Effect of Adding CSH Based Nanomaterial in Cement Composites to Accelerate Cement Hydration Process

Currently, the application of nanomaterials in cement concrete structures is become most prominent for enhancing various properties. The rapid demand in urbanization leads to an increase in the development of pre-cast elements for reducing the time and cost of construction. However, the development of pre-cast elements depends upon the formwork removal of concrete, which only possible when cement attains its sufficient strength gain. In this work a synthesis method for the preparation of CSH-based nanomaterial using the chemical process is proposed for early strength development in cementitious composites. The method includes the use of silica from industrial waste and calcium bearing salt for the precipitation of CSH. The synthesized CSH nanomaterial further characterized using scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The presence of CSH hardening accelerator acts as a seeding material in cementitious composites and provides an additional nucleation site thereby accelerates the hydration process and leads an early strength development. The precipitated CSH was used at different dosage in order to investigate the early strength development using heat of hydration, and compressive strength test measurements.