ICrete - A Revolutionary Material for Making Concrete Better

ICrete represents a completely different class of additives which gives not only economic benefits but also upgrades concrete by its unique action.
Kowshika V R, Executive Director, Amazecrete.


ICrete is a powder additive for concrete that can improve the properties of concrete in many ways. Invented by Dr. Ramkumar after 20 years of research, the primary objective of design of Icrete is to make concrete more economical when incorporated into it. It gives many benefits such as:

• Reduces cement content in the mix.
• Increases impermeability of concrete and hence makes concrete more durable.
• Reduces shrinkage cracks.
• Does not affect workability or any fresh properties of concrete.
• Overall durability of concrete is enhanced.
• Makes concrete greener and more eco-friendly.

Icrete works by promoting the dissolution of Alumina and Iron present in the supplementary cementitious materials and Cement. It accelerates the hydration of intermediate phases present in cement, and forms additional binding phases other than C-S-H. Icrete conforms to ASTM C 1797 and complies to IS 2645 as a waterproofing compound. Because of this, we can do away with many traditional integral waterproofing systems generally used in concrete. The best part of Icrete is that it helps save money when used by 0.7% to 2.5%. It works very well for the following:

• To reduce OPC content in OPC mixes.
• To reduce OPC content in OPC+GGBS or OPC+PFA mixes.
• To reduce total cementitious contents in OPC+GGBS or OPC+PFA mixes.
• To increase SCM contents in OPC+GGBS or OPC+PFA or OPC+GGBS+PFA mixes.
• It works very well as strength enhancer for high grade or high-performance mixes.

Materials for Experiments

For the study, 53 Grade cement conforming to IS 269 was selected. GGBS was taken from JSW, and Flyash from Ennore Thermal Power Plant in Chennai. The crushed aggregates and manufactured sands were used after checking all properties. The novel additive ICrete properties have also been given. All the trials were conducted with a pre-selected PC based Hyperplasticiser. All the trials and production were repeated with the same sources of ingredients.

Experiments

Some series of Trials were done and given below

Conclusion

The experiments and field applications clearly prove that Icrete can be used to not only save cement (hence make economical concrete mixtures) but also the product enhances impermeability and durability of mixes.