Concrete Compressive Strength Enhancing Admixture... Improved Durability and Safety of Buildings

Lotte Construction, Developed by Lotte Chemical and Dongnam Enterprises

Lotte Construction is conducting a compressive strength test on-site using a chemical admixture developed in collaboration with Lotte Chemical and Dongnam Enterprise.

A chemical admixture that increases the compressive strength of concrete has been developed, and it is expected to further enhance the durability and stability of buildings.

On the 13th, Lotte Construction announced that, through over two years of joint research with Lotte Chemical and Dongnam Enterprise, they have developed an admixture that improves the compressive strength of concrete and applied it on-site.

Lotte Chemical produces EOA (ethylene oxide derivatives), the main raw material for the admixture, and holds the number one production capacity in Korea and the second largest in the world. They are expanding from general admixture raw materials to various product lines, and this time successfully developed and commercialized an admixture that enhances the early strength of concrete.

The newly developed admixture has excellent water reduction effects during concrete production compared to general admixtures, and outstanding advantages in improving concrete fluidity and viscosity. Additionally, it can achieve a strength of 5MPa in just 20 hours at a concrete curing temperature of 13 degrees Celsius. This is more than twice the performance compared to the 2MPa strength achieved using general admixtures under the same environmental conditions.

Since concrete strength varies depending on curing temperature even when using the same materials and mix, if the temperature drops sharply during the transitional season without supplying heat using devices like heaters, dismantling large concrete formworks can cause cracks and damage to the concrete, leading to safety accidents such as formwork overturning.

However, by using the newly developed chemical admixture, securing early concrete strength improves durability and ensures safety by preventing formwork overturning caused by insufficient early concrete strength.

Moreover, when applied to sites where structural work is conducted twice during the winter season throughout the entire construction period, it minimizes strength delay phenomena during the transitional season compared to using general admixtures, thereby shortening the construction period. It also reduces the use time of fossil fuels for heaters during that period, contributing to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

Officials from Lotte Chemical and Dongnam Enterprise who participated in the research expect that the newly developed admixture, with improved workability compared to products using overseas raw materials, will enhance physical performance during concrete mixing and minimize material segregation, satisfying the performance demands of ready-mixed concrete and construction companies, thus enabling market expansion and application.

Park Soon-jeon, head of the Lotte Construction Technology Research Institute, said, "We actually applied the newly developed chemical admixture at the Geoye and Cheolsan-dong sites, securing 5MPa in 20 hours, minimizing floor construction delays during transitional and winter seasons, and confirmed the effect of reducing carbon dioxide emissions." He added, "We will continue to expand the application of this technology to ensure the quality of concrete structures."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.