Water Reducer
Water reducers are special chemical products added to a concrete mixture before it is poured. They are from the same family of products as retarders. The first class of water reducers was the lignosulfonates which has been used since the 1930s. These inexpensive products were derived from wood and paper industry, but are now advantageously replaced by other synthetic sulfonate and polycarboxylate, also known as superplasticizers. Water reducers offer several advantages in their use, listed below: * reduces the water content by 5-10% * decreases the concrete porosity * increases the concrete strength by up to 25% (as less water is required for the concrete mixture to remain workable) * increases the workability (assuming the amount of free water remains constant) * reduces the water permeability (due to less water being used) * reduces the diffusivity of aggressive agents in the concrete and so improves the durability of concrete * gives a better finish to surfaces (due to al ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactured material in the world. When aggregate is mixed with dry Portland cement and water, the mixture forms a fluid slurry that can be poured and molded into shape. The cement reacts with the water through a process called hydration, which hardens it after several hours to form a solid matrix that binds the materials together into a durable stone-like material with various uses. This time allows concrete to not only be cast in forms, but also to have a variety of tooled processes performed. The hydration process is exothermic, which means that ambient temperature plays a significant role in how long it takes concrete to set. Often, additives (such as pozzolans or superplasticizers) are included in the mixture to improve the physical prop ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mass Diffusivity
Diffusivity, mass diffusivity or diffusion coefficient is usually written as the proportionality constant between the molar flux due to molecular diffusion and the negative value of the gradient in the concentration of the species. More accurately, the diffusion coefficient times the local concentration is the proportionality constant between the negative value of the mole fraction gradient and the molar flux. This distinction is especially significant in gaseous systems with strong temperature gradients. Diffusivity derives its definition from Fick's law and plays a role in numerous other equations of physical chemistry. The diffusivity is generally prescribed for a given pair of species and pairwise for a multi-species system. The higher the diffusivity (of one substance with respect to another), the faster they diffuse into each other. Typically, a compound's diffusion coefficient is ~10,000× as great in air as in water. Carbon dioxide in air has a diffusion coefficient of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Building Materials
Building material is material used for construction. Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, rocks, sand, wood, and even twigs and leaves, have been used to construct buildings and other structures, like bridges. Apart from naturally occurring materials, many man-made products are in use, some more and some less synthetic. The manufacturing of building materials is an established industry in many countries and the use of these materials is typically segmented into specific specialty trades, such as carpentry, Building insulation, insulation, plumbing, and roofing material, roofing work. They provide the make-up of :Human habitats, habitats and architecture, structures including homes. The total cost of building materials In history, there are trends in building materials from being natural to becoming more human-made and Composite material, composite; biodegradable to imperishable; indigenous (local) to being transported globally; repairable to disposable; chosen ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sika AG
Sika AG is a Swiss multinational corporation, multinational Specialty chemical industry, specialty chemical company that supplies to the building and motor vehicle industries, headquartered in Baar, Switzerland, Baar, Switzerland. The company develops and produces systems and products for bonding, sealing, damping, reinforcing and protecting. It has 34,500 employees, subsidiaries in more than 103 countries around the world and manufactures in over 400 factories."Annual Report 2024." sika.com. Retrieved 2025-05-12; https://www.sika.com/en/about-us/who-we-are.html Sika AG is the legal entity for the holding company, which includes the Sika organizations worldwide, Sika Technology AG and Sika Services AG. History 1910 - 1950 * 1910: Kaspar Winkler founded Sika under the name Kaspar ...[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Admixture (concrete)
Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactured material in the world. When aggregate is mixed with dry Portland cement and water, the mixture forms a fluid slurry that can be poured and molded into shape. The cement reacts with the water through a process called hydration, which hardens it after several hours to form a solid matrix that binds the materials together into a durable stone-like material with various uses. This time allows concrete to not only be cast in forms, but also to have a variety of tooled processes performed. The hydration process is exothermic, which means that ambient temperature plays a significant role in how long it takes concrete to set. Often, additives (such as pozzolans or superplasticizers) are included in the mixture to improve the physical properties ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cement
A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mixed with fine aggregate produces mortar for masonry, or with sand and gravel, produces concrete. Concrete is the most widely used material in existence and is behind only water as the planet's most-consumed resource. Cements used in construction are usually inorganic, often lime- or calcium silicate-based, and are either hydraulic or less commonly non-hydraulic, depending on the ability of the cement to set in the presence of water (see hydraulic and non-hydraulic lime plaster). Hydraulic cements (e.g., Portland cement) set and become adhesive through a chemical reaction between the dry ingredients and water. The chemical reaction results in mineral hydrates that are not very water-soluble. This allows setting in wet conditions or u ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Superplasticizer
