Influence of prolonged agitation on water movement related properties of water reducer and retarder admixtured concretes

Abstract

The properties of prolonged agitated concretes in both fresh and hardened states were investigated. Concrete mixes were prepared by using two different retarders and one water reducer. At different time intervals, samples were taken from the drum of a truck mixer which had been kept in continuous motion. It was observed that gluconate based retarder increased the amount of bleed water with respect to the reference mix. Prolonged agitation ceased the bleeding of reference and dextrin admixtured mixes while reduced the bleeding amount and period of gluconate mix. The addition of admixtures tested, decreased the permeation properties of mixes. However, the same admixtures increased the drying shrinkage of specimens taken after prolonged agitation. For durability studies, freezing and thawing performances were compared.