Institute of Technology,

Nirma University.
M.Tech CASAD Semester I
CL1105 Advanced Materials 2014-2015
Term Assignment II
Concrete Types and Concreting Techniques
Nanoconcrete
Tejas Patil (14MCLC22)
M. Tech. 1st Year
Due date - 15th September 2014

Contents
1 Nanoconcrete:Introduction
1.1 Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2 Advantages of Nanoconcrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3 Disadvantages of nano-concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2
2
3
4

2 Nanoconcrete : Historical Background and Literature Review

3 Nanoconcrete : Properties,Mix proportioning and Engineering

Design specifications
6
3.1 Nano-Additives and Their effect on concrete properties . . . . . .
6
3.2 Properties of Nano-Additives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6
3.3 Mix Proportioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7
4 Nanoconcrete : Properties of Concrete and Durability Aspects
4.1 Mechanical properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.1 Formation of Dense Microstructure and More Efficient Cement Hydration,- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.2 Higher Compressive Strength Concrete: . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.3 Higher Tensile Strength, Ductile, and Tougher Concrete: .
4.1.4 Improved AggregatePaste Bond Strength . . . . . . . . .
4.2 Durability Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2.1 Reduced Permeability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2.2 Improved Shrinkage Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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9
9
9
10
10
10
10
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5 Nanoconcrete : Construction Practices and Economy

12
5.1 Construction Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.2 Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6 Case-studies

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Chapter 1

Nanoconcrete:Introduction
Nano technology is a very active research area all over the world. The concept, which started after the invention of carbon nano-tubes, is being utilized
in a number of fields including: electronics, bio-mechanics and machine components. Recently a number of researchers started investigations that utilizes
nano-technology concept in Portland cement composites. The two initial areas
of research deals with the understanding of the hydration of cement particles
and the use of nano-size silica particles. If cement with nano-size particles can
be manufactured, it will open up a large number of opportunities in the fields
of ceramics, high strength composites and electronic applications. It will elevate the status of Portland cement to a high tech material in addition to its
current status of most widely used construction material. Therefore it is important to study the applications of nanotechnology in concrete and comparing
this concrete with the ordinary concrete.

1.1

Definition

Definition of Nanoconcrete changes with its ingredients. But Nano concrete

can be broadly defined as,A concrete made with any ingredients namely, admixtures, fine
aggregates, cement particles or any other smart materials or additives having particle size less than 500 nano-meters which improve
properties of fresh or hardened concrete is known as Nanoconcrete.
There is no precise and universally acceptable definition available for nanoconcrete. However, Various researchers have defined Nanoconcrete on the basis of
Type of materials used, Amount of nanomaterial used, Type of properties of
concrete that are improved and most importantly, the size of the particles used.
Prof. Konstantin Sobolev and Florence Sanchez have defined Nanoconcrete
as,

Portland cement concrete is a complex nanostructured, multiphase, multiscale composite material that evolves over time. The elementary block calciumsilicatehydrate (CSH), which holds the concrete composite together, is also a nanostructured material. The
properties of concrete exist in multiple length scales (nano to micro
to macro). Processes occurring at the nanoscale ultimately affect
the engineering properties and long-term performance of concrete.
Dr N Bhanumathidas and N Kalidas have defined Nanoconcrete as,
The concrete made with pozzolanic binders (such as fly ash)and
micro aggregates and completely avoiding use of coarse and fine aggregates in order to counter the durability issues caused by occurrence of transition zone in control concrete is called Nanoconcrete
or No-Aggregate concrete(NAC)

