With those possibilities an increased production is achievable, however there are serious drawbacks. For example, more cement does not only imply more strength. It also involves more overall heat, an increased risk for cracks due to shrinkage, more embedded carbon, more transportation, and so on.
Using Sonocrete helps to increase early compressive strength without changing the concrete composition – instead we treat cement and water with high-power ultrasound.
In our lab we’re able to prove this acceleration with a standard concrete formula containing 320 kg cement per m³ concrete: The effect of our Sonocrete system is strongest within the first 24 hours, where a unique acceleration has been achieved – after 8 hours, the sonicated concrete reaches 21.3 MPa, which is 4 x higher than the compressive strength of the reference concrete. Therefore, the desired stripping strength of 15 MPa has been already exceeded and the moulds can be stripped well before the reference concrete.
This means an increase in production output – for example, the moulds could be used twice a day instead of only once.
We’re excited to have shown once again that our Sonocrete system also works in an industrial setting, as we successfully performed our second trial at a concrete plant of one of our partners.
