Influence of Several Nano Minerals on The Mechanical Properties of Fresh and hardened Concrete

Abstract

The current study aims at obtaining the influence of adding several nano-minerals on the mechanical properties of fresh and hardened concrete. Four types of Nano minerals were investigated in this work; namely: Brown Iron Oxide, Barium Sulfate, Titanium Dioxide and Poly Acrylic Acid. Five contents of each nano-minerals were studied. A range of contents starting from 0.5% to 2.5% with an increment of 0.5% by cement content of Brown Iron Oxide and Barium Sulfate was investigated. The Titanium Dioxide and Poly Acrylic Acid were added to concrete in percentages of 1% to 5% with an increment of 1% by cement content. Adding 5% Poly Acrylic Acid to the other three nano-minerals at selected contents separately was also studied. The measured mechanical properties of concrete comprised slump value, 7 and 28 days compressive strength. Some of the results revealed that there was 24% increase in the slump value corresponding to every 1% increase in PAA content. An improvement of 6.9% in the 28 days compressive strength was measured at every 0.5% increase of Brown Iron Oxide. It was also found that by adding 5% Poly Acrylic Acid and 2.5% Brown Iron Oxide to the concrete at the same time, the slump increased from 90 mm to 170 mm (88.9% increase) and the 28 days compressive strength improved from 37.37 kg/cm2 to 49.35 kg/cm2 (32.1% increase).