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2
Applications of Biopolymers
in Construction Engineering
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2 Historical Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
8 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
of selected biopolymers which are used in astounding knowledge of his time about
industries other than construction is pre- construction and materials in his famous
sented. The aim of this chapter is to encyclopedia, De architectura libri decem.
stimulate ideas among readers for new This proves that the Romans had already
applications in building products, and in recognized the role of admixtures to improve
this respect the article concludes with a their building materials; for example, dried
discussion of trends and perspectives for blood was used as an air-entraining agent,
biopolymers in construction. For those read- while biopolymers such as proteins served as
ers interested in studying the subject in set retarders for gypsum.
greater detail, selected references are pro- Most of the Roman construction know-
vided throughout each section. how was lost when their empire perished,
but in the 19th century Aspdin and Bleibtreu
reinvented cement and developed industrial
methods for its production. The 20th century
2 became the age of admixtures, the history of
Historical Outline which started in the 1920s with the intro-
duction of lignosulfonate, a biopolymer, for
The urbanization of mankind was made concrete plastification. This was the first
possible only because of the development of functional polymer in construction to be
advanced construction engineering tech- used on a large scale, though later on the use
niques and building materials. Under the of lignite, cellulosics, and microbial biopol-
Romans, construction technology flourished ymers also became popular.
and significant discoveries were made, one An overview of major milestones in the
of these being the manufacture of a cemen- development of biopolymeric and synthetic
titious material called ™opus caementitium∫. admixtures is provided in Table 1. Bio-
This was used, for example, in the founda- degradable polymers are the most recent
tions of the Roman Coliseum. Marcus trend in the ongoing quest for improved
Vitruvius Pollio (84 ± 10 bc) described the functional materials in construction.
have been registered for construction use. mixing water in concrete to be reduced. The
Overall, in 2000, an estimated total of result is a gain in compressive strength of
1.5 billion tons of cement was produced for the concrete, and a better building product.
construction. Other uses of chemicals in construction
Gypsum and its dehydrated forms, hemi- include higher labor efficiency, improved
hydrate and anhydrite, form another impor- economics, and less environmental impact.
tant group of building materials. Approx. Some products have helped to reduce heavy
150 million tons of CaSO4 products are used labor to a more acceptable level. For example,
in construction, with the bulk ( ~ 60%) being a self-leveling floor screed which contains a
added to cement to control cement setting superplasticizer requires minimal labor to
time. Other major uses of gypsum products be spread and to achieve an even surface,
include wall plaster, anhydrite-based floor whereas traditional floor screeds are a thick
screeds and plasterboards. A comprehensive paste and are hard work to lay in place.
description of gypsum and its use in A wide variety of chemicals are used for
construction is provided by Kuntze (1984). different purposes and applications (Fig-
ure 2) (Becker 2002), and of the $50 bn spent
3.3 on chemicals for construction, 48% were
Chemicals Used in Construction used in coatings such as interior and exterior
paints.
Modern construction often relies on the use Building materials based on inorganic
of chemical admixtures to achieve the binders and coatings constitute the segment
desired property of a building product. For of the construction industry where biopol-
example, the addition of lignin-based plasti- ymers find their greatest application. Here,
cizers to concrete enhances its flowability they are used as chemical admixtures for a
and workability, and permits the amount of variety of purposes, including:
Fig. 3 Environmental scanning electron micrograph of calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H ) in hardened
cement.
4.1.3
Precast Concrete
Large concrete elements such as beams,
pillars, floors or walls are often produced at
so-called precast concrete plants. There,
concrete is poured into molds to produce
large numbers of elements of the same
shape and size (Figure 5). Steam curing is
applied to accelerate the development of
early strength of the concrete, thereby
improving the economics of the expensive
molds. In comparison with ready-mix
plants, precast plants typically produce
Fig. 4 A ready-mix concrete plant.
concrete with a higher compressive
strength. This is achieved by reducing the
amount of mixing water, thus lowering the
w/c ratios; consequently, precast plants use a decrease, the better the flowability. For
significant volume of water-reducing poly- structural concrete, a slump of 75 ±
mers, referred to as plasticizers or super- 100 mm (3 ± 4 inches) is sufficient for place-
plasticizers. ment in forms. Highly workable, so-called
Approximately 25% of all concrete is flowing concrete shows a slump of about
produced in precast plants, 50% as ready- 150 ± 200 mm (6 ± 8 inches).