1.2

Advantages of Nanoconcrete

The addition of nanofine particles can improve the properties of concrete due
to the effect increased surface area has on reactivity and through filling the
nanopores of the cement paste. Nanosilica and nanotitanium dioxide are probably the most reported additives used in nanomodified concrete. Nanomaterials
can improve the compressive strength and ductility of concrete. Carbon nanotubes or nanofibers (CNT-CNF) have also been used to modify strength, modulus and ductility of concretes. CNFs can act as bridges across voids and cracks
that ensure load transfer in tension. Ultra high-performance concretes (UHPC)
used in current practice and found in the research literature have mainly been
developed using some type of nanomodification or the use of an admixture developed using nanotechnology. methods.
The pozzolanic activity of nano SiO2 is more obvious than that of silica
fume. N ano SiO2 can react with calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2 ) crystals,
which are arrayed in the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) between hardened cement paste and aggregates, and produce CSH gel. Thus, the size and amount of
calcium hydroxide crystals are significantly decreased, and the early age strength
of the hardened cement paste is increased
Nanoconcrete improves microstructure of concrete and reduce the durability issues caused by transition zone. The issues caused by transition zone, if
one can avoid coarse aggregate in concrete, without sacrificing the performance
requirements, concrete attains new definition, devoid of transition zone, and
many durability issues would be addressed in one stroke. Nanoconcrete can be
developed out of this durability-agenda, aiming simultaneously to accomplish
Sustainable Development.
Nano concrete can bring down weight, improve strength allowed for rationalization of design and support the building of environment-friendly structures
by reducing carbon footprint.

1.3

Disadvantages of nano-concrete

Design concrete mix that is resistance to freezethaw, corrosion, sulfate,

ASR, and other environmental attacks cannot be guaranteed.
Production of nanomaterials may in some cases require relatively high
energy. Given the desire of the construction industry for their materials
to be sustainable as well as cost- and- energy effective, the use of nanotechnology may in certain cases create an environmental challenge to the
construction industry.
Developing a better procedure to ensure proper dispersion of nanomaterials in large- scale field applications is still a major challenge. Effective
dispersion of nanoparticles is key to achieving the full benefits of adding
nanoparticles in cementitious system. Self aggregation, especially at high
dosages of nanoparticles, is a common concern (Ozyildirim and Zegetosky,
2010), which sometimes leads to non homogeneous microstructure development and poor performance.
Lack of adequate research and development funding.
Slow adoption rates of new technologies.
Any potential health safety concerns for nanomaterials are not completely
investigated, even though the typically small addition rates of nanoparticles in concrete may act to reduce the likelihood of adverse negative
health and environmental effects. However, while the number of nanoparticle types and applications continues to increase, studies to characterize
any health effects are few in comparison.

Chapter 2

Nanoconcrete : Historical
Background and Literature
Review
Use of Nanotechnology in concrete is fairly recent, because Nanotechnology itself is very new and modern. For the first time in science history, R.
Feynmann who won Nobel Prize pointed out the importance of the structure with small size in 1960. N. Taniguchi used the term nanotechnology
in his article in 1974.
Mehta, (1986) showed that The structure of C-S-H is much like clay, with
thin layers of solids separated by gel pores filled with interlayer and adsorbed water.
Taylor (1997) stated that The size of the calcium silicate hydrate (CS-H) phase, the primary component responsible for strength and other
properties in cementitious systems, lies in the few nanometers range. And
The mechanical behavior of concrete materials depends to a great extent
on structural elements and phenomena that are effective on a micro- and
nanoscale.
Garboczi (2009) explained that Nanoengineering of concrete can take place
in one or more of the three locations such as (a) in the solid phases, (b) in
the liquid phases, or (c) at the interfaces between liquidsolid and solidsolid.
Grove et al. (2010) identified opportunities for nanotechnology leading to
new concrete products and materials, and also for improving the sustainability and reducing the environmental footprint of concrete-based materials in the future.

Chapter 3

Nanoconcrete :
Properties,Mix
proportioning and
Engineering Design
specifications
3.1

Nano-Additives and Their effect on concrete

properties

Carbon nanotubes Potential applications are mechanical durability and

crack prevention (in cement); enhanced mechanical and thermal properties
(in ceramics); real-time structural health monitoring (NEMS/MEMS);
Silicon dioxide nanoparticles Expected benefits are reinforcement in
mechanical strength (in concrete);
Iron oxide nanoparticles Expected benefits are increased compressive
strength and abrasion-resistant in concrete.
Titanium dioxide nanoparticles Expected benefits are rapid hydration, increased degree of hydration, and self-cleaning (in concrete).

3.2

Properties of Nano-Additives

Carbon Nanotubes- CNTs are classified as either single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) or multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). CNTs are
found to possess a Youngs modulus of 1 TPa, a yield stress of 100300 GPa, and
6

a tensile strength of 63 GPa. Diameters of 1030 nm are generally used, Densities

10002000 kg/m3.
Nano-silica - Silicon dioxide nanoparticles appear in the form of a white powder. Density 2.4 g/cm3. Average particle size (nm) 10+-5 nm. specific area
640+-50 (m2/g).

3.3

Mix Proportioning

Due to lack of firm codal provisions there is no fixed specified mix proportioning
available on use of Nano-Additives. However, Many researchers have used Nanomaterial in concrete in varied proportions. Prominent few of them are listed
below.
1. Dr N Bhanumathidas and N Kalidas have used following mix proportion
to achieve environment-friendly, sustainable NAC which showed superior
results in terms of Compressive strength, Split tensile strength and Flexural strength.
Fly ash - 75
OPC - 20
Mineral admixtures - 5
Water to cementitious material - 0.18
Chemical Admixtures - 0.67
2. A. H. Shekaria, M.S. Razzaghib used nano materials like NZ(Zirconium
oxide), NF(Iron oxide), NT(Titanium oxide) and NA(Aluminium Oxide)
to improve durability- and mechanical properties of high performance concrete.

Figure 3.1: Mix proportioning by A. H. Shekaria, M.S. Razzaghib.

Figure 3.2: Mix proportioning by Min-Hong Zhanga, Jahidul Islama, Sulapha

Peethamparanb

Figure 3.3: Mix proportioning by Hongjian Dua, Suhuan Dub, Xuemei Liuc.
3. Min-Hong Zhanga, Jahidul Islama and Sulapha Peethamparan used nanosilica to increase early strength and reduce setting time of concretes.
4. Hongjian Dua, Suhuan Dub, Xuemei Liuc Used Nanosilica to increase the
compressive strength and resistance against water and chloride ions for
concrete.

Chapter 4

Nanoconcrete : Properties
of Concrete and Durability
Aspects
4.1
4.1.1

Mechanical properties
Formation of Dense Microstructure and More Efficient Cement Hydration,-

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) microstructural studies of mortar specimens with and without nanoparticles have revealed the mechanisms for improved performance with nano-SiO2 . When a small quantity of nanoparticles is
uniformly dispersed in a cement paste, the hydrated products of cement deposit
on the nanoparticles due to their higher surface energy, i.e., act as nucleation
sites. Nucleation of hydration products on nanoparticles further promotes and
accelerates cement hydration (Bjornstrom et al., 2004; Lin, 2008). The addition
of colloidal silica resulted acceleration of C3S dissolution and rapid formation
of C-S-H phase in cement paste (Bjornstrom et al., 2004).

4.1.2

Higher Compressive Strength Concrete:

Research showed that the compressive and flexural strengths of cement mortars
containing SiO2 and Fe2O3 nanoparticles were both higher than those of plain
cement mortar (Li et al., 2004; L. Hui, 2004). The experimental results show
that the compressive strengths of mortars with nanosilica (NS) were all higher
than those of mortars containing silica fume at 7 and 28 days. An addition
of 10% nano-SiO2 with dispersing agents resulted in a 26% increase of 28- day
compressive strength whereas the increase was 10% with 15% silica fume (H.
Li et al., 2004) without dispersing agents. Other research showed that the addition of small amounts of NS (i.e., 0.25%) caused 10% increase of compressive
9

strength and 25% increase of flexural strength at 28 days (Sobolev et al., 2009).
Nanofume, a new ultrafine, powder admixture of amorphous SiO2 produced
from fly ash, was used to prepare high-strength concrete based on normal Portland cement. Compressive strength of the concrete increased with increasing
specific surface area of nanofume (20 m2/g to 130 m2/g). Nanofume with a
specific surface area between 30 m2/g to and 50 m2/g was recommended for the
preparation of a concrete with compressive strength of 120 MPa.

