Influence of Shrinkage-Reducing Admixtures on Moisture Absorption in Cementitious Materials at Early Ages
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 22, Issue 3
Abstract
The water-absorption behavior of cement pastes containing varying concentrations (i.e., 0, 0.2, and 5%) of a shrinkage-reducing admixture (SRA) was measured. Moisture ingress was monitored using X-ray absorption. A decrease in both the depth of water penetration and the rate of water absorption was observed with increasing specimen maturity and admixture concentration. This agrees with theoretical considerations that suggest water sorption is a function of the surface tension and the viscosity of the fluid ingressing into the pores. The Boltzmann-Matano method was successfully employed to determine the moisture content dependent moisture diffusivity of the material, which exhibited a dependence on both the pore structure (specimen maturity) and the SRA concentration.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This work was conducted in the Building and Fire Research Laboratory (BFRL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Materials Characterization and Sensing Laboratory (MCSL) at Purdue University using the X-ray absorption equipment made possible through an ERIC grant to the fourth writer. As such, the writers acknowledge the support which has made these laboratories and this research possible. The contents of this paper reflect the views of the writers, who are responsible for the accuracy of the data presented. The writers also acknowledge Edward Garboczi (NIST) and Nicos Martys (NIST) for their suggestions and review of this paper.
References
Adamson, A. W. (1990). Physical chemistry of surfaces, Wiley, New York, 777.
Ai, H., and Young, J. F. (1997). “Mechanisms of shrinkage reduction using a chemical admixture.” Proc., 10th Int. Congress on the Chemistry of Cement, H. Justnes, ed., Vol. 3, Gothenburg, Sweden, International Congress on the Chemistry of Cement, 18–22.
Als-Nielsen, J., and McMorrow, D. (2006). Fundamentals of modern X-ray physics, Wiley, New York.
American Concrete Institute (ACI). (2009). “Emerging technologies report: Causes, measurement and mitigation of early-age thermal and shrinkage cracking.” ACI, Farmington Hills, Mich.
Bentz, D. P. (2006a). “Influence of shrinkage-reducing admixtures on early-age properties of cement pastes.” J. Adv. Concr. Technol., 4(3), 423–429.
Bentz, D. P. (2006b). “Influence of shrinkage-reducing admixtures on the early-age properties of cement pastes.” Proc., Presentation at the ACI Fall Convention, Denver.
Bentz, D. P., Geiker, M. R., and Hansen, K. H. (2001). “Shrinkage-reducing admixtures (SRAs) and early age desiccation in cement pastes and mortars.” Cem. Concr. Res., 31(7), 1075–1085.
Bentz, D. P., Snyder, K. A., Cass, L. C., and Peltz, M. A. (2008). “Doubling the service life of concrete I: Reducing ion mobility using nanoscale viscosity modifiers.” Cem. Concr. Compos., 30(8), 674–678.
Berke, N. S., Dallaire, M. C., Hicks, M. C., and Kerkar, A. (1997). “New developments in shrinkage-reducing admixtures.” Proc., 5th CANMET/ACI Int. Conf. on Superplasticizers and Other Chemical Admixtures in Concrete, V. M. Malhotra, ed., ACI SP-173, American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, Mich., 971–988.
Besien, T. V., Roels, S., and Carmeliet, J. (2002). “Experimental determination of the moisture diffusivity of porous building materials using X-ray radiography.” Proc., 6th Nordic Symp. on Building Physics, Norwegian Univ. of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, 6.
Boltzmann, L. H. (1894). “Zur Integration der Diffusions Gleichung bie Varibeln Diffusions Coeffiecienten.” Annalen Der Physik (Leipzig), 289, 959–964 (in German).
Bruce, R. R., and Klute, A. (1956). “The measurement of soil-moisture diffusivity.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Proc., 20, 458–462.
Carmeliet, J., et al. (2003). “Determination of the liquid water diffusivity from transient moisture transfer experiments.” J. Thermal Envelope and Building Science, 27(4), 277–305.
Christenson, H. K. (1985). “Capillary condensation in systems of immiscible liquids.” J. Colloid Interface Sci., 104(1), 234–249.
Cope, B. L., and Ramey, G. E. (2001). “Reducing drying shrinkage of bridge deck concrete.” Concr. Int., 23(8), 76–82.
Crank, J. (1975). The mathematics of diffusion, Clarendon, Oxford, U.K.
D’Ambrosia, M. D., Altoubat, S., Park, C., and Lange, D. A. (2001). “Early-age tensile creep and shrinkage of concrete with shrinkage reducing admixtures.” Creep, shrinkage, and durability mechanics of concrete and other quasi-brittle materials, F. J. Ulm, Z. P. Bazant, and F. H. Wittmann, eds., Elsevier Science, New York, 645–651.
Daian, J. F. (1988). “Condensation and isothermal water transfer in cement mortar: Part I—Pore size distribution, equilibrium water condensation and imbibition.” Transp. Porous Media, 3, 563–589.