Superplasticizers (SPs), also known as high range water reducers, are Concrete additive, additives used for making high strength concrete or to place Self-consolidating concrete, self-compacting concrete. Plasticizers are chemical compounds enabling the production of concrete with approximately 15% less water content. Superplasticizers allow reduction in water content by 30% or more. These additives are employed at the level of a few weight percent. Plasticizers and superplasticizers also retard the setting and hardening of concrete. According to their Dispersant, dispersing functionality and action mode, one distinguishes two classes of superplasticizers: # Ionic bonding, Ionic interactions (electrostatic repulsion): lignosulfonates (first generation of ancient water reducers), Aromatic sulfonation, sulfonated synthetic polymers (naphthalene, or melamine, formaldehyde Condensation polymer, condensates) (second generation), and; # Steric effects: Polycarboxylates-ether (PCE) synt ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Plasticizer
A plasticizer ( UK: plasticiser) is a substance that is added to a material to make it softer and more flexible, to increase its plasticity, to decrease its viscosity, and/or to decrease friction during its handling in manufacture. Plasticizers are commonly added to polymers and plastics such as PVC, either to facilitate the handling of the raw material during fabrication, or to meet the demands of the end product's application. Plasticizers are especially key to the usability of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the third most widely used plastic. In the absence of plasticizers, PVC is hard and brittle; with plasticizers, it is suitable for products such as vinyl siding, roofing, vinyl flooring, rain gutters, plumbing, and electric wire insulation/coating. Plasticizers are also often added to concrete formulations to make them more workable and fluid for pouring, thus allowing the water contents to be reduced. Similarly, they are often added to clays, stucco, solid rocket fuel, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Permeability (fluid)
In fluid mechanics, materials science and Earth sciences, the permeability of porous media (often, a rock or soil) is a measure of the ability for fluids (gas or liquid) to flow through the media; it is commonly symbolized as ''k''. Fluids can more easily flow through a material with high permeability than one with low permeability. The permeability of a medium is related to the ''porosity'', but also to the shapes of the pores in the medium and their level of connectedness. Fluid flows can also be influenced in different lithological settings by brittle deformation of rocks in fault zones; the mechanisms by which this occurs are the subject of fault zone hydrogeology. Permeability is also affected by the pressure inside a material. The SI unit for permeability is the square metre (m2). A practical unit for permeability is the '' darcy'' (d), or more commonly the ''millidarcy'' (md) The name honors the French Engineer Henry Darcy who first described the flow of water t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Retarder (chemistry)
A retarder is a chemical agent that slows down a chemical reaction. For example, retarders are used to slow the chemical reaction hardening of plastic materials such as wallboard, concrete, and adhesive Adhesive, also known as glue, cement, mucilage, or paste, is any non-metallic substance applied to one or both surfaces of two separate items that binds them together and resists their separation. The use of adhesives offers certain advantage ...s. Sugar water acts as a retarder for the curing of concrete. It can be used to retard the chemical hardening of the surface, so that the top layer can be washed off to expose the underlying aggregate. See also * Accelerant References Chemical reactions {{reaction-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Concrete Strength
Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactured material in the world. When aggregate is mixed with dry Portland cement and water, the mixture forms a fluid slurry that can be poured and molded into shape. The cement reacts with the water through a process called hydration, which hardens it after several hours to form a solid matrix that binds the materials together into a durable stone-like material with various uses. This time allows concrete to not only be cast in forms, but also to have a variety of tooled processes performed. The hydration process is exothermic, which means that ambient temperature plays a significant role in how long it takes concrete to set. Often, additives (such as pozzolans or superplasticizers) are included in the mixture to improve the physical properties ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Porosity
Porosity or void fraction is a measure of the void (i.e. "empty") spaces in a material, and is a fraction of the volume of voids over the total volume, between 0 and 1, or as a percentage between 0% and 100%. Strictly speaking, some tests measure the "accessible void", the total amount of void space accessible from the surface (cf. closed-cell foam). There are many ways to test porosity in a substance or part, such as industrial CT scanning. The term porosity is used in multiple fields including pharmaceutics, ceramics, metallurgy, materials, manufacturing, petrophysics, hydrology, earth sciences, soil mechanics, rock mechanics, and engineering. Void fraction in two-phase flow In gas-liquid two-phase flow, the void fraction is defined as the fraction of the flow-channel volume that is occupied by the gas phase or, alternatively, as the fraction of the cross-sectional area of the channel that is occupied by the gas phase. Void fraction usually varies from location to l ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |