Behavioral Assesment of Nanoinsertions in Cement Mortar

Abstract

In this paper is reported a comparative behavior of the 28days and long-term mechanical strength of nano additions to cement mortars w.r.t. ordinary controlled cement mortars. Nanomaterials are constantly being used to upgrade everyday products which are in constant use by us. It is seen that when these materials are singly added in optimized proportions to cement mortar they enable an enhancement of compressive strength at 28 days and also long term; however, the rate of strength gain varies in the latter case. But when two or more nanomaterials are added in a single mix the results show a moderate rise in strength at 28 days but not so encouraging at long term. Experiments verify that single optimized additions of nS (0.75% w.r.t. cement wt.) produces a compressive strength of 32% increase over ordinary cement mortar and CNT (0.02% w.r.t. cement wt.) yielded strength 37% higher at 28 days. Singular addition of optimized TiO2 (1% w.r.t. cement wt.) showed no appreciable increase in strength at 28 days and even in long term except some early strength gains.
Keywords: Cement, nanomaterials, strength