Effect of nano-clay de-agglomeration on mechanical properties of concrete

By Nehal Hamed, M. El-Feky, M. Kohail, E. Nasr. Construction and Building Materials, 2019

138 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract This paper investigates the effect of nano-clay dispersion on concrete properties. This was extensively studied by using various percentages of nano-clay (5, 7.5, and 10%) as cement partial replacements by two ways; added as-received, added after being dispersed in water by using bath sonicator. The evaluation was based on the compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength, slipping bond strength, and split bond strength of nano-clay concrete and the microstructure analysis was verified by SEM, XRD, and AFM examinations. The test results revealed that the sonication of nano-clay particles significantly enhanced concrete properties when compared to those of as-received nano-clay concrete. The optimum percentage for cement substitution by Nano-clay was found to be 7.5% for both; the as-received, and the sonicated nano-clay. The presence of NC particles resulted in dense and well-compacted matrix than that of the control mix as has shown in the SEM micrographs, the XRD and AFM results indicated the higher reactivity of the sonicated NC than the as-received NC.

Subfields: Civil and Structural Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f5a17a4cbbff7ae0d8e7fa43ebe08ab036c32cc5