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Experimental Investigation into Waterproofing Performance of Cement Mortar Incorporating Nano Silicon

Abstract:

Water ingress and penetration of aggressive fluids undermines the integrity of many concrete structures. For this reason, optimal performance of such structures up to their designed life cannot be guaranteed. This study introduces nano silicon as an alternative waterproofing admixture for increasing life span of cementitious materials, due to its non-vulnerability to deterioration, which is common to traditional surface coating solutions. Therefore, nano silicon was characterized using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), Energy Dispersion Spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and surface Zeta potential. The Central Composite Design (CCD) tool was adopted to plan the experiment and further used to model the relationship between experimental variables and experimental response. The model was found to be nonlinear quadratic based on Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Also, the validity of the model was evaluated and found to have accurate prediction with mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 1.62%. The optimum mix ratio necessary to increase resistance to capillary water absorption was established at a nano silicon dosage of 6.6% by weight of cement and w/c of 0.42. In conclusion, the overall results indicate that resistance to capillary water absorption was increased by 62%. Furthermore, while gas permeability was reduced by 31%, on the other hand, volume of water permeable voids decreased by 10%.