4.1.3

Higher Tensile Strength, Ductile, and Tougher Concrete:

CNTs-CNFs are potential candidates for use as nanoreinforcements in cementbased materials. CNTs-CNFs exhibit extraordinary strength with moduli of
elasticity of the order of TPa and tensile strength in the range of GPa, and
they have unique electronic and chemical properties (Ajayan, 1999;, Salvetat
et al., 1999; Srivastava et al., 2003). Cementitious materials (e.g., concrete)
typically behave as brittle materials with low tensile strength and are prone
to cracking. Incorporation of fibers into cementitious materials is a common
practice to increase tensile strength and ductility and improve durability. The
interfacial interactions between CNTs and cement hydrates produce high bond
strength. CNTs act as bridges across cracks and voids, which ensures loadtransfer in tension (Makar, 2005; G. Li et al., 2005).

4.1.4

Improved AggregatePaste Bond Strength

With the addition of 3% of nano-SiO2, significant improvement of early age ITZ

structure with respect to reduction in content, crystal orientation degree, and
crystal size of Portlandite crystals was reported by Qing et al. (2003). It is believed that during cement hydration, the nanoalumina particles fill the pores at
the aggregatepaste interfaces and created a dense ITZ with less porosity, which
was mainly responsible for significant increase of elastic modulus of mortars (Z.
Li et al., 2006).

4.2
4.2.1

Durability Properties
Reduced Permeability

It is expected that permeability (with respect to gas, liquid, ionic movement)

of concrete with nano-SiO2 should be low enough to increase its durability and
service life (Sobolev, 2005). Incorporation of 1.5% of nanosilica with average
particle size of 15 nm has caused a decrease in water penetration depth, gas
permeability, and diffusion depth (Wagner et al., 1994). The water permeability
test showed that the nano-SiO2 concrete has lower water permeability than the
normal concrete (Tao Ji, 2005). Reactive nanoparticles can be electro-kinetically
transported to reduce the permeability of hardened cement paste (Cardenas et

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al., 2006) through some kind of chemical reactions. Nanosilica (20-nm size) and
nanoalumina (2-nm size) particles dispersed in simulated pore fluids were used
to make colloidal nanoparticles. It was observed that 5- min treatment using 5 V
of potential applied over a span of 0.15 m is sufficient to drive nanoparticles into
the pore system. The coefficients of permeability for each paste were reduced
by 1 to 3 orders of magnitude.

4.2.2

Improved Shrinkage Properties

The nanoindentation study showed that the volume fraction of the high-stiffness
CS H gel increased significantly with addition of nanosilica (Mandal et al., 2010).
Volume fractions of high-stiffness C-S-H were 38% and 50% for samples with
6% and 18% nanosilica, respectively. This has significance to the durability
of concrete. Gaitero et al. (2008) reported that high stiffness C-S-H is more
resistant to calcium leaching. Using 29Si magic-angle spinningnuclear magnetic
resonance (MAS-NMR) spectroscopy of cement paste with nanosilica showed
that nanosilica increases the average chain length of C-S-H gel.

