Effect of nano MgO/SiO2 additive on hydration and strength of self-compacting concrete fabricated by different processing methods
摘要
The effects of the addition of 0–4 wt% nano MgO and 0–2 wt% nano SiO2 (with respect to cement content) on hydration, microstructural, and compressive/flexural strength of Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) were investigated. Two different post-treatment conditions with water and CO2 gas were used to study the processing method on the samples. The results of rheological tests showed that the addition of nanoparticles decreased the flowability of SCC. The results of the density showed that the sample containing 4 wt% of MgO processed in the water environment had the lowest density and the sample processed in the CO2 environment had the highest density. In the samples containing SiO2 nanoparticles, an increase in density was observed with the increase of SiO2 nanoparticles in both cases. It was also determined the amount of heat released for the samples with nano MgO was higher than the samples with nano SiO2, which can be attributed to the heat of the hydration reaction of MgO or the formation of calcium carbonate. The mechanical properties of the samples were investigated. The compressive strength significantly improved after the addition of MgO/SiO2 nanoparticles. However, this improvement was more remarkable in the case of post-treatment with CO2 compared to the samples fabricated with water. SEM results showed that the samples treated under CO2 gas had irregular and needle-like morphology. The samples prepared by normal processing had CaCO3 and SiO2 phases, whereas the ones fabricated under CO2 gas contained CaCO3, SiO2, and Ca(OH)2. With the addition of nano MgO, the density of concrete decreases in the samples post-treated with water, whereas it increases for the samples post-treatment with CO2 gas. Adding nano MgO-SiO2 to concrete and further post-treatment with CO2 for 45 days could increase the mechanical properties.