Schematic drawing of the Basket-Probe for use with the Viskomat NT viscometer

At the 16 Conference on “Rheology of Building Materials” at the University for Applied Science Regensburg Germany, March 2007, Schleibinger presented a new probe for measuring SCC mortars. The conference has been running for 16 years and is organised by Schleibinger and was attended by some 80 participants from Europe.

The new design developed by Professor R. Vogel, Weimar Germany, in cooperation with Schleibinger is called a “Basket-Probe” for measuring SCC (Self-Consolidating Concrete) mortars. It has a flat double gap standard geometry, so you can get real rheological parameters but in opposite to other standard systems it minimises Professor Vogel (left) in discussion with some conference participants the wall slippage effects. The cylinder is like a gasket or a basket so strong cohesion effects between the materials dominates above the weak adhesive forces.

The probe works best with very fluid but stable pastes and mortars used for groups, SCC or Self- Leveling compounds. Patent pending.

The Viskomat NT is a versatile rotational viscometer for determining the workability of fine grained building materials such as cement paste, mortar, fine concrete, plaster etc. with a maximum particle size of 2 mm. With the Viskomat NT, you can obtain information on:

1.   flow curves and rheological parameters
2.   temperature dependent workability properties
3.   stiffening behaviour as a function of time an stirring speed
4.   effects of concrete admixtures and mineral blending agents on workability