Experimental Investigation on the Physco-Mechanical and Protective Properties of Concrete Incorporating Layered Doublhydroxide (LDH)

The main perspective of this paper is enhancing the physico-mechanical and protective characteristics of concrete. This was achieved by incorporation Layered double hydroxide (LDH) in mix design of concrete with different doses. The concrete specimens were prepared with LDH percentages (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2) % by the cement weight. After the characterization of LDH, the prepared concrete specimens were investigated as follows: the workability and density of the fresh concrete, effect of the addition of LDH on the compressive strength of hardened concrete were determined. The protective performance of concrete was evaluated by determining water absorption, contact angle, and chloride permeability. The obtained results detected that the physico-mechanical and protective performance of concrete are enhanced gradually by the addition of LDH up to 1.5% as follows; concrete slump decreased from 110 mm for control sample (concrete without LDH addition) to 47mm for M3 sample (concrete with 1.5% LDH) by 57% decrease percent. Density of concrete with 1.5% LDH increased by 5% as compared with control sample. Compressive strength increased by 25% for concrete with 1.5% LDH as compared with controls one. On the same time experimental results demonstrated that both water absorption and chloride permeability were decreased by 20% & 43% respectively, meanwhile contact angle increased by 24% for the same comparative samples. After this percent (1.5%), LDH is agglomerate and therefore unable to disperse uniformly so the optimum calculated percent of LDH for enhancing concrete performance is 1.5%.