What is a Concrete Water-Reducing Agent?
Superplasticizer is an important component of concrete blends. It improves the fluidity of concrete, making it less difficult to blend and place, thus improving the flexibility of concrete for building.
The amount of water-reducing agent is influenced by factors such as particle size and compressive strength, among others, with regards to the performance of concrete, and its quantity is also affected by environmental conditions and construction and building requirements. Proper application of water-reducing agents can improve the consistency of concrete, reduce concrete cracking, and boost the strength of concrete. The purpose of water-reducing agents also includes decreasing the water content of concrete, improving the durability of concrete, and boosting the overall performance of concrete. Additionally, water-reducing agents can minimize dust creation, reduce concrete shrinkage, improve concrete longevity, enhance the appearance of concrete, and boost concrete’s resistance to corrosion.
What exactly are the characteristics of concrete water-reducing agent?
The concrete water-reducing agent is an additive that decreases the water usage of concrete while keeping its flow basically unchanged, hence increasing the strength and longevity of concrete, or enhancing the fluidity of concrete and enhancing 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 align themselves to adsorb onto the surface of cement particles and quickly bond to water molecules through hydrogen bonds. The strength of this hydrogen bonding is much higher than the molecular attraction between water molecules and cement particles. When adequate water-reducing agent is absorbed by the cement particles, with the assistance of R-SO3θ and the hydrogen bonding in water molecules, along with the hydrogen bonding between water molecules, a stable solvated water film develops on the surface of cement particles. This coating functions as a three-dimensional protective layer, preventing direct contact between cement particles and acting as a lubricant between particles.
2. Moistening effect.
After cement and water are mixed, the surface of the particles is wetted by water, and the conditions of wetting have a significant impact on the effectiveness of fresh industrial concrete. The reduction in surface free energy resulted by naturally occurring moistening can be computed 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 lowered while retaining 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 largely due to the adsorption and diffusion of water-reducing agents in commercial concrete.
4. Plasticity-Enhancing result.
After adding a water-reducing agent to concrete, it can boost the workability while maintaining the water-cement ratio unchanged. Common water-reducing agents, in the case of retaining the precise identical volume of cement, can create the fresh industrial concrete slump increase by over 10cm; high-performance water-reducing agents can generate a slump of 25cm of commercial concrete.
Concrete water-reducing agent process of action introduced
1. Distributing effect:
After the concrete is mixed with water, as a result of the hydration of cement particles, the surface of cement particles forms a dual electrical layer structure, leading to the formation of a solvent water film and nonuniform charged surfaces between cement particles making a bridging effect. This ensures that 10% to 30% of the mix water is covered by the concrete particles and cannot take part in free flow and lubrication, thus impacting the fluidity of the concrete mix. Whenever the water-reducing agent is added, the water-reducing agent molecules can align themselves and adsorb on the surface of cement particles, creating a comparably charged surface (typically negative) on the cement particles. This induces electrostatic repulsion, urging the cement particles to disperse from each other, disintegrating the bridging structure, and releasing the enveloped water. As a result, the water can flow more effectively, hence enhancing the fluidity of the concrete mix.
2. Lubrication effect:
The hydrophilic group in the water-reducing agent is highly polar, permitting the adsorption film of the water-reducing agent on the surface of cement particles to create a steady layer of solventized water film through with water molecules. This water film gives effective lubrication, substantially lowering the friction between cement particles and furthermore improving the fluidity of concrete.
3. Spatial site-resistance impact:
The water-reducing additive configuration with hydrophilic branched chains stretches in a liquid mixture, forming a thick hydrophilic three-dimensional adsorption coating on the surface of adsorbed cement particles. When the concrete particles are close to each other, the adsorption layers begin to overlap. This causes in spatial site-resistance between cement particles, enhancing the repulsion of spatial site-resistance and increasing the bonding hindrance between cement particles, thus maintaining the desired 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 agent. These branched chains provide both spatial site-resistance effects and, in the highly alkaline environment of cement hydration, can be slowly emitted, leading to the release of polycarboxylic acid with dispersing result. This boosts the dispersion effect of cement particles and regulates slump loss.
The amount of water-reducing representative is influenced by the particle dimension as well as compressive strength, etc., on the performance of concrete, and also its amount is similarly influenced by weather conditions problems and construction needs. The correct use of water-reducing agents can improve the uniformity of concrete, reduce the cracking of the concrete, izajoo similarly elevate the toughness of concrete. The function of water-reducing agents furthermore consists of lowering the water content of concrete, which boosts the strength of concrete and makes the overall performance of concrete premium. In addition, water-reducing agents can similarly reduce the formation of dirt, decrease the contracting of concrete, increase the sturdiness of concrete, boost the appearance of concrete, and enhance the corrosion resistance of concrete.
Cement Water-Reducing Supplier
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