Testing and Evaluation of Flowability, Viscosity and Long-Term Compressive Strength of Cement Modified with Polymeric Admixture WR Superplasticizer

Abstract

In this study, the effect of three types of powder polymer water reducer (WR) superplasticizer on the fluidity, rheological properties, density and mechanical properties of cement were investigated. The behavior of cement paste in the liquid phase and hardened phase modified with polymers up to 0.25% (by dry weight of cement) were studied. The amount of mixing water was reduced and varied between 20% - 58%. The Vipulanandan model was used to predict the water to cement ratio (w/c) of cement. The flowability, compressive strength, and density at different curing times were increased with increasing the polymer content. Three different brand of water reducer (WR) powder polymer increased the apparent viscosity of the cement paste; the viscosity was varied between 135 cP and 652 cP based on the type of polymer, polymer content, temperature, and water to cement ratio (w/c). Using of 0.25% of polymers to the cement increased the compressive strength of the cement paste by 127% to 426% based on the types of polymer, polymer content, and water to cement ratio (w/c) and curing time. Regression analysis was used to evaluate the effect of each polymer contents, w/c and curing time on the compressive strength of cement paste.