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Introduction
In todays market of increasing competition and decreasing volumes, cement manufacturers as well as cement users are aiming for cost reduction with the aim to increase profitability and stabilise or extend their own position in the global market. Additives that offer additional benefits during cement production and cement application in concrete can help to differentiate oneself from the competition. While the major quality parameters are regulated in the different standards, additional unregulated properties can become the decisive factor when choosing a particular cement.
Cement quality
Cement producers need to supply the cement quality as it is defined by the standards, such as the European standard EN 197-1, while also meeting customers demands. Strength development is the most important property since it is the reason why cement is used in the construction industry. Concrete producers look for a cement that supports their daily work as much as possible. Key words from this perspective are homogeneity and good concrete workability, but also easy handling of the cement itself.
Reprint of
October 2009
Sika Services AG, Business Unit Concrete, Tffenwies 16, CH-8048 Zrich, Switzerland Tel+41 58 436 4040, Fax+41 58 436 4729, www.sika.com, info.concrete@ch.sika.com
New developments in grinding aids and quality improvers offer solutions for individual challenges, providing additional opportunities to optimise cement production and improve business competitiveness.
Additional benefits
While the strength development usually stays within the designed limits, other side effects of the constantly increasing use of clinker replacements are often out of the main focus. These can range from increased water demand and the connected low concrete workability to bleeding of the produced concrete. Since the amount of water in concrete and its in-homogeneities affects its appearance, highly consistent cement quality is demanded, especially for the increasingly used fair faced concrete in architectural applications. Based on a tailor-made approach, additional benefits can be achieved with the use of the polycarboxylate polymer powered grinding aid technology: l Adjustable powder flowability (cement handling). l Reduced carbon bleeding (concrete homogeneity). l Improved consistency (concrete workability). Figure 3. A tailor-made approach reduces carbon bleeding. l Increased creation of bleeding water.
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l Prolonged compaction times of mortar and concrete. The target in the following example was to suppress the creation of carbon bleeding on the concrete surface and maintain the production values with a combined product. Naturally, the maximum allowed loss of ignition in cement had to be considered. In a first step, mortar trials have been executed to demonstrate the stabilising effect for the cement. After the fulfilment of these demands, plant trials were executed that confirmed the laboratory findings. As can be seen in Figure 3, flyash cement CEM II/A-V 32.5 R carbon bleeding could be successfully reduced.
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Passing of the sieve [%]
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SikaGrind-800 Series 80 64
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Increasing Increasing Increasin ng% %of ofcement cementpassed pass passed sedthrough through 630 630m sieveat at10 ac cc.to IMSE msieve sieve 10shocks shocksacc. acc. toIMSE specification = greater powder specifica ation = greater powde erflowability specification powder flowability
Figure 4. PCE powered GA allows laboratory trials to improve concrete workability. Figure 1 shows the flow enhancing effect of the SikaGrind- 800 Series according to the Imse method, while Figure 2 shows the resulting improved discharging in a real production application. Cement with a traditional grinding aid needs continuous mechanical activation to leave the outlet pipe (Figure 2, left). Cement using the new grinding aid technology based on polycarboxylate polymers easily flows when opening the valve.
14 d after grinding
Figure 1. Polycarboxylate polymer powered grinding aid technology increases powder flowability in the desired time interval.
Samples of the CEM II/A-LL 32.5 R produced during the plant trial with 0.02% of the traditional competitors product and 0.02% of the tailor-made product out of the SikaGrind-800 Series, respectively, were then additionally analysed in extensive concrete trials. The results show the consistency development measured with the flow table spread of different types of concrete and temperatures (Figure 5). In this case, the tailor-made polycarboxylate polymer based grinding aid technology offered the additional benefit of a more favourable concrete workability (extended slump life) compared to the traditional grinding aid technology.
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CEM II/A-LL 320 kg/m Water/cement ratio 0.5 0.5% Superplasticizer Temperature 20C
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performance of polycarboxylate polymer-powered grinding aids. In this case, the innovative technology cant production e traditional amine-based product reached its limit with an 8% production increase at a dosage of 0.03% (Figure 5). Moreover, these exible the production process can become if the mill output can be economically correlated to the grinding aid dosage.
e resulting enhanced quality allows plants to reduce their clinker content and hence to decrease their carbon footprints while increasing the cement manufacturers tability.
Conclusions
ect on the grinding and neness of cement to be achieved in the most economic way. Polycarboxylate polymers improve the performance of the traditional grinding aid technologies of amino alcohols and glycols and allow a further increase of the production rate. c energy consumption. It can also be used to achieve strength enhancements with neness and optimised particle size e potential clinker reduction minimises the carbon footprint. Sikas polycarboxylate polymer-powered grinding ers solutions for individual challenges and also maximises tability.
+ 7 cm
CEM II/A-LL 320 kg/m Water/cement ratio 0.5 0.5% Superplasticizer Temperature 30C
Conclusion
Figure 5. PCE powered GA allows plant trials to modify concrete workability. Today, cement additives are used for more than only reduced specific energy consumption and improved strength development. Based on a tailor-made approach, 2. WITHERIDGE, A. J.., PMT Advances Airslides, WORLD CEMENT , additional benefits like adjustable powder flowability, May 2009, pp. 93 99. reduced carbon bleeding and improved consistency can be 3. ABD-EL-RAHMAN, Aref. M. E., and EL SAYED YOUSSEF, M.., A Device for Enhancement and Controlling of the Cohesive achieved. These additional benefits can become the decisive Powder Discharging without Aeration, Journal of Applied Sciences factor to ensure the application of specific cement types. Research , 2008, 4 (2), pp. 133 137. Products from the SikaGrind range offer a solution for 4. DIN EN 459-2: Building lime - Part 2: Test methods , February 2002. individual challenges, providing additional opportunities to 5. IMSE, W. Measuring the flowability of cement, Zement-Kalk-Gips , optimise cement production and improve your business. 1972, 44 (3), pp. 147 149.
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September 2007:
Reprint of
July-August 2009:
References
1. JOST, P., and SCHRABBACK, J. M., Creative Grinding Solutions, International Cement Review, September 2007, pp. 70 72.
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ELLERBROCK, H.-G., SPRUNG, S., and KUHLMANN, K., Influence of interground additives on the properties of cement, Zement-KalkGips, October 1985, pp. 586 588.
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