Journal of King Saud University – Engineering Sciences xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Journal of King Saud University – Engineering Sciences

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Original article

Strength and durability of self-curing concrete developed using calcium

lignosulfonate
Rayees Ali Khan a, Chhavi Gupta a, Shamshad Alam b,⇑
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Sharda University, Greater Noida 201310, Uttar Pradesh, India
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Chandigarh University, Mohali 140413, Punjab, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Large quantity of water is required during the conventional curing methods. This becomes challenging in
Received 6 July 2020 the areas facing water scarcity and for concreting work in high rise structures. In this work, we present a
Accepted 1 February 2021 solution for the need of concrete which does not require extra water for curing. In the proposed solution,
Available online xxxx
calcium lignosulfonate in different percentage was introduced as a self-curing agent in fresh concrete.
The hardened concrete with calcium lignosulfonate was cured at ambient condition whereas the hard-
Keywords: ened concrete without calcium lignosulfonate was submerged in water for curing. The properties of fresh
Self-curing
and hardened concrete with and without calcium lignosulfonate are compared. The results show a con-
Calcium lignosulfonate
Mechanical property
tinuous increase in slump with the increase in calcium lignosulfonate, however, 0.3% calcium lignosul-
Durability fonate is identified as an optimum percentage for desired mechanical property. The durability under
Water penetration resistance saline environment is studied in term of loss in strength. Further, the change in strength is correlated
with the mineralogical changes studied using X-ray diffraction results.
Ó 2021 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an
open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction
The hydration of cement plays an important role in strengthen-
ing the hardened concrete. The extent of hydration depends on the
availability of the moisture in the concrete which requires large
amount of water. Different curing methods such as submerging
the samples in water (in laboratory), covering the concrete panel
using wet gunny (outdoor condition), and spraying water on the
concrete panel are commonly used. Zeyad (2019) studied the
impact of different curing methods and reported the compressive
strength of high strength concrete more than 60 MPa after 28 days
irrespective of the curing method. Steam curing is one of the new-
est methods of concrete curing and the strength development dur-
ing this method is found directly dependent on the temperature of
steam (Ramezanianpour et al., 2015). The steam curing and auto-
clave curing (in laboratory) is found more effective than conven-
tional curing even for the concrete developed using fly ash and
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: safzal88@gmail.com (S. Alam).
Peer review under responsibility of King Saud University.
Production and hosting by Elsevier
GGBS (Yazici et al., 2009). However, sufficient curing is not always
practical in the areas facing water scarcity and for concreting work
in high rise structures. So, the development of self-curing concrete
has attracted several researchers’ (Dhir et al., 1995a, 1995b;
Reinhardt and Weber, 1998) attention. Self-curing concrete is
developed usually by using the pre-wetted aggregates by introduc-
ing some polymer in the concrete. These aggregate or polymer
release its moisture during the drying process of the concrete
thereby supply water to cementing material for complete hydra-
tion (Jensen and Hansen, 2001). Several studies have been per-
formed to replace the natural aggregate in the concrete by
recycled aggregate (Abed et al., 2018), walnut cell (Hilal et al.,
2020) and to replace the cementitious material by phosphogypsum
(Degirmenci, 2008) and by fly ash (Siddika et al., 2020) without
considering the self-curing aspect.
However, several researches have been performed to develop
the self-curing concrete by replacing the conventional coarse or
fine aggregate by alternate materials. Pre-wetted light weight
aggregate has also been used in the self-curing concrete by several
researchers and its crack tendency (Byard et al., 2012), mechanical
property (Dang et al., 2015; Yang and Wang, 2017) and durability
(Zhutovsky and Kovler, 2012) has been studied. However, the pre-
soaked coarse aggregate can supply water only to very close vicin-
ity (Henkensiefken et al., 2009); therefore, pre-soaked fine aggre-
gate has been preferred by most of the researchers. The internal