Dayananda, M. A., and Kim, C. W. (1979). “Zero flux planes and flux reversals in Cu-Ni-Zn couples.” Metall. Mater. Trans. A, 10(9), 1333–1339.
Digilov, R. (2000). “Kelvin equation for meniscuses of nanosize dimensions.” Langmuir, 16, 1424–1427.
Fagerlund, G. (1972). “Critical degrees of saturation at freezing of porous and brittle materials.” Rep. No. 34, Div. of Building Technology, Lund Institute of Technology, Lund, Sweden (in Swedish).
Fick, A. (1855). “Ueber diffusion.” Philos. Mag., 10(30), 59–86 (in German).
Fisher, L., and Israelachivili, J. (1981a). “Direct measurement of the effect of meniscus forces on adhesion: A study of the applicability of macroscopic thermodynamics to microscopic liquid interfaces.” Colloids and Surfaces, 3, 303–319.
Fisher, L., and Israelachivili, J. (1981b). “Experimental studies on the applicability of the Kelvin equation to highly curved concave menisci.” J. Colloid Interface Sci., 80(2), 528–541.
GNI. (2007). “XRAS CT system—Users’ manual.” X-ray absorption system, ⟨www.gni.dk⟩ (Oct. 30, 2007).
Hall, C. (1989). “Water sorptivity of mortars and concretes—A review.” Mag. Concrete Res., 41, 51–61.
Hall, C., and Hoff, W. D. (2002). Water-transport in brick, stone and concrete, E & FN Spon, London, 336.
Hansen, K. K., Jensen, S. K., Gerward, L., and Singh, K. (1999). “Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry for the simultaneous determination of density and moisture content in porous structural materials.” Proc., 5th Symp. on Building Physics in the Nordic Countries, Vol. 1, Chalmers Institute of Technology, Goteburg, Sweden, 281–288.
Kelham, M. (1998). “A water absorption test for concrete.” Mag. Concrete Res., 40, 106–110.
Leech, C., Lockington, D., and Dux, P. (2003). “Unsaturated diffusivity functions for concrete derived from NMR images.” Mater. Struct., 36, 413–418.
Lockington, D., Parlange, J. Y., and Dux, P. (1999). “Sorptivity and the estimation of water penetration into concrete.” Mater. Struct., 32, 342–347.
Lura, P., Pease, B., Mazzotta, G., Rajabipour, F., and Weiss, W. J. (2007). “The influence of shrinkage reducing admixtures on the development of plastic shrinkage cracks.” ACI Mater. J., 104(2), 187–194.
Matano, C. (1933). “On the relation between diffusion coefficients and concentrations of solid metals (the nickel-copper system).” Jpn. J. Physiol., 8, 109–113.
Mehrer, H. (2007). Diffusion in solids: Fundamentals, methods, materials, diffusion-controlled processes, 1st Ed., Springer, New York.
Mouze, D. (1996). “X-ray microradiography.” Handbook of microscopy I, S. Amelincks, D. Van Dyck, J. Van Landuyt, and G. Van Tendeloo, eds., VCH, New York, 130–147.
Nielsen, G. G. (2007). X-ray CT system—Users’ manual, Groot Nielsen Aps, Denmark.
Paradis, F., and Weiss, W. J. (2007). “Using X-ray tomography to image cracks in cement pastes.” Proc., Int. Conf. on High-Performance Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Composites (HPFRCC), Univ. of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany, 8.
Pease, B. J. (2005). “The role of shrinkage reducing admixtures on shrinkage, stress development, and cracking.” MS thesis, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, Ind.
Pease, B. J., Shah, H. R., and Weiss, W. J. (2005). “Shrinkage behavior and residual stress development in mortar containing shrinkage reducing admixtures (SRAs).” Shrinkage and creep of concrete, SP-227: Concrete admixtures, ACI, Farmington Hills, Mich., 285–302.
Pel, L. (1995). “Moisture transport in porous building materials.” Ph.D. thesis, Eindhoven Univ. of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Pel, L., Brocken, H., and Kopinga, K. (1996). “Determination of moisture diffusivity in porous media using moisture concentration profiles.” Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 39(6), 1273–1280.
Radlinska, A. (2008). “Reliability based analysis of early-age cracking in concrete.” Ph.D. dissertation, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, Ind., 198.
Rajabipour, F. (2006). “In situ electrical sensing and material health monitoring in concrete structures.” Ph.D. dissertation, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, Ind., 193.
Rajabipour, F., Sant, G., and Weiss, W. J. (2008). “Interactions between shrinkage reducing admixtures (SRAs) and cement paste’s pore solution.” Cem. Concr. Res., 38(5), 606–615.
Reinhardt, H. W., ed. (1997). “Penetration and permeability of concrete—Barriers to organic and contaminating liquids.” RILEM report 16, E&FN Spon, London.
