The Rheological and Mechanical Performances of Concrete Manufactured with Blended Admixtures Based on Phosphonates

The paper deals with the effectiveness of blended phosphonate-based superplasticizers (PHN) for ready mixed concrete. Two phosphonates (PNH1 and PNH2) were added in different percentage to naphthalene sulphonate (NSF) or polycarboxylates (PCEs) based admixtures to improve both compatibility with different cements and workability retention of concrete. The performance of the obtained concrete mixtures was compared to concretes manufactured with the pure NSF or PCE based admixtures. Concretes with the same initial workability (flow table > 580mm) were produced at a temperature of 20 °C and 30 °C. Workability was measured at 0, 30 and 60 minutes to evaluate the flow retention performances of blended superplasticizers. Compressive tests were carried out to study the influence of the superplasticizer on concrete strength gain at the age of 1, 7 and 28 days. PNH1 in combination with NSF improved workability retention with respect to pure NSF, but caused a reduction in the early compressive strength when the dosage exceeded 0.10% (dry polymer vs. cement mass). Dosage of hybrid PCE-PNH superplasticizers to attain the targeted workability was lower with respect to hybrid PNH1/NSF admixtures. PNH1 was more effective than PNH2 in hybrid PCE admixtures in terms of workability retention. A threshold value for PNH dosage (about 0.18 - 0.20 %) exists also in hybrid PCE superplasticizers, but it is about two times higher than that of hybrid PNH1/NSF.