Performance of Self-Compacting mortars modified with Nanoparticles: A systematic review and modeling

During the transition of one material from macro- to nano-range size, considerable changes occur in the electron conductivity, optical absorption, mechanical properties, chemical reacting activity, and surface morphology. These changes can be advantageous in the production of new mixture composites. Due to the need for developing improved infrastructure, new and high-performance materials should also be developed. In this regard, to improve the performance of concrete mixtures, several methods have been investigated, including using nanoparticles (NPs) to enhance various characteristics of the concrete composite like improving fresh and mechanical properties of self-compacting concrete (SCC) as well as improving permeability and absorption capacity of the composite by providing extremely fine particles to fill micro-pores and voids. In this paper, a state-of-the-art review was carried out on the influence of various NPs inclusion on the fresh, mechanical, and durability properties of self-compacting mortars (SCM). So that current and most recent studies previously published were investigated to highlight the influences of different NPs on the slump flow diameter, V-funnel flow time, compression and flexural strengths, water absorption, chloride penetration, and electrical resistivity. Moreover, the main section of this study was devoted to proposing different models, including nonlinear model (NLR), multi-logistic model (MLR), and artificial neural network (ANN), to predict the compressive strength (CS) of SCMs modified with NPs. Based on the analyzed data, it was illustrated that the addition of NPs into SCMs significantly enhances the fresh, mechanical, and durability performance of SCMs. Moreover, the microstructure of SCMs was considerably improved due to the higher specific surface area of NPs and their reaction with undesirable C–H which present in the cement paste matrix to produce additional C-S-H gel.