Ribeiro, A., Carrajola, A., Goncalves, A., and Branco, F. (2006). “Effectiveness of shrinkage reducing admixtures on cracking of mortar specimens.” Proc., RILEM-JCI Sem. on Concrete Durability and Service Life Planning: ConcreteLife ’06, RILEM-JCI, Ein-Bokek, Dead Sea, Israel, 223–230.
Richards, L. A. (1931). “Capillary conduction of liquids through porous media.” Phys., 1, 318–333.
Roels, S., and Carmeliet, J. (2006). “Analysis of moisture flow in porous materials using microfocus X-ray radiography.” Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 49, 4762–4772.
Sant, G. (2007). “Examining volume changes, stress development and cracking in cement-based materials.” MS thesis, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, Ind., 235.
Sant, G. (2009). “Fundamental investigations related to the mitigation of volume changes in cement-based materials at early-ages.” Ph.D. dissertation, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, Ind., 226.
Sant, G., Lura, P., and Weiss, W. J. (2006a). “Measurement of volume change in cementitious materials at early ages: Review of testing protocols and interpretation of results.” Transportation Research Record. 1979, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C.
Sant, G., Rajabipour, F., Lura, P., and Weiss, W. J. (2006b). “Examining time-zero and early-age expansions in pastes containing shrinkage reducing admixtures (SRAs).” Proc., 2nd RILEM Symp. on Advances in Concrete through Science and Engineering, RILEM, Quebec City, Canada, 7.
Sant, G., and Weiss, W. J. (2009). “Using X-ray absorption to assess moisture movement in cementitious composites.” J. ASTM Int., 6(9), 15.
Schemmel, J. J., Ray, J. C., and Kuss, M. L. (1999). “Impact of shrinkage reducing admixture on properties and performance of bridge deck concrete.” High-performance concrete: Research to practice, ACI SP-189, American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, Mich., 367–386.
Schissel, A., Weiss, W. J., Shane, J. D., Berke, N. S., Mason, T. O., and Shah, S. P. (2000). “Assessing the moisture profile of drying concrete using impedance spectroscopy.” Concr. Sci. Eng., 2, 106–116.
See, H. T., Attiogbe, E. K., and Miltenberger, M. A. (2003). “Shrinkage cracking characteristics of concrete using ring specimens.” ACI Mater. J., 100(3), 239–245.
Shah, S. P., Karaguler, M. E., and Sarigaphuti, M. (1992). “Effects of shrinkage reducing admixture on restrained shrinkage cracking of concrete.” ACI Mater. J., 89(3), 88–90.
Shah, S. P., and Weiss, W. J. (2000). “High strength concrete: Strength, permeability, and cracking.” Proc., PCI/FHWA Int. Symp. on High Performance Concrete, PCI/FHWA, Orlando, Fla., 331–340.
Shoya, M., Sugita, S., and Sugiwara, T. (1990). “Improvement of drying shrinkage and shrinkage cracking of concrete by special surfactant.” Admixtures for concrete: Improvement of properties, E. Vázquez, ed., Chapman & Hall, London, 484–495.
Wagenaar, D. J., DiBianca, A. F., Tenney, C. R., and Fritsch, D. (1991). “Space charge effects in a kinestatic charge detector.” Phys. Med. Biol., 36(1), 61–76.
Weast, R. C., Astle, M. J., and Beyer, W. H. (2007). CRC handbook of chemistry and physics, 88th Ed., CRC, Boca Raton, Fla., 2640.
Weiss, W. J. (1999). “Prediction of early-age shrinkage cracking in concrete.” Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, Ill., 277.
Weiss, W. J., and Berke, N. S. (2002). “Shrinkage reducing admixtures.” Early age cracking in cementitious systems, RILEM state-of-the-art report—Report 25A. Bentur, ed., RILEM, Bagneux, France, 14.
Weiss, W. J., Lura, P., Rajabipour, F., and Sant, G. (2008). “Performance of shrinkage reducing admixtures at different humidities and at early-ages.” ACI Mater. J., 105(5), 478–486.
Weiss, W. J., Schissel, A., Yang, W., and Shah, S. P. (1998). “Shrinkage cracking potential, permeability, and strength, for HPC: Influence of w/c, silica fume, latex, and shrinkage reducing admixtures.” Proc., Int. Symp. on High Performance and Reactive Powder Concrete, Univ. of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada, 349–364.
Winslow, D. N., Cohen, M. D., Bentz, D. P., Snyder, K. A., and Garboczi, E. J. (1994). “Percolation and pore structure in mortars and concrete.” Cem. Concr. Res., 24(1), 25–37.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 22 • Issue 3 • March 2010
Pages: 277 - 286
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Jun 6, 2008
Accepted: Oct 6, 2009
Published online: Feb 12, 2010
Published in print: Mar 2010
Notes
Note. Associate Editor: Mahmut Ekenel
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.