Variations of Yield Stress of Fresh Cement Pastes in the Presence of Superplasticizer Highlighted by a Hydration Index
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 29, Issue 2
Abstract
The rheological properties of fresh cement pastes (FCPs) in the presence of superplasticizer were systematically investigated in this study where influential factors such as mix proportion including the water-to-cement (W/C) ratio and superplasticizer-to-cement (Sp/C) ratio, temperature, and time were discussed. The initial yield stress of FCPs with varied mix proportions and its development over time were tested at 0, 20, and 40°C to characterize the rheological properties of the pastes. Measurements on the amount of adsorbed superplasticizer, zeta potential, particle size, microscopic observation, and calorimetry were performed to quantify the influences of superplasticizer on the microstructure of FCPs under varied mix proportions and temperatures. Results indicate that the initial yield stress of the pastes and its development over time evidently descend due to the plasticizing effect and retardation effect of superplasticizer. Higher temperature facilitates a sharper rise in the initial yield stress and the growth of yield stress with time while the effects of temperature are weakened in the case of high W/C ratio or Sp/C ratio. Higher temperature results in a larger adsorbed amount and a higher zeta potential, which is believed to result from the accelerated dissolution and hydration rate. The effects of W/C ratio, superplasticizer dosage, and temperature on the development of yield stress over time were integrated into the parameter of relative hydration degree. A generalized model to describe the evolution of yield stress was deduced by introducing the hydration index of relative hydration degree , which was verified by the experimental results that the yield stress ascended in a roughly linear fashion with .
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Acknowledgments
The financial supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. U1301241 and U1234211) and Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China (No. 2015M580042) are gratefully acknowledged.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 29 • Issue 2 • February 2017
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 16, 2015
Accepted: Apr 29, 2016
Published online: Sep 7, 2016
Published in print: Feb 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Feb 7, 2017
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