Experimental study of the mechanical properties and durability of self-compacting mortars with nano materials (SiO2 and TiO2)

• Updated research on the application of nano materials (SiO2 and TiO2) in the production of self-compacting mortars.
• Feasibility analysis of nano materials in self-compacting mortars mixes.
• Analysis of the properties of self-compacting mortars with nano materials in fresh and hardened states.
• Compressive and flexural strength, porosity, water absorption and carbonation penetration are discussed.

Cement, as well as the remaining constituents of self-compacting mortars, must be carefully selected, in order to obtain an adequate composition with a granular mix as compact as possible and a good performance in the fresh state (self-compacting effect) and the hardened state (mechanical and durability-related behavior). Therefore in this work the possibility of incorporating nano particles in self-compacting mortars was studied. Nano materials are very reactive due mostly to their high specific surface and show a great potential to improve the properties of these mortars, both in mechanical and durability terms.In this work two nano materials were used, nano silica (nano SiO2) in colloidal state and nano titanium (nano TiO2) in amorphous state, in two types of self-compacting mortars (ratio binder:sand of 1:1 and 1:2). The self-compacting mortar mixes have the same water/cement ratio and 30% of replacement of cement with fly ashes. The influence of nano materials nano-SiO2 and nano-TiO2 on the fresh and hardened state properties of these self-compacting mortars was studied. The results show that the use of nano materials in repair and rehabilitation mortars has significant potential but still needs to be optimized.