Water-Immersion Stability of Self-Compacting Potassium Magnesium Phosphate Cement Paste

Materials (Basel). 2023 Mar 8;16(6):2183. doi: 10.3390/ma16062183.

Abstract

For the repair of narrow cracks in concrete, the potassium magnesium phosphate cement (MKPC)-based material paste should have high fluidity and self-compacting ability, making it convenient for pouring and compacting. A self-compacting MKPC paste that meets the index requirements recommended by the European Federation of National Associations Representing for Concrete (EFNAFC) was prepared by increasing the water-cement ratio and adding water glass and fly ash (FA). Specimens of self-compacting MKPC paste were subjected to long-term water corrosion tests, which found that those high-fluidity MKPC paste specimens (reference sample M0) that were produced with only an increased water-cement ratio lost 15-30% of their strength. The residual ratio of folding to compression was 84.6%, and the volume expansion rate was 7.78 × 10-4 after immersion in water for 560 days. The strength residual rate of MKPC slurry (M1) modified by sodium silicate and fly ash is over 90% after 560 days of immersion in water, and the residual rate of flexural-compressive ratio is 101.3%, which meets the requirements of hydraulic cement-based materials. The volume expansion rate of M1 is 5.19 × 10-4, which is 67% of the reference sample M0 with the same water immersion age.

Keywords: magnesium potassium phosphate cement (MKPC); self-compacting; strength; volumetric deformation; water corrosion.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51578475) and the Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (Grant No. 21KJD560001). Jiangsu Province Industry-University-Research Cooperation Project (Grant No.BY2022478). The authors thank all the anonymous reviewers for helping improve this paper.