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Chapter 5

Nanoconcrete :
Construction Practices and
Economy
5.1

Construction Practices

If nanoparticles are integrated with traditional building materials, the new materials would possess outstanding properties for the construction of super highrise, long-span or intelligent civil infrastructure systems. However, even though,
in some ways, nanotechnology is an integral part of every concrete mixture, in
other ways its application is still limited. Calcium silicate hydrate is fundamentally a nano system and work is continuing to develop tools to better observe
and model the material. In addition, modern chemical admixtures are designed
and prepared by manipulating the molecular structure of complex organic compounds, and such materials are used in virtually every batch of concrete prepared. On the other hand, usage of nanomaterials such as CNTs has yet to
find acceptance for everyday use. Products such as RPCs are commercially
available and are aimed at improving structural performance and have been
used in bridge construction in several states. However, a recent review of state
departments of transportation (DOTs) in the United States showed that none
of the respondents reported using nanoproducts to date except for the use of
TiO2 for photocatalytic concrete. This dichotomy suggests that although nanotechnology materials may be in use, they are not recognized as such by the
practitioner.
Dr N Bhanumathidas and N Kalidas from Institute for Solid Waste Research
and Ecological Balance (INSWAREB) have managed to develope A flowable
concrete despite very low w/cm at 0.15-0.18, through use of appropriate admixtures, wherein fly ash is used both as pozzolan and Nano-aggregates producing
concrete with unique combination of high strength and low density.
They

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Figure 5.1: Dome By INSWAREB

have implemented their research in making of various structural components
like Domes, Precast slabs, and Walls.

Figure 5.2: Precast Slabs by INSWAREB

Another near-implementation ready application of nanotechnology includes
the use of nanoclays for producing self-consolidating concrete for slip form
paving. The key to slipform paving is that the material must be workable
enough to be consolidated, yet stiff enough to stand without formwork after
the paver moves on at the end of the processing. Therefore, concrete slip form
pavement construction typically uses dry stiff concrete with slump of less than
5 cm (2 in.). A slipform paving machine processes the fresh concrete, including placement, leveling, casting, consolidation, and finishing. Equally spaced
vibrators in the paving machine introduce extensive internal vibration to con13

solidate and compact the fresh concrete (pack the materials and remove larger
sized trapped air voids). These internal vibrators may cause overvibration of
the stiff concrete if the vibration frequency is set incorrectly or the paving machine moves too slowly. Overvibration leads to segregation of aggregates and
significant reduction of smaller-sized entrained air in the concrete along the path
of the vibrators. When such a pavement is subjected to heavy traffic loading or
freezethaw weather cycles during its service life, so-called vibrator trails (surface defects indicating segregation of aggregates, leaving a cement-rich layer)
can occur, or longitudinal cracks can form. To eliminate the need for internal
vibration in the paving process, Shah et al. (2008) and Tregger et al. (2010)
collaborated with the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center at Iowa
State University to extend self-consolidating concrete technology to slipform
pavement applications. The challenge to develop SF-SCC is that the material
must change from very fluid to very stiff during the slipform process. The development of SF-SCC required changing the microstructure by combining concepts
from particle packing (how particles of different sizes are arranged and how that
affects compressive strength), admixture technology (the combination of different mineral and chemical admixtures), and rheology (the study of how materials
flow). Specifically, the addition of a nanoclay consisting of highly purified magnesium aluminosilicate in very small dosages (1 percent by weight of cement)
and Class C fly ash to the composition made it possible to maintain a balance
between flowability during compaction and stability after compaction. For this
research, the Iowa State team developed a model minipaver that simulates the
slipform paving process without the application of internal or external vibration. At the end of the process, concrete slabs of modified mix with fly ash and
nanoclay showed much better shape stability and surface smoothness than the
slab with a standard sliporm concrete mix, as well as the greatest increase in
green strength and compressive yield stress of the paving concrete.

5.2

Economy

In the study made by they concluded that Cost of construction comes down due
to lower weight of the product. Cost of M-50 grade of NAC (Rs. 4508/cu.m)
was found comparable to that of M-50 grade of conventional concrete (Rs.
4629/cu.m).

