RT Journal Article
T1 Small changes can make a great difference
A1 Gaitero, Juan J.
A1 Campillo, Igor
A1 Mondal, Paramita
A1 Shah, Surendra P.
AB Four different types of commercially available silica nanoparticles were added to ordinary portland cement pastes to study their effects. The subsequent multiscale characterization of the material revealed that the addition of the nanoparticles induced a pozzolanic reaction that increased the amount of calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) gel in the paste to the detriment of portlandite. This had important implications for the hydration kinetics and the microstructure of the paste, including an increase in the initial hydration rate. A reduction of the overall porosity was also observed. The C-S-H gel of the pastes with nanosilica also showed some particular features, such as greater aluminum content and longer silicate chains. This was especially relevant because nanoindentation measurements and atomistic calculations showed that this was bound to an improvement in the mechanical properties of the C-S-H gel itself. Finally, the sum of all these factors resulted in pastes with 30% more compressive strength, which proved that, effectively, small changes can make a great difference.
SN 0361-1981
YR 2010
FD 2010-01-12
LK https://hdl.handle.net/11556/3887
UL https://hdl.handle.net/11556/3887
LA eng
NO Gaitero , J J , Campillo , I , Mondal , P & Shah , S P 2010 , ' Small changes can make a great difference ' , Transportation Research Record , no. 2141 , pp. 1-5 . https://doi.org/10.3141/2141-01
DS TECNALIA Publications
RD 30 jul 2024