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksues.2021.02.002
1018-3639/Ó 2021 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Please cite this article as: R. Ali Khan, C. Gupta and S. Alam, Strength and durability of self-curing concrete developed using calcium lignosulfonate, Journal
of King Saud University – Engineering Sciences, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksues.2021.02.002
R. Ali Khan, C. Gupta and S. Alam
curing using the pre-soaked expended shale was observed very
effective in controlling the shrinkage cracks (Cusson and
Hoogeveen, 2008). It has been reported that the porous ceramic
can be used as internal curing agent and can replace upto 40% fine
aggregate in concrete without any reduction in the compressive
strength (Suzuki et al., 2009). Mousa et al. (2015a and 2015b) uti-
lized the pre-soaked Leca as a lightweight aggregate and reported
that the use of Leca can also enhance the physical property of the
concrete. Wei et al. (2014) utilized pre-wetted sintered fly ash as
lightweight fine aggregate whereas Savva and Petrou (2018) uti-
lized the aggregate containing micritic calcite. The biomass waste
as self-curing agent was observed effective in controlling the
shrinkage of the concrete (Lura et al., 2014). Liu et al. (2017)
reported that the internal curing using cenospheres also improves
the compressive strength of cement-mortar. Kim and Lee (2018)
reported that the bottom ash as self-curing agent can also enhance
the compressive strength of concrete. The degree of hydration was
observed to increase by 17% with very small loss (4%) in the com-
pressive strength when 5% pre-soaked biochar was used as fine
aggregate (Dixit et al., 2019). The recycled fine aggregate was
observed to release upto 40% water during self-curing and reduce
the shrinkage by 24%-73% (Li et al., 2020). Recently, Balapour
et al. (2020) studied the suitability of bottom coal ash on the inter-
nal curing of concrete and observed that the bottom ash is able to
release 85% water at 94% relative humidity.
However, utilization of porous aggregate in the concrete for
internal curing may reduce the compressive strength (Li et al.,
2020). Therefore, several researchers utilized the water soluble
polymers as an internal curing agent. The polyethylene-glycol
and polyacrylamide as an internal curing agent has been reported
as very effective in retaining the water in concrete thereby provid-
ing sufficient water for hydration of cement (Mousa et al., 2015b;
El-Dieb, 2007; El-Dieb et al., 2012). Yilmaz and Turken (2012) stud-
ied the impact of various polymers (paraffin emulsion, hydrocar-
bon resin, and acrylic resin) and reported that providing the
internal curing using these polymers can also increase the com-
pressive strength by 27%. Justs et al. (2015) reported that the uti-
lization of superabsorbent polymer can reduce the early strength
by 33% but the percentage reduction in strength decreases with
time and remain 9% to 19% after 28 days. The polymer like poly-
ethylene glycol 4000 and 200 was observed to improve the forma-
tion of C-S-H gel thereby improving the strength and durability (Sri
Rama Chand et al., 2016). Sastry and Kumar (2018) performed a
comparative study on the impact of different polymer (polyethy-
lene glycol, polyvinyl alcohol, and superabsorbent polymer) and
reported that the polyethylene glycol is more effective compared
to others. Tu et al. (2019) studied the impact of super absorbent
polymer on the shrinkage of alkali activated fly ash-slag pest. The
result revealed that the polymer reduce the hydration rate thereby
reduce the autogenous shrinkage. The superabsorbent may be of
different group such as anionic, cationic, and non-ionic group. It
has been observed that the superabsorbent with both (anionic
and cationic groups) or with anionic group in high density are
excellent internal curing agent (Zhong et al., 2019). Qin et al.
(2020) studied the impact of particle size of superabsorbent poly-
mer on the water movement behavior. It was observed that the
superabsorbent polymer with smaller particle size is able to pro-
vide water for hydration for comparatively long time.
Wyrzykowski et al. (2020) found the superabsorbent polymer very
effective in controlling the shrinkage of CSH seeded low water-
cement ratio mortar.
From the literatures, it is observed that most of the research-
ers have used water soluble polymers like superabsorbent, poly-
