abstract: The need for sustainability in construction has encouraged scientists to develop novel environmentally friendly materials. The use of supplementary cementitious materials was one such initiative which aided in enhancing the fresh and hardened concrete properties. This thesis aims to explore the understanding of the early age rheological properties of such cementitious systems. The first phase of the work investigates the influence of supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) in combination with ordinary Portland cement (OPC) on the rheological properties of fresh paste with and without the effect of superplasticizers. Yield stress, plastic viscosity and storage modulus are the rheological parameters which were evaluated for all the design mixtures to fundamentally understand the synergistic effects of the SCM. A time-dependent study was conducted on these blends to explore the structure formation at various time intervals which explains the effect of hydration in conjecture to its physical stiffening. The second phase focuses on the rheological characterization of novel iron powder based binder system. The results of this work indicate that the rheological characteristics of cementitious suspensions are complex, and strongly dependent on several key parameters including: the solid loading, inter-particle forces, shape of the particle, particle size distribution of the particles, and rheological nature of the media in which the particles are suspended. Chemical composition and reactivity of the material play an important role in the time-dependent rheological study. A stress plateau method is utilized for the determination of rheological properties of concentrated suspensions, as it better predicts the apparent yield stress and is shown to correlate well with other viscoelastic properties of the suspensions. Plastic viscosity is obtained by calculating the slope of the stress-strain rate curve of ramp down values of shear rates. In oscillatory stress measurements the plateau obtained within the linear visco-elastic region was considered to be the value for storage modulus. Between the different types of fly ash, class F fly ash indicated a reduction in the rheological parameters as opposed to class C fly ash that is attributable to the enhanced ettringite formation in the latter. Use of superplasticizer led to a huge influence on yield stress and storage modulus of the paste due to the steric hindrance effect. In the study of iron based binder systems, metakaolin had comparatively higher influence than fly ash on the rheology due to its tendency to agglomerate as opposed to the ball bearing effect observed in the latter. Iron increment above 60% resulted in a decrease in all the parameters of rheology discussed in this thesis. In the OPC-iron binder, the iron behaved as reinforcements yielding higher yield stress and plastic viscosity. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Civil Engineering 2016

Workability has traditionally been used as one of the measures for controlling concrete mixture proportioning. This metric has provided limits on the water content in the concrete mixture for given aggregate size and type. The slump test, which is commonly used as an assessment of workability, is not adequate for characterizing the flow behaviour / rheology of fresh concrete. Studies have shown that Bingham's rheological properties, namely yield stress and plastic viscosity, provide good description of the flow behaviour of fresh concrete. In this thesis, an experimental program was designed on the basis of factorial design to evaluate the method of Cement Association of Canada for designing and controlling concrete mixture. The variables included in the mix design are water-cement ratio, water content, coarse aggregate size, silica fume, slag and bulk volume of coarse aggregate. In addition, Neuro-Fuzzy network has been adopted to correlate the current mixture proportioning method to the rheological properties of concrete. The network was constructed using experimental data tested in this study. Such correlation allowed the determination of water-cement ratio, water content, fine aggregate and coarse aggregate from compressive strength, yield stress and plastic viscosity. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Yes / The principal aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of sand grading, surface morphology, and content on the rheological properties—that is, yield stress and plastic viscosity—of fresh mortar. Mortars were produced from four different types of sand at two volumetric cement-sand ratios of 1/0.9 and 1/0.6. Each blend was prepared with five water-cement ratios of 0.60, 0.55, 0.50, 0.45, and 0.40. The rheometer was used to determine yield stress and plastic viscosity parameters of each cement paste and mortar. Test results show that the relative yield stress and plastic viscosity of mortar to cement paste is inversely proportional to the excess paste thickness up to low values, below which the surface texture of sand particles becomes significant.

Il est possible de modifier la composition des bétons utilisés dans le domaine de la construction pour réduire sensiblement le dégagement de CO2 associé à leur fabrication. Ceci est obtenu en réduisant significativement la quantité de clinker et en incorporant des matériaux de substitution appelés additions. Elles sont généralement moins réactives et demandent, pour maintenir un niveau acceptable de performances mécaniques et de durabilité, une réduction importante du dosage en eau. C'est le cas des bétons à faible impact environnemental. L'utilisation de superplastifiant dans ces bétons permet d'augmenter leur fluidité mais leur viscosité plastique reste toujours élevée ce qui induit des problèmes de mise en œuvre. La maîtrise de la viscosité plastique de ce type de béton est donc cruciale pour le développement de ces produits.Avec cet objectif fixé, dans la première partie de cette étude, un rhéomètre à béton, adapté aux spécificités des bétons à faible impact environnemental, a été développé. Associé à un protocole d'essai pertinent cet appareil permet de caractériser le comportement rhéologique non seulement des bétons courants mais également des bétons à faible impact environnemental.Ensuite, l'utilisation de ce rhéomètre dans un programme expérimental a permis de mettre en évidence l'effet des paramètres de compositions et notamment le taux de substitution et la nature des additions sur leur comportement rhéologique.Les résultats obtenus à partir de ce programme ont permis de proposer et valider un modèle de calcul de la viscosité plastique en considérant que le béton est constitué de deux échelles : pâte et granulats. Le modèle est applicable pour les bétons ordinaires et pour les bétons à faible impact environnemental. Une méthode d'optimisation de la viscosité a été proposée à l'aide du modèle. / It is possible to modify the composition of conventional concrete used in the building field in order to reduce the emission of CO2 associated with their manufacture, particularly in the production of their constituents. This is can be achieved by significantly reducing the amount of clinker and incorporating alternative materials (mineral and chemical additions), which are generally have a lower reactivity and require a low quantity of water, with an adequate level of mechanical performance and durability. This is the case of concrete with low environmental impact. The use superplasticizer in the production of concrete allows increasing their flowability, despite the using of low content of water, but their plastic viscosity remains high and may cause problems of implementation. Controlling the plastic viscosity of this type of concrete is crucial to ensure the development of these products.Within this objective, a rheometer for concrete was developed. The relevant test protocol used for this apparatus enables to characterize the rheological behavior not only for conventional concrete, but also for concrete with low environmental impact.The use of the developed rheometer within an experimental program permits then to highlight the effect of the parameters of concrete compositions, and in particular the used additions (type and rate of substitution) on their rheological behavior.The obtained results from this program propose and validate a mathematical model for assessing the plastic viscosity, which is applicable for ordinary concrete and concrete with low environmental impact. An optimization method for calculating the plastic viscosity of the concrete has been proposed using this model.

The complex interaction between cement and chemical/mineral admixtures in concrete mixtures sometimes leads to unpredictable concrete performance in the field which is generally defined as concrete incompatibilities. Cement paste rheology measurements instead of traditional workability tests (i.e., slump cone test) can have great potential in detecting those incompatibilities in concrete before the concrete is placed, which can, in turn, avoid related workability problems and setting time as well as heat evolution abnormalities. The objectives of the present study were to examine the applicability of the dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) to measure cement paste rheology, and to identify cement and mineral/chemical admixture incompatibilities, based on the determined rheological parameters. The DSR was modified and optimized for cement paste rheology measurements. Two different modes of operations (i.e., static and dynamic methods) with the modified DSR were investigated to measure representative rheological parameters as well as to identify cement and chemical/mineral admixture incompatibility. The conventional plastic viscosity and yield stress are measured in static mode and storage modulus curve, as a function of time, is measured in dynamic mode. The rate of change of plastic viscosity (RPV) as another static rheological parameter and the modeled magnitude parameter ?, from the dynamic rheological method, showed great potentialities as acceptance criteria to identify incompatible mixtures. The heat of hydration data from isothermal conduction calorimeter tests and setting time results for the studied mixtures have strongly supported the rheology based observations as supporting tools. Based on the main tests results, the acceptance criteria were set up using the rheological parameters in accordance with heat of hydration data. This will ultimately help material suppliers, concrete producers, and other users to detect problematic combinations of concrete ingredients before a given concrete mixture is placed.

Preplaced aggregate concrete (PAC) is produced by grouting high workability cement based grouts among the voids of compacted coarse aggregate mass. Because of its low shrinkage, PAC has been used for many repair jobs like; tunnel lines, dams and bridge piers. Moreover, it has been used for underwater construction. Grout has a major effect on the properties of produced PAC and well defined grout controls the properties of resulted PAC. The effect of types and amount of powder materials, admixtures, sand and water content on the properties of fresh and hardened grout for the production of PAC have been investigated. Tests on hardened grout and PAC properties have also been carried out to investigate the most important effects. A correlation between hardened properties of grout and PAC has also been analyzed. Grout rheology using four different gradation sands at two different cement-sand and at different w/c ratios ratios has been identified experimentally; no added chemical admixtures or mineral additives had first employed, then superplasticizer (SP) was added at 2% and 1%, and finally a combination of 1% SP and pulverized fuel ash (Pfa) at 20% of the cement weight was employed for all mixes. Grout tests have included two point workability tests by the Viskomat NT, flow time funnel test, Colcrete flow meter test, and water bleeding test. After that, eighteen grout mixes with high workability were produced using three different sands at three w/c ratios and two c/s ratios with 1% SP and Pfa at 20% of the cement weight were designed. Eighteen hardened grout and PAC then produced and their compressive strength and sorptivity were tested. Grout rheology can be defined by the rheology of cement paste employed and the internal distance between sand particles. The effect of sand surface texture on grout rheology is important at very low internal distances. Fresh grout yield stress is the most important property which gives the same degree of sensitivity for all grouts regardless the material type and content used in the mix. There are strong relations between compressive strength of grout and PAC, but less correlation between them in sorptivity test because of the effect high quantity of coarse aggregate of PAC. Sorptivity of PAC is low comparing with different kinds of concrete suggesting its advantage for underwater construction.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:01:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MiguelASN.pdf: 491289 bytes, checksum: be60500500779f6a3fd87b90108feb8c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2002-09-27 / The developments in formulating drilling fluids to apply in petroleum fields are based on new technologies and environmental challenges, where the technical performance of a developed drilling fluid is used to produce a minimum environmental impact, showing great economy in costs. It is well known that the potential use of oil-based drilling fluids is limited because these fluids when discharged in the sea do not disperse as much as water-based ones and may form waterproof films in the seabed, having a profound effect on plants and animals living in this environment. The current works have been made in investigating fluids called pseudofluids, which are synthetic ester-based, n-paraffin-based and other fluids formed from inverse emulsion. In this research the principal parameters involved in inverse emulsion process were studied, in laboratory scale, using esters as main component. Others commercial drilling fluids were used as comparative samples, as well as samples from laboratory and field where these drilling fluids are being applied. Concentrations of emulsifier and organophilic clay, which are viscosity donor, were varied to verify the influence of these parameters, in different oil/water ratios (55/45, 60/40, 65/35, 70/30, and 75/25). The salt concentration (NaCl) is an indicative parameter of stability and activity of an esterbased fluid. In this research the salt concentration was varied in 10,000, 20,000, and 50,000 ppm of NaCl. Some rheological properties of the produced fluids were studied, such as: initial gel, plastic viscosity, yield point, and apparent viscosity. Through the obtained rheological measures, the existence of two systems could be verified: fluid and flocculated. It could be noticed that the systems were influenced, directly, by the oil/water ratio and emulsifier, organophilic clay and NaCl concentrations. This study showed the viability to use an ester obtained from a regional vegetable product baba?u coconut oil to obtain an efficient and environmental safe drilling fluid / O desenvolvimento atual e futuro, em campos de petr?leo, baseia-se em novas tecnologias e desafios ao meio ambiente, onde se utiliza principalmente a performance t?cnica de um fluido de perfura??o que produza o m?nimo impacto ambiental, mostrando ainda, uma ?tima economia nos custos desses desenvolvimentos. Sabe-se que o potencial de continuidade de fluidos de perfura??o a base de ?leo est? limitado e, por conseguinte, o avan?o ambiental tem sido na investiga??o de fluidos chamados pseudo-fluidos, ou seja, fluidos sint?ticos base ?ster, ?ster, n-parafina e outros fluidos de emuls?o inversa, os quais est?o em estudo. Neste trabalho estudou-se em n?vel de laborat?rio as principais vari?veis envolvidas no processo de emuls?o inversa usando ?steres como componente principal, utilizando-se amostras comparativas de outros fabricantes, como tamb?m amostras provenientes de laborat?rio e de campo onde est?o sendo utilizados estes fluidos de perfura??o. As concentra??es de emulsificante ou argila organof?lica, que ? doadora de viscosidade, foram variadas para verificar a influ?ncia destes par?metros a diferentes raz?es ?leo/?gua (55/45, 60/40, 65/35, 70/30 e 75/25), mantendo-se constante os demais componentes do fluido. A concentra??o do sal, que ? um par?metro indicador de estabilidade e da atividade em fluido a base ?ster, foi variada em 10.000, 20.000 e 50.000 ppm de NaCl. Algumas propriedades reol?gicas dos fluidos assim produzidos foram estudadas, tais como: gel inicial, viscosidade pl?stica, limite de escoamento e viscosidade aparente. A partir das medidas reol?gicas obtidas, p?de-se verificar a exist?ncia de dois sistemas: fluido e floculado. P?de-se perceber que os resultados obtidos foram influenciados diretamente pela raz?o ?leo/?gua e pelas concentra??es do emulsificante, da argila organof?lica e do NaCl. Este estudo consolidou importantes conhecimentos que abrir?o portas para o sucesso de novas pesquisas, tornando-se fundamental a viabiliza??o de coloc?-lo posteriormente no mercado de trabalho do Brasil

Preplaced aggregate concrete (PAC) is produced by grouting high workability cement based grouts among the voids of compacted coarse aggregate mass. Because of its low shrinkage, PAC has been used for many repair jobs like; tunnel lines, dams and bridge piers. Moreover, it has been used for underwater construction. Grout has a major effect on the properties of produced PAC and well defined grout controls the properties of resulted PAC. The effect of types and amount of powder materials, admixtures, sand and water content on the properties of fresh and hardened grout for the production of PAC have been investigated. Tests on hardened grout and PAC properties have also been carried out to investigate the most important effects. A correlation between hardened properties of grout and PAC has also been analyzed. Grout rheology using four different gradation sands at two different cement-sand and at different w/c ratios ratios has been identified experimentally; no added chemical admixtures or mineral additives had first employed, then superplasticizer (SP) was added at 2% and 1%, and finally a combination of 1% SP and pulverized fuel ash (Pfa) at 20% of the cement weight was employed for all mixes. Grout tests have included two point workability tests by the Viskomat NT, flow time funnel test, Colcrete flow meter test, and water bleeding test. After that, eighteen grout mixes with high workability were produced using three different sands at three w/c ratios and two c/s ratios with 1% SP and Pfa at 20% of the cement weight were designed. Eighteen hardened grout and PAC then produced and their compressive strength and sorptivity were tested. Grout rheology can be defined by the rheology of cement paste employed and the internal distance between sand particles. The effect of sand surface texture on grout rheology is important at very low internal distances. Fresh grout yield stress is the most important property which gives the same degree of sensitivity for all grouts regardless the material type and content used in the mix. There are strong relations between compressive strength of grout and PAC, but less correlation between them in sorptivity test because of the effect high quantity of coarse aggregate of PAC. Sorptivity of PAC is low comparing with different kinds of concrete suggesting its advantage for underwater construction. / Libyan High Education Ministry