Improvement of the mechanical performance of Portland cement concretes through the addition of nanostructured carbonate material

Abstract

The mechanical performance of construction materials depends on their structural integrity and therefore deficiencies cause changes in their properties or characteristics. The use of composite materials has shown that it is possible to improve properties or even create characteristics by incorporating nanostructured carbonate materials into the cementitious matrix of structural concretes. Simple concretes are characterized by low tensile strength, and this can be improved by incorporating materials with a high modulus of elasticity. The incorporation of carbonate materials such as graphene can be an alternative since such materials have tensile strength up to 100 times greater than steel. In this research, concrete specimens produced with the addition of nanostructured carbonate materials were prepared and compared with the control material (without carbonate material). Analyzing the tensile strength, it was found that concretes produced with 5% addition of carbonate materials had higher tensile strength than the control concrete (without carbonate addition) and that the addition of 2% carbonate material was not effective for improving the mechanical tensile strength. The results demonstrate the increase in the compressive strength of the specimens produced with 5% addition of carbonate material. It is concluded that the addition of carbonate materials can be an efficient alternative to solve mechanical strength problems in Portland cement concretes for structural purposes.