Experimental investigation of accelerators in floor concrete mixture under cold climatic conditions

Author(s): Themistoklis Tsalkatidis, Even Solbraa
Paper category: Proceedings
Book title: SynerCrete’18: Interdisciplinary Approaches for Cement-based Materials and Structural Concrete: Synergizing Expertise and Bridging Scales of Space and Time Vol. 1 & 2
Editor(s): Miguel Azenha, Dirk Schlicke, Farid Benboudjema, Agnieszka Jędrzejewska
ISBN: 978-2-35158-202-2
e-ISBN: 978-2-35158-203-9
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Publication year: 2018
Pages: 183-188
Total Pages: 6
Language : English

Abstract: Cold climatic conditions are challenging when casting concrete since they significantly increase both the setting and the finishing time of concrete. The use of accelerators is known to counteract this retardation but it has mostly been examined under laboratory-controlled environment. This paper investigates the effect of admixtures, used in a typical concrete floor mixture, during cold weather exposure conditions, with temperatures ranging from +3 to -50C, by performing three tests. The concrete mixture is first tested without the presence of additives and then with hardening, setting and combinations of hardening and setting accelerators. A total number of eleven case studies are examined. In each test, five specimens of slabs with dimensions of 1 by 1 by 0.1 m are constructed. The setting and finishing times of concrete are evaluated empirically. The compressive strengths of the concrete mixtures after 18, 24 and 30 hours are defined by testing cubic specimens. The experimental results verify that the presence of hardening and setting additives in concrete reduce the time for the finishing phase of a floor under cold climatic conditions. This reduction is close to 50% whilst at the same time the early strength of the concrete increases up to eleven times.

Online publication : 2018
Publication type : full_text
Public price (Euros) : 0.00