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Chapter 6

Case-studies
In the case study done by Min-Hong Zhang, Jahidul Islam, they presented
an experimental study to evaluate the effects of nano-silica (NS) on rate of
cement hydration, setting time and strength development of concretes with
about 50% fly ash or slag. Results indicate that length of dormant period
was shortened, and rate of cement and slag hydration was accelerated with
the incorporation of 1% NS in the cement pastes with high volumes of fly
ash or slag. The incorporation of 2% NS by mass of cementitious materials
reduced initial and final setting times by 90 and 100 min, and increased
3- and 7-day compressive strengths of high-volume fly ash concrete by
30% and 25%, respectively, in comparison to the reference concrete with
50% fly ash. Similar trends were observed in high-volume slag concrete.
Nano-silica with mean particle size of 12 nm appears to be more effective
in increasing the rate of cement hydration compared with silica fume with
mean particle size of 150 nm.
Morteza Bastamia, Mazyar Baghbadranib and Farhad Aslani studied effect of elevated temperature on of high strength concrete (HSC) modified with nano-Silica (nS) and on its compressive and tensile strengths,
spalling, and mass loss (f0c 80 MPa). This research studied the effect
of elevated temperature on the compressive and tensile strength, spalling,
and mass loss of HSC modified with nS. Six sample mixtures contained
varying amounts of nS and two samples did not contain nS are considered
in the experimental program. The mechanical properties of the modified
HSC were measured by heating 150 x 300 mm sample cylinders of concrete to 400, 600 and 800 C at a rate of 20 C/min. The obtained results
demonstrate that nS efficiently used in HSC can improve its mechanical
properties at elevated temperature. The results show that the presence of
nS increased residual compressive and tensile strengths, and spalling and
mass loss are decreased as penetrability increased.
F.U.A. Shaikh S.W.M. Supit and P.K. Sarker researched on the effect of
nano silica (NS) on the compressive strength of mortars and concretes con16

taining different high volume fly ash (HVFA) contents ranging from 40%
to 70% (by weight) as partial replacement of cement. The compressive
strength of mortars is measured at 7 and 28 days and that for concretes is
measured at 3, 7, 28, 56 and 90 days. The effects of NS in microstructure
development and pozzolanic reaction of pastes containing above HVFA
contents are also studied through backscattered electron (BSE) image and
X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Results show that among different NS
contents ranging from 1% to 6%, cement mortar containing 2% NS exhibited highest 7 and 28 days compressive strength. This NS content (2%)
is then added to the HVFA mortars and concretes and the results show
that the addition of 2% NS improved the early age (7 days) compressive
strength of mortars containing 40% and 50% fly ash by 5% and 7%, respectively. However, this improvement is not observed at high fly ash contents
beyond 50%. On the other hand, all HVFA mortars exhibited improvement in 28 days compressive strength due to addition of 2% NS and the
most significant improvement is noticed in mortars containing more than
50% fly ash. In HVFA concretes, the improvement of early age (3 days)
compressive strength is also noticed due to addition of 2% NS. The BSE
and XRD analysis results also support the above findings.
A.M. Saida, M.S. Zeidana, M.T. Bassuonib and Y. Tian investigated the
effect of colloidal nano-silica on concrete incorporating single (ordinary cement) and binary (ordinary cement + Class F fly ash) binders. In addition
to the mechanical properties, the experimental program included tests for
adiabatic temperature, rapid chloride ion permeability, mer- cury intrusion porosimetry, thermogravimetry and backscattered scanning electron
microscopy in order to link macro- and micro-scale trends. Significant
improvement was observed in mixtures incorporating nano-silica in terms
of reactivity, strength development, refinement of pore structure and densification of interfacial transition zone. This improvement can be mainly
attributed to the large surface area of nano- silica particles, which has
pozzolanic and filler effects on the cementitious matrix. Micro-structural
and thermal analyses indicated that the contribution of pozzolanic and
filler effects to the pore structure refinement depended on the dosage of
nano-silica.

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