Water reducers are special chemical products added to a

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...

mixture before it is poured. They are from the same family of products as retarders. The first class of water reducers was the lignosulfonates which has been used since the 1930s. These inexpensive products were derived from wood and

paper industry The pulp and paper industry comprises companies that use wood as raw material and produce pulp, paper, paperboard and other cellulose-based products. Manufacturing process The pulp is fed to a paper machine where it is formed as a paper web a ...

, but are now advantageously replaced by other synthetic

sulfonate In organosulfur chemistry, a sulfonate is a salt or ester of a sulfonic acid. It contains the functional group , where R is an organic group. Sulfonates are the conjugate bases of sulfonic acids. Sulfonates are generally stable in water, non-o ...

and polycarboxylate, also known as

superplasticizer Superplasticizers (SPs), also known as high range water reducers, are additives used in making high strength concrete. Plasticizers are chemical compounds that enable the production of concrete with approximately 15% less water content. Superplast ...

s. Water reducers offer several advantages in their use, listed below: * reduces the water content by 5-10% * decreases the concrete

porosity Porosity or void fraction is a measure of the void (i.e. "empty") spaces in a material, and is a fraction of the volume of voids over the total volume, between 0 and 1, or as a percentage between 0% and 100%. Strictly speaking, some tests measur ...

* increases the concrete strength by up to 25% (as less water is required for the concrete mixture to remain workable) * increases the workability (assuming the amount of free water remains constant) * reduces the water permeability (due to less water being used) * reduces the

diffusivity Diffusivity is a rate of diffusion, a measure of the rate at which particles or heat or fluids can spread. It is measured differently for different mediums. Diffusivity may refer to: *Thermal diffusivity, diffusivity of heat *Diffusivity of mass: ...

of aggressive agents in the concrete and so improves the durability of concrete * gives a better finish to surfaces (due to all of the above)

See also