Influence of Concrete Foaming Agent on Foam Concrete (2)

As the European Union tries to reduce its dependence on Russian energy, the Russian president recently said Russia would try to shift its energy exports to the east, adding that there was no way for European countries to give up Russian gas immediately.

Russia supplies about 40 percent of the EU's gas, and western sanctions imposed over the conflict with Ukraine have complicated financing and logistical arrangements for existing agreements, hitting Russian energy exports, the report noted.  

Russia has been building closer ties with China and other Asian countries as the European Union debates whether to impose sanctions on Russian gas and oil and member states seek supplies from elsewhere, Reuters said.  

"So-called partners from unfriendly countries admit that they cannot survive without Russian energy, including gas," the Russian president said in a televised government meeting. There is no reasonable alternative to Russian gas in Europe right now."  

He also said Europe was driving up energy prices and destabilizing markets by talking about cutting off Russia's energy supplies. Russia, which produces about a tenth of the world's oil and a fifth of its natural gas, will need new infrastructure to increase energy supplies to Asia, he said.

He ordered Moscow to submit a plan by June 1, including "the expansion of transport infrastructure to countries in Africa, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region".  

He also sought to clarify the possibility of integrating two pipelines -- the Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok gas pipeline in the Far East and the "Power of Siberia" gas pipeline to China -- into Russia's unified gas supply system. In theory, connecting these routes to larger gas networks could allow Russia to divert gas from Europe to Asia.

Because of the ever-changing international situation, the supply and prices of international bulk concrete foaming agent are still very uncertain.

3. The larger the bubble diameter, the better, should be more than 1mm 

The pore diameter should be the same as the bubble diameter. Some experts misleading the pursuit of a small foam aperture of 0.1mm, in fact, because of physical foaming if the bubble diameter is large, the stability of the foam cannot be made of foam concrete. The same raw material and formula, the same equipment and technology, just change the bubble diameter, the compressive strength of 1mm bubble diameter of foam concrete, then 0.1mm bubble diameter of foam concrete, at least 20% higher. Therefore, it is wrong to pursue a bubble diameter of more than 0.1mm, which should be corrected in the production of foamed concrete.

4. The lower the foam bleeding rate, the better. Avoid using milk foam.

According to the size of water content, foam is divided into milk foam with more water and sponge foam with more water. Among them, lacteal foam is unqualified inferior foam and cannot be used.

After the foam is made, it gradually secretes water. Its secreting water includes two parts: 

Bleeding of foam liquid film. This water is secreted from the liquid membrane, which is secreted by the liquid membrane under the combined action of gravity drainage, surface tension drainage, and liquid membrane damage drainage. The thicker the liquid film of foam is, the larger the bleeding is. The faster the bubble burst, the more bleeding.

Water between bubbles. This is the water that didn't form the bubble film. The worse the foaming agent and foaming machine’s foaming performance, the more water between bubbles cannot form foam liquid film. They're essentially water that doesn't bubble.

When the foam is bleeding at a high rate, it becomes as thin as float juice, sloshing around and not piling up, and there's a lot of water in the foam. When this foam is added to the cement slurry, the cement slurry becomes very thin, and the foam is very little, the volume of the slurry is small, and the resulting foam concrete density is very high, not technical requirements. 

Therefore, latex foam should not be used. The appearance of a technically acceptable foam should be a spongy, compact bubble, piled up like white clouds, like bouncing cotton, and not sloshing. This foam has very little water content. This shows that its foam liquid film is small, the foam is not easy to burst, there is little water between the bubbles, and the amount of bubbles is large, accounting for most of the volume of bubbles. It should be emphasized here that the spongy foam must be a small bubble with a diameter of less than 1mm, rather than a few millimeters, or even dozens of millimeters. Bullae are easy to pile up, also like white clouds, but because of the large diameter of the bullae, also unqualified. 

The low secretion of foam is mainly to ensure the number of bubbles in the foam and the porosity of foamed concrete, that is, to ensure the density of foamed concrete. 

5. The foam has no side effects on cementitious materials 

The cementitious material is the main source of strength of foamed concrete, the addition of foam cannot affect its cementitious property, that is, there is no negative cementitious effect. Not every bubble can achieve this.

In the long-term test, we discover a lot of foam to cement, magnesite, gesso of gelling have hindrance, can reduce the strength of foam concrete, sometimes even from beginning to end the concrete after hardening loses strength basically, resemble a dish scatters sand.  The stability of these foams is very good, several hours do not disappear, the appearance of sponge, bleeding is very low, dense, and uniform, all aspects meet the technical requirements, but are not compatible with the gel material, so cannot be used for production. This means that foams that are otherwise qualified, such as affecting strength, are ultimately not technically qualified. 

Suppliers of Concrete Additives

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With Russia taking the lead on Poland and Bulgaria at the end of last month, there appears to be a growing sense of compromise within the EU over whether to accept Moscow's proposed rouble settlement order. 

Italy's prime minister said recently that European companies would be able to buy gas in roubles without violating sanctions.  This apparently ignores the guidance of hardliners in the EU to "fight to the end". 

For weeks, European companies have been trying to find ways to meet Russia's payment demands for the rouble while maintaining vital gas supplies without violating sanctions against Moscow. 

Late last month, European Commission President Von der Leyen said operating under the mechanism would violate sanctions and asked European companies not to bow to Russian demands. However, the EU has yet to issue more rigorous written guidelines on how companies should pay Gazprom. 

The Italian prime minister said recently, "There is no official announcement from the European Union about what ruble settlement means for sanctions violations, and no one has said whether ruble payments violate sanctions or not. It's a grey area." 

"In fact, most gas importers are already opening rouble accounts for deals with Gazprom,"

He also used German companies as a shield. He said Germany's largest gas importer had already paid in rubles. "In fact, we saw evidence yesterday that the largest gas importer in Germany has already paid in rubles."

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