Effect of Polyvinyl Alcohol on the Rheological Properties of Cement Mortar

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is a kind of water-soluble polymer, which has been widely used in different industries due to its excellent mechanical and chemical properties. In this paper, the effects of polyvinyl alcohol with different hydrolysis and polymerization degrees on the rheological properties of cement mortar are studied. The results show that the rheological properties of PVA-modified cement mortar can be described by the modified Bingham model. The yield stress of modified cement mortar is less than that of unmodified mortar when the degree of polymerization and the content of PVA are small. With the increase of polyvinyl alcohol content and polymerization degree, the yield stress and plastic viscosity of modified cement mortar increase sharply, which are larger than those of the unmodified cement mortar. However, the effect of hydrolysis degree of PVA on yield stress and plastic viscosity of modified cement mortar is not obvious.