A Sustainable Air-entraining and Internal Curing Agent
The objective of this research is to synthesize a biodegradable hydrogel as an air entrainment and internal curing agent. The research team hypothesizes that the envisaged hydrogel can be finely dispersed in the concrete and will offer internal curing advantage in the first few days and later deteriorate leaving behind a network of finely distributed air voids. The preliminary results indicate that the hydrogel the research team synthesized can be used to produce ~8% air content in hardened cement mortar cubes without compromising the strength due to the internal curing advantage offered by the hydrogel. The proposed air-entrainment method may be superior even when there is excessive pumping, vibration, or surface finishing as the presence of hydrogel droplets in the initial stages will not allow the collapse of individual air voids. The deliverables of this project will be 1) synthesis procedure for the hydrogel; 2) mix design incorporating the hydrogel; and 3) performance comparison between the proposed hydrogel and commercially available air-entrainment agents.
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Active
- Funding: $60,000.00
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Contract Numbers:
TR-808
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Sponsor Organizations:
Iowa Department of Transportation
800 Lincoln Way
Ames, IA United States 50010 -
Managing Organizations:
Iowa Department of Transportation
800 Lincoln Way
Ames, IA United States 50010 -
Project Managers:
Goetz, Vanessa
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Performing Organizations:
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Fargo, ND United States -
Principal Investigators:
Yellavajjala, Ravi
- Start Date: 20220501
- Expected Completion Date: 0
- Actual Completion Date: 20240228
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Air entrainment; Concrete; Curing agents; Gels; Mix design
- Geographic Terms: Iowa
- Subject Areas: Highways; Materials; Pavements;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01945635
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: Iowa Department of Transportation
- Contract Numbers: TR-808
- Files: RIP, STATEDOT
- Created Date: Feb 12 2025 5:30PM