mix, and 25% in small mixers, or by hand. Other methods are also used to determine
concrete flowability, and the German flow
4.1.4 table method has recently become accepted
Self-compacting Concrete as the European norm and is now included
In 1983, Okamura and Ouchi in Japan began in the DIN EN 12 350 standard.
to develop a concrete with such exceptional Powerful superplasticizers based on poly-
fluidity that it later became known as self- carboxylate chemistry are used to obtain SCC
compacting concrete (SCC ). This concrete is with a slump of 270 ± 300 mm. It is easy to
so fluid that it requires little if any vibration imagine that, because of its fluidity, such
to densify and release air after placement. In concrete has a tendency to segregate, but this
fact, it has almost self-leveling properties is only apparent if bleeding water occurs on
(Okamura and Ouchi, 1999). the concrete surface or if heavy aggregates
The flowability of concrete is commonly settle at the bottom.
measured by the slump test, as described by Two approaches have been taken to
ASTM C 143. The test uses a frustum of cone stabilize SCC. One method is to add larger
30 mm (12 inches) high. The test procedure amounts of fine aggregates or filler (particle
is illustrated in Figure 6. Concrete is filled size < 0.1 mm), particularly fine sand or
into the cone, which is lifted slowly. Concrete limestone. The fine aggregates, by virtue of
flowability is determined by measuring the their large surface area, tie up large amounts
decrease in height of the center of the of water and prevent bleeding. They also
slumped concrete, with the greater the impart some viscosity into the cement paste
and reduce the settling of large aggregates. overviews on chemical admixtures used in
This type of SCC loaded with fine aggregates concrete have been produced by Ramachan-
is referred to as ™powder-type∫ SCC. dran (1995) and Rixom and Mailvaganam
An alternate method of stabilizing SCC is (1999).
to add a polymeric viscosifier that prevents Clearly, the concrete industry uses a great
bleed and sag. As will be discussed later, diversity of admixtures, some important
biopolymers have proven extremely effective members of which belong to the group of
for this purpose. biopolymers.
4.1.5 4.2
Chemicals Used in Concrete Grouts and Mortars
Concrete uses almost exclusively liquid
chemical admixtures, the main reason In contrast to concrete, grouts consist of fine
being ease of dosing and mixing. Major and not coarse aggregates, a binder (cement
chemical admixtures for concrete include: or gypsum), and water. Most grouts contain
dispersants based on lignosulfonates, b- aggregates with particle sizes < 1 mm.
naphthalenesulfonate resins (BNS ), mela- Grouts with coarse aggregates up to 4 mm
mine formaldehyde sulfite resins (MFS ), or are called a mortar, and include floor screeds,
polycarboxylates [ PC; e.g., methacrylic acid- self-leveling underlayments (SLUs), tile
poly(ethyleneglycol)methacrylate ester co- adhesives, joint fillers and compounds, and
polymers]; retarders based on sodium gluc- injection grouts.
onate or sugar-rich lignosulfonate; acceler-
ators based on calcium nitrate or calcium 4.2.1
formate; air-entraining agents based on root Floor Screeds
resin extracts, alkylsulfates of phenol ethox- Floor screeds are placed on concrete or
ylates; foamers based on protein hydroly- wooden panels of floors to provide a firm,
sates; anti-segregation admixtures based on planar basis for laying floor carpets or
welan gum or starch; anti-washout admix- parquet in homes and buildings. The most
tures based on hydroxypropyl cellulose; common are the ™non-slump∫ cement-based
shotcrete accelerators based on sodium floor screeds which are thick and require
aluminate or fine, amorphous aluminum heavy labor to be placed and smoothed
oxide; and shrinkage-reducing admixtures (Figure 7). Anhydrite-based floor screeds
based on neopentyl glycol. Comprehensive using a superplasticizer for high fluidity
Fig. 7 Placing of ™non-slump∫ cement-based floor screed (left) and flowing anhydrite-based floor screed (right).