Design of experiment approach to optimize the mix design of cement mortar containing Nano-SiO۲

A cement mortar is a cement-based material that has a significant effect on concrete's mechanical properties, i.e., its compressive strength. Hence, modifying cement mortar properties is necessary to achieve the highest compressive strength of concrete. For this reason, the mix design must have the right amount of effective parameters present in the mortar matrix to achieve the desired compressive strength. Using the statistical Taguchi method, ۵۴ samples of cement mortar were produced and analyzed. An L۱۸ orthogonal array (OA) was used to determine the significance of each parameter on the compressive strength of cement. To this end, the cement mortar specimens, including three factors of water to cement materials (binder) ratio (W/B) at three levels of ۰.۳۵, ۰.۴, and ۰.۴۵, fine aggregate to binder (FA/B) at levels ۲, ۲.۷۵, and Nano-silica (NS) at levels of ۱%, ۲%, and ۳% by weight cement, were prepared. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) method was used to determine the statistical effects of the factors. The Taguchi method indicates that W/B and NS have a significant effect on cement mortar compressive strength. Additionally, the optimum levels of each factor to obtain the highest compressive strength of cement mortar are levels of ۲ for FA/B, ۰.۳۵ for W/B, and ۳% for NS. The high statistical accuracy and close proximity of predicted results to actual results prove that the Taguchi statistical method is considered a reliable method for optimization and analysis of the effect of input parameters on final results. This method can be used for various other optimization problems in civil engineering, such as predicting the strength of concrete or brick masonry structures. It is also useful for assessing the risk of failure due to various environmental and operational factors.

کلیدواژه ها:

Cement mortar ، water to binder ، fine aggregate to binder ، Nano-silica ، Compressive strength ، statistical Taguchi method