ethylene glycol, polyvinyl alcohol, paraffin emulsion,
hydrocarbon resin, acrylic resin, and polyacrylamide as internal
curing agent.
2
Journal of King Saud University – Engineering Sciences xxx (xxxx) xxx
Calcium lignosulfonate (CLS) is a water soluble lignin based
anionic polymer which is derived as byproduct during sulfite pulp-
ing. It is a strong dispersant with high water absorption capacity
(Ouyang et al., 2006; Yang et al., 2008). Although the calcium lig-
nosulfonate possess strong dispersive and water absorption capac-
ity, it has not been used as self-curing agent in concrete to the best
of our knowledge. Therefore, this research is conducted to under-
stand the impact of calcium lignosulfonate (CLS) as self-curing
agent on the workability, mechanical property (compressive, ten-
sile, and flexural strength), density, durability, and water penetra-
tion resistance of concrete. All the concrete samples (with or
without CLS) has been prepared using similar quantity of aggre-
gate, cement, and water. The CLS has been used as self-curing
agent and will eliminate the water requirement for the curing of
hardened concrete. However, the quantitative analysis of curing
water is required to gain confidence in utilizing the CLS as self-
curing agent and may be included in the further study.
2. Materials and methodology
In the present study, M30 grade concrete has been used whose
target strength was calculated as 36.60 N/mm2 using the method
suggest by Indian standard (IS 10262, 2009). Ordinary Portland
cement (OPC) of grade 43 has been used to prepare the concrete.
The specific gravity of the cement was found to be 3.06 (ASTM C
188, 2017) with 4% retained on the 0.09 mm sieve. The medium
sand with fineness modulus of 2.78 and specific gravity value of
2.61 (ASTM C128, 2015) has been used as fine aggregate. Whereas,
the crushed aggregate of size 20 mm has been used as coarse
aggregate whose specific gravity was found to be 2.70 (ASTM
C127, 2015). The water absorption value of fine and coarse aggre-
gate was 0.21% (ASTM C128, 2015) and 0.31% (ASTM C127, 2015)
respectively.
The water required to prepare 1 m3 M30 concrete was calcu-
lated as 172.42 L (IS 10262 (2009)). Depending on the grade of
cement used in the present study, the water-cement (W/C) ratio
is fixed as 0.4 as per the clause 3.1.1 of IS 10262 (2009) and accord-
ingly the amount of cement was calculated to be 431.06 kg/m3.
Based on the quantity of water and cement, the required amount
of coarse and fine aggregate to prepare M30 grade concrete was
determined as 1152.58 kg/m3 and 624.31 kg/m3 respectively (IS
10262, 2009). The superplasticizer (Auramix 400) has been used
in 0.8% which is decided based on trials with different percentage
to achieve the slump in between 50 mm and 75 mm. The calcium
lignosulfonate (CLS) having water solubility 98% to 98.5% has been
used as self-curing agent in different percentage (0.2%, 0.3%, 0.4%,
and 0.5%). The quantity of each ingredient in the concrete has been
presented in the Table 1.
The fresh concrete was prepared in the laboratory by adding
0.8% superplasticizer and different percentage (0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and
0.5%) of calcium lignosulfonate (self-curing agent). The slump test
on the fresh concrete was performed as per the ASTM C143/
C143M-15a (2015) using the slump cone (supplied by Aimil Ltd.)
having height 300 mm with 200 mm and 100 mm top and bottom
dimeter respectively. The controlled specimen for the strength test
was cured in water whereas the specimen with self-curing agent
was cured at ambient condition for 28 days. The compressive
strength test was performed as per IS 516 (2004) on the cube
shaped sample of size 150 mm. The split tensile strength test on
300 mm long cylindrical samples with 150 mm diameter (ASTM
C496/C496M-17, 2017) is performed to study the tensile strength
of the self-curing concrete. A digital compression testing machine
(supplied by Accro-Tech, AT-115-2) of maximum capacity 2000
kN with an accuracy of 2 kN was used for both the compressive
strength test and the split tensile strength test. The compressive
R. Ali Khan, C. Gupta and S. Alam Journal of King Saud University – Engineering Sciences xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 1
Quantity of different ingredient used in 1 m3 of concrete.

Ingredient of concreter Quantity (per m3 of concrete)

Coarse aggregate 1152.58 kg
Fine aggregate 624.31 kg
Cement (OPC 43 grade) 431.06 kg
Water 172.42 