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Sustanability of Concrete

Concrete admixtures are liquid or powder additives added to concrete in small quantities to improve properties like workability, setting time, and durability. Superplasticizers and plasticizers collectively represent over half of admixtures used today. Tests show that while small amounts of superplasticizers and their decomposition products can leach from pulverized concrete, the levels are low and do not cause groundwater pollution. Concrete admixtures are considered environmentally friendly as their technical benefits outweigh any low and controllable emissions, and they create negligible pollution to air, soil, or groundwater when used correctly.

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26 views1 page

Sustanability of Concrete

Concrete admixtures are liquid or powder additives added to concrete in small quantities to improve properties like workability, setting time, and durability. Superplasticizers and plasticizers collectively represent over half of admixtures used today. Tests show that while small amounts of superplasticizers and their decomposition products can leach from pulverized concrete, the levels are low and do not cause groundwater pollution. Concrete admixtures are considered environmentally friendly as their technical benefits outweigh any low and controllable emissions, and they create negligible pollution to air, soil, or groundwater when used correctly.

Uploaded by

praveennagarajan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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2.

Sustainability

2.1 Concrete Admixtures and the Environment


Concrete admixtures are liquid or powder additives. They are added to the concrete mix in small
quantities to meet specific requirements as:
To fix fresh concrete behaviour
To control setting or hardening
To increase the durability

The effect of admixtures is always to improve the concrete. In quantity terms, superplasticizers
(midrange and high range water reducer) and plasticizers (water reducer) as a group represents
more than half of all the admixtures used today.

How much do concrete admixtures leach, biodegrade or release fumes?

Admixtures should be non-toxic, water-soluble and biodegradable.

Tests on pulverized concrete specimens show that small quantities of superplasticizer and their
decomposition products are leachable in principle. However, the materials degrade well and do
not cause any relevant ground water pollution. Even under the most extreme conditions, only
small quantities of organic carbon leaches into the water.

How environment-friendly are superplasticizers?

Concrete admixtures are appropriate for their application and when correctly used
are harmless to humans, animals and the environment.

The technical benefits of superplasticizer for clients and construction professionals outweigh
the occurrence of low, controllable emissions during use. Concrete admixtures merit being rated
environmentally-friendly because they create negligible air, soil or ground water pollution.

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