IntroductionIn today’s market of increasing competition and decreasing volumes, cement manufacturers as well as cement users are aiming for cost reduction with the aim to increase profitability and stabilise or extend their own position in the global market. Additives that offer additional benefits during cement production and cement application in concrete can help to differentiate oneself from the competition.

While the major quality parameters are regulated in the different standards, additional unregulated properties can become the decisive factor when choosing a particular cement.

Cement qualityCement producers need to supply the cement quality as it is defined by the standards, such as the European standard EN 197-1, while also meeting customers demands. Strength development is the most important property since it is the reason why cement is used in the construction industry.

Concrete producers look for a cement that supports their daily work as much as possible. Key words from this perspective are homogeneity and good concrete workability, but also easy handling of the cement itself.

JORG M. SCHRABBACK, CORPORATE PRODUCT ENGINEER CEMENT ADDITIVES, SIKA SERVICES AG, SWITZERLAND/GERMANY, DESCRIBES HOW MODERN CEMENT ADDITIVES CAN CONTRIBUTE TO AN IMPROVED PROFITABILITY IN CEMENT BUSINESS.

Additives for a Challenging Cement Market

Reprinted from October 2009

[Reprinted from Oct 09] worldcement.com

Reprint of

Additives for a ChallengingCement Marketby Jorg M. Schrabback

October 2009

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Sika Services AG, Business Unit Concrete, Tüffenwies 16, CH-8048 Zürich, Switzerland Tel +41 58 436 4040, Fax +41 58 436 4729, www.sika.com, info.concrete@ch.sika.com

Hard Fact No. 9

Your challenge: Production of high quality cement, while considering energy efficiency and cost optimization. Our solution: Sika cement additives combine efficiency and performance with innovation.

For Information about the SikaGrind® and Sika® ViscoCrete® Technology or additional Hard Facts, please visit www.sika.com/hardfacts

Creative Grinding Solutions for Cement

New developments in grinding aids and quality improvers offer solutions for individual challenges, providing additional opportunities to optimise cement production and improve business competitiveness.

Grinding aids and quality improversState-of-the-art cement production uses cement additives to achieve the desired production values, as well as the designed strength parameters.

Chemical process aids for the grinding process with ball mills and vertical mills (so-called “grinding aids”) are used to assist the comminution and reduce the specific energy consumption per tonne of cement. The latest developments in grinding aid technology achieve the highest grinding and separating efficiency, using combinations of commonly used raw materials like amino-acetates or glycols with special polycarboxylate polymers1.

Strength enhancing cement additives – “quality improvers” – have become increasingly common since the 1980s. In this product group, different chloride-free and chloride-containing technologies mainly target a higher early strength, which increases the use of clinker replacements like slag, pozzolans and limestone.

Additional benefitsWhile the strength development usually stays within the designed limits, other side effects of the constantly increasing use of clinker replacements are often out of the main focus. These can range from increased water demand and the connected low concrete workability to bleeding of the produced concrete. Since the amount of water in concrete and its in-homogeneities affects its appearance, highly consistent cement quality is demanded, especially for the increasingly used fair faced concrete in architectural applications.

Based on a tailor-made approach, additional benefits can be achieved with the use of the polycarboxylate polymer powered grinding aid technology:

Adjustable powder flowability (cement handling).

Reduced carbon bleeding (concrete homogeneity).

Improved consistency (concrete workability).

Adjusted cement flowabilityThe comminution of clinker during the cement grinding process results in unsatisfied charges on the newly created surfaces, which cause an electrostatic attraction of the cement particles. With increasing fineness, more surface charges are generated, which increasingly reduce cement powder flowability. These inter-particle forces can adversely affect the flow characteristics in airslides and result in a no-flow condition during discharge of silos and transportation vessels.

Investigations into how to reduce this frequently encountered problem with2 and without3 aeration equipment have been discussed in literature. Grinding aids reduce the inter-particle adhesion and hence have a positive influence on the powder flowability. With the new polycarboxylate polymer containing grinding aid technology, the flow characteristics can be adjusted from a relatively small to a pronounced powder flowability increase.

Sika usually uses two different test methods to determine the powder flowability:

The bulk density4 represents approximately the powder flow behaviour during the filling of silos.

The Imse method5 represents approximately the unloading of silos and transportation vessels, which makes sense to test over the potential cement storage time.

