Performance evaluation of polyurethane-nano silica modified cement mortar

Cement mortar is known to be effective in taking compression than tension. The tensile strength of cement mortar is a cause of concern when it comes to unreinforced applications. The present study aims at performance evaluation of Polyurethane (PU) and Nano silica blended cement mortar. Various proportion of polyurethane (0.5%, 1%, 2%) modified with nano silica (5%, 10% by weight of PU) is blended to the mix during specimen preparation. The water-cement ratio is maintained at 0.35 and the superplasticizer dosage maintained at 0.2% weight of cement. The performance study such as compressive strength, split tensile strength, resistance to thermal exposure, abrasion resistance was done. The relative assessment was also done with cement mortars incorporating silica fume (5% by weight of cement). Compared to cement and silica fume incorporated mortar, the mixes modified with PU-nano silica shows enhancement in split tensile strength. PU-nano silica composite also shows improvement in durability properties. XRD characterization was also performed on the composite mortar to identify the compounds present. (c) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Advances in Materials and Manufacturing Applications.

Automated summary

The study evaluated the performance of Polyurethane (PU) and Nano silica blended cement mortar, showing that the PU-nano silica composite has higher split tensile strength and durability compared to cement mortars incorporating silica fume.