| Foam concrete has found an increasingly wide utilization in engineering inrecently years. Bubble is the base of the formation of foam concrete, the quality ofwhich directly affects the properties of foam concrete. Currently, the foaming agent ofcementitious mixtures and foam-generating equipment get behind with flourishingnations obviously. Aim at the problem of variety rare and poor performance offoaming agent, immense amounts of research has been conducted to establish thecomposition of foaming agent based on relevant study achievements. Thoroughlyanalysis and comparison with the performance of foam concrete developed the ZML-1Foaming Agent.The main experiment materials including sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS), sodiumdodecyl benzene sulphonate (LAS) and alcohol ethoxylate sulfated sodium salt (AES)were chosen after a series of comparisons. Qualitative measurement and analysisshowed SDS possesses preferable foamability (also known as foam capacity), foamstability and meets the requirement of foaming ingredient. Foam stabilizer is usuallyclassified into two major kinds: one is to improve the performance of the foammembrane, such as dodecanol, silicone polyether emulsion and sodium chloride andso on; the other can retard the rate of drainage of liquid from the foam, for example,gelatin, methylcellulose, polyacrylamide, hydroxyethyl cellulose and triethanolamine.It was found that not only does dodecanol promote the formation of foam, but itprolongs the lifetime of foam. Therefore, dodecanol is an effective foam stabilizer.Furthermore, strong synergism was showed between the SDS-dodecanol system andhydroxyethyl cellulose, as well as polyacrylamide.Great attention had been paid to linking experimental findings with eachproperty of foam concrete for instance compressive strength, water suction rate,during the development of foaming agent. Hence the high performance foaming agentnamed ZML-1Foaming Agent composition containing (i) SDS, of which the morepreferable mass concentration is4g/L,(ii) dodecanol, of which the more preferablemass concentration is0.7g/L,(iii) hydroxyethyl cellulose, of which the morepreferable mass concentration is1.8g/L,(iv) triethanolamine, of which the morepreferable mass concentration is6g/L. The ZML-1Foaming Agent is of excellent foamability and foam stability. According to Waring-Blender, the timehalf-life (t1/2)refers to that stage of foam decay when the drainage of liquid from the foam reach50%volume of the diluted foaming agent, and bubble of the ZML-1Foaming Agentcomes up to80min. In terms of compressive strength and water suction rate of foamconcrete, the ZML-1Foaming Agent superior to the same kind product in foreigncountries. Further more, the ZML-1Foaming Agent is easy preparation, low cost,friendly to environment and up to the standard for foaming agent. |
