A discussion of the paper “air entrainment in portland blast furnace slag cement pastes: Effects on strength and pore structure” by R. Sh. Mikhail, A. M. Youssef and M. Shater

✍ Scribed by Bryant Mather

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1978
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 103 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-8846
• DOI: 10.1016/0008-8846(78)90016-9

✦ Synopsis

The paper by Mikhail et al. was of especial interest to me since it extends work that I had some connection with previously (Mather 1957). I was, however, confused by certain aspects of the paper and hope that they may be clarified.

Beginning with the "Introduction" the authors cite work by Burba, which is not familiar to me, as relating to "certain air-entraining agents" that are "good retarders of structure formation and of evaporation of water." I find it very difficult to visualize how an air-entraining agent, as such, can be a retarder. I know only that there can be admixtures of more than one ingredient and hence more than one functional effect.