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Figure 2. Polycarboxylate polymer powered grinding aid allows powder to be adjusted to the desired flowability and enables easy handling (right).

Figure 1. Polycarboxylate polymer powered grinding aid technology increases powder flowability in the desired time interval.

worldcement.com [Reprinted from Oct 09]

Figure 1 shows the flow enhancing effect of the SikaGrind- 800 Series according to the Imse method, while Figure 2 shows the resulting improved discharging in a real production application. Cement with a traditional grinding aid needs continuous mechanical activation to leave the outlet pipe (Figure 2, left). Cement using the new grinding aid technology based on polycarboxylate polymers easily flows when opening the valve.

Reduced carbon bleedingCarbon bleeding is understood as the circumstance that fine visible particles in mortar and concrete float up to the surface and give it a significant change of aspect. This phenomenon is well-known in concrete technology, where flyash is frequently used as a cement substitute. In most cases, these particles are carbon black, which results from incomplete burning of organic substances in raw materials used during the cement grinding process or as cement replacement in concrete. Today, the constantly increasing content of major and minor clinker replacements like flyash or kiln dusts, which might be subject to certain amounts of carbon black, intensifies this critical topic.

This effect gets more pronounced with:

More liquid consistency.

Reduced viscosity.

Significant bubbling effect.

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Increased creation of bleeding water.

Prolonged compaction times of mortar and concrete.

The target in the following example was to suppress the creation of carbon bleeding on the concrete surface and maintain the production values with a combined product. Naturally, the maximum allowed loss of ignition in cement had to be considered. In a first step, mortar trials have been executed to demonstrate the stabilising effect for the cement. After the fulfilment of these demands, plant trials were executed that confirmed the laboratory findings. As can be seen in Figure 3, flyash cement CEM II/A-V 32.5 R carbon bleeding could be successfully reduced.

Improved workability of cement paste and concrete Another subject related to today’s situation of maximised secondary cementitious materials is the consistency development of the concrete manufactured with blended cement. It is a matter of common knowledge6 that at constant fineness the strength of cements with interground limestone decreases by an amount corresponding approximately to the extent that the Portland cement is “diluted” with limestone. To keep the strength unchanged, the cement or at least the clinker component thereof must be ground to a greater fineness. This leads to an increased water demand of the cement and hence to a reduced concrete workability. The same applies to the use of puzzolanes as clinker replacement.

In the following example, concrete producers complained about the unacceptable short slump life with this particular cement compared to another possible cement supplier. Naturally, production rates and strength development had to remain unchanged.

Via a tailor-made approach, laboratory trials have been executed with the target to extend slump life. 10 kg of a pure Portland cement CEM I 42.5 R was ground in a horizontal laboratory mill TTS 50 from Siebtechnik to a fineness of 3300 cm²/g with the help of different experimental products. Even though the constant grinding time resulted in a slightly finer particle size distribution, the initial consistency of the resulting cement remained unchanged. The convincing results (Figure 4) allowed plant trials to be executed immediately with the targeted limestone cement.

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Figure 3. A tailor-made approach reduces carbon bleeding.

Figure 4. PCE powered GA allows laboratory trials to improve concrete workability.

[Reprinted from Oct 09] worldcement.com

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Increasing % of cement passed through630 µm sieve at 10 shocks acc. to IMSE specification = greater powder flowability

Increasinnng % of cement passsed through630 µm ssieve at 10 shocks acccc. to IMSEspecificaaation = greater powdeeer flowability

Increasing % of cement passed through630 µm sieve at 10 shocks acc. to IMSE specification = greater powder flowability

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CEM I 42.5 R 350 kg/m³Water/cement ratio 0.50.5% Superplasticizer

Temperature 20°C

Concrete consistency: Flow table spread [cm]

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+ 6 cm

SikaGrind® Technology

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Samples of the CEM II/A-LL 32.5 R produced during the plant trial with 0.02% of the traditional competitor’s product and 0.02% of the tailor-made product out of the SikaGrind-800 Series, respectively, were then additionally analysed in extensive concrete trials. The results show the consistency development measured with the flow table spread of different types of concrete and temperatures (Figure 5). In this case, the tailor-made polycarboxylate polymer based grinding aid technology offered the additional benefit of a more favourable concrete workability (extended slump life) compared to the traditional grinding aid technology.

ConclusionToday, cement additives are used for more than only reduced specific energy consumption and improved strength development.

Based on a tailor-made approach, additional benefits like adjustable powder flowability, reduced carbon bleeding and improved consistency can be achieved. These additional benefits can become the decisive factor to ensure the application of specific cement types.

Products from the SikaGrind range offer a solution for individual challenges, providing additional opportunities to optimise cement production and improve your business.

ReferencesJOST, P., and SCHRABBACK, J. M., Creative Grinding Solutions’, International Cement Review, September 2007, pp. 70 – 72.

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WITHERIDGE, A. J.., ‘PMT Advances Airslides’, WORLD CEMENT, May 2009, pp. 93 – 99.

ABD-EL-RAHMAN, Aref. M. E., and EL SAYED YOUSSEF, M.., ‘A Device for Enhancement and Controlling of the Cohesive Powder Discharging without Aeration’, Journal of Applied Sciences Research, 2008, 4 (2), pp. 133 – 137.

DIN EN 459-2: Building lime - Part 2: Test methods, February 2002.

IMSE, W.‚ ‘Measuring the flowability of cement’, Zement-Kalk-Gips, 1972, 44 (3), pp. 147 – 149.

ELLERBROCK, H.-G., SPRUNG, S., and KUHLMANN, K., ‘Influence of interground additives on the properties of cement’, Zement-Kalk-Gips, October 1985, pp. 586 – 588.

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Figure 5. PCE powered GA allows plant trials to modify concrete workability.

worldcement.com [Reprinted from Oct 09]

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CEM II/A-LL 280 kg/m³Water/cement ratio 0.60.4% PlasticizerTemperature 20°C

CEM II/A-LL 320 kg/m³Water/cement ratio 0.5 0.5% SuperplasticizerTemperature 20°C

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Also Available:

Reprint of

Creative Grinding Solutionsby Philippe Jost and Jorg M. Schrabback

September 2007:

Sika Services AG, Tüffenwies 16, CH-8048 Zürich, SwitzerlandPhone +41 44 436 4040, Fax +41 44 436 4150, www.sika.com

performance of polycarboxylate polymer-powered grinding aids. In this case, the innovative technology

cant production e traditional amine-based

product reached its limit with an 8% production in-crease at a dosage of 0.03% (Figure 5). Moreover, these

exible the production process can become if the mill output can be economically cor-related to the grinding aid dosage.

Case study of PCE powered glycol-based grinding aid technology

e third plant trial example demonstrates that an ciency is also possible in the tra-

gure c case, 0.025% of a traditional glycol-

based grinding aid achieved a production increase of 9%, while the same dosage of the PCE/glycol formula-tion easily achieved a production increase of 16%.

Polycarboxylate polymers improve the performance of the traditional grinding aid technologies of amino alcohols and glycols and allow for a further increase

neness and more favourable PSD at constant production rate.

e resulting enhanced quality allows plants to reduce their clinker content and hence to decrease their carbon footprints while increasing the cement manufacturer’s

tability.

Conclusions ect on the grinding and

neness of cement to be achieved in the most economic way. Poly-carboxylate polymers improve the performance of the traditional grinding aid technologies of amino alcohols and glycols and allow a further increase of the produc-tion rate.

c energy consumption. It can also be used to achieve strength enhancements with

neness and optimised particle size e poten-

tial clinker reduction minimises the carbon footprint. Sika’s polycarboxylate polymer-powered grinding

ers solutions for individual challenges and also maximises

tability.

globa lcement MAGAZINE July - August 2009

Figure 4 (right):PCEpowered GA increases the p .

Figure 5 (right): PCEpowered GA allows

productionplanning.

Figure 6: PCE powered GA increase the productions y.

Reprint of

Polycarboxylate polymer-powered grinding efficiencyby Jorg M. Schrabback

July-August 2009:

Sika Services AG, Tüffenwies 16, CH-8048 Zürich, SwitzerlandPhone +58 44 436 4040, Fax +58 44 436 4150, www.sika.com

Sika Services AGBusiness Unit ConcreteTüffenwies 16CH-8048 ZürichSwitzerlandPhone +41 58 436 40 40 Fax +41 58 436 47 29www.sika.com

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