Characteristics of Cement Concrete with Nano Alumina Particles

Concrete can be nano-engineered by incorporating nano sized building blocks or objects (e.g., nano particles and nano tubes) to control material behaviour and add novel properties. In this work an attempt has been made to study the effect of nano alumina on the properties of concrete composite. In order to investigate the effect of nano-alumina on the mechanical strength of cement composite, the specimens with different volume percentages (0%, 0.5%, 0.75% and 1%) nano-alumina, in each proportion three sample were cast totally making 58 specimens and after 28 days of curing they were tested. Based on experiment, the compressive strength of concrete cubes was all increased by incorporating nano alumina into matrix, when the fraction of nano alumina was 1% of the cement by weight the compressive strength of composites increased by 33.14% at 28 days. The test results showed that addition of nano alumina enhanced the compressive strength and reduced the initial setting time of concrete composite. Micro analysis was carried out by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS). The studies indicated that nano particle was uniformly distributed by improving the microstructure of concrete.