Built environment professionals are placing greater demands on concrete to flow in a certain way and they are looking for better finishes.

Concrete using CHRYSO’s Fluid Premia 500 range has repeatedly met and exceeded these requirements. The technology provides excellent water reduction properties that are necessary to obtain the targeted concrete flowability, optimal viscosity, excellent setting times and superior early strengths. The plasticiser also enables easy and consistent placement even in applications with congested reinforcement, while providing a good quality surfacing after the concrete has hardened.

The foundation of Fluid Premia 500 range is CHRYSO’s Fill Free® technology system. It is a modified polycarboxylate ether-based superplasticiser technology that does not have thixotropic properties, aiding in producing a concrete that is cohesive, but with moderate viscosity.

Dr Pascal Boustingorry, interface physical chemistry team manager of CHRYSO, says the Fill Free® system was initially developed for CHRYSO’s precast concrete customers to help them overcome some of the challenges they were encountering with their self-compacting concrete mixes. “They described their concrete as sticky, or heavy and, therefore, would not flow very far from the casting point,” Boustingorry says.

“To find a solution we focused on thixotropy, which assesses the way in which the viscosity of the concrete increases over time. By using rheological tools and methods, we were able to formulate plasticisers to slow this down with minimal impact on early concrete strengths.”

SCC mixes incorporating CHRYSO Fluid Premia 500 range have continuously outperformed materials using other plasticisers in CHRYSO’s laboratories, using conventional testing methods for precast applications.

Once the correct viscosity of the concrete has been qualified using a V-funnel it is poured into the gutter-maze, which simulates the abilities of SCC to fill elongated or complex forms.

Using CHRYSO Fluid Premia 500 range, the concrete fills the gutter maze quickly and with very little effort. Boustingorry has observed that with other products concretes require operator intervention to ensure homogenous and uniform casting.

“Our tests have shown that concrete using the CHRYSO Fluid Premia 500 range allows for an excellent and consistent quality surface finish while reducing costs because no intervention is needed from the operator,” he says.