPLASTICIZER
• Uniform distribution of cement particles is partly
responsible for the high early strength in concrete
made with superplasticizer.
• Advantages of using Superplasticizers are
a) Decreased time to place and finish
b) Accelerated curing period
c) Early removal of formwork
• Excessive dosage may render concrete too fluid,
causing severe segregation
 SUPERPLASTICIZERS
• Applications where flowing concrete is used:
1.thin-section placements,
2.areas of closely spaced and congested reinforcing
steel,
3.pumped concrete to reduce pump pressure,
thereby increasing lift
4.areas where conventional consolidation methods
are impractical or can not be used, and
5.for reducing handling costs.
FLOWABLE CONCRETE WITH HIGH
SLUMP
IS EASILY PLACED
EVEN IN AREAS OF HIGH STEEL
CONGESTION
 RETARDING ADMIXTURES
• Prolong or delay the setting time of cement
paste in concrete
• Used in hot weather to reduce any premature
stiffening of the concrete and consequent loss
of workability
• Often carried by ready mixed concrete
vehicles to prevent the concrete setting in the
drum in the event of breakdown
• Disadvantage is, it may promote bleeding
 RETARDING ADMIXTURES
• some reduction in strength at early ages (one to
three days) accompanies the use of retarders.
• The effects of these materials on the other
properties of concrete, such as shrinkage, may not be
predictable.

Therefore, acceptance tests of retarders should be

made with actual job materials under anticipated
job conditions.
 ACCELERATING ADMIXTURES
• Added to increase the rate of hydration of
concrete mix which then lead to the increases
in the rate of development of strength and
greater heat evolution.
• And to shorten the setting time
• More rapid gain of strength & rapid setting
• Disadvantages is possible cracking due to heat
evolution & possibility of corrosion of
embedded reinforcement
CORROSION INHIBITORS
 CORROSION INHIBITORS
• The chlorides can cause corrosion of steel
reinforcement in concrete
• Able to reduce the rate of corrosion to a level
that major damage to concrete will be avoided
or at least greatly reduced..
• Corrosion-inhibiting admixtures chemically
arrest the corrosion reaction.
 Shrinkage-Reducing Admixtures
► Shrinkage cracks,
such as shown on this
bridge deck, can be
reduced with the use
of good concreting
practices and
shrinkage reducing
admixtures.
 Chemical Admixtures to reduce Alkali-
aggregate Reactivity
(ASR Inhibitors)
• Lithium and Barium salts can reduce the
expansion and cracking associated with alkali-
silica reaction
 Coloring admixtures (Pigments)

► Red and blue

pigments were used
to color this floor
 MINERAL ADMIXTURES
• Are natural pozzolanic materials or industrial
by-products that are commonly used in
concrete to replace part of the cement or
sand.
• Types of mineral admixtures are:
a) Fly ash
b) Silica Fume
c) Blended hydraulic cement