Effect of the C-A-S-H based hardening accelerator on the compressive strength of concrete

C-A-S-H(CaO(-Al2O3)-SiO2-H2O)) based hardening accelerator is one of the new types of accelerators for improving the 28-day strength of concrete and causes no corrosion to reinforced concrete. In this study, aluminum nitrate, calcium nitrate, water glass and PCEs were used to synthesize the C-A-S-H based hardening accelerator. The efficacy of this hardening accelerator was evaluated by measuring the compressive strength of concrete at different curing periods. The results showed that the hardening accelerator had a significant effect on improving the early-age strength of concrete and particularly enhanced its 28-day strength. The C-A-S-H based accelerator not only exhibited excellent accelerating performance and compressive strength improvement, but also contained no chloride ions, thus holding great potential as a green additive in construction.