Effect of Nano-Silica on the Autogenous Shrinkage, Strength, and Hydration Heat of Ultra-High Strength Concrete

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of nano-silica on the autogenous shrinkage, hydration heat, compressive strength hydration products of Ultra-High Strength Concrete (UHSC) is studied. The water/binder ratio (w/b) of UHSC is 0.2. The nano-silica replaces 2% and 4% of the mass fraction of the cement in UHSCs, respectively. A new instrument was developed to simultaneously measure the autogenous shrinkage, internal relative humidity, and internal temperature of UHSC. The following results were obtained from the analysis of the experimental data: (1) The trends in the autogenous shrinking of UHSC can be divided into two stages, which are the variable temperature stage and the room temperature stage. The dividing point between the two stages occurs at the age of approximately 2 days. During the room temperature stage, the internal relative humidity and autogenous shrinkage showed a good linear relationship. (2) The compressive strength of UHSC increased significantly with the increase of nano-silica content at 3 days, 7 days, and 28 days. (3) The total accumulated heat of UHSC increased during the 72 h, with the increasing of nano-silica content. (4) The XRD data at the age of 28 days showed that the Ca(OH)2 peaks of nS2 and nS4 have a tendency to weaken due to the pozzolanic reaction, compared with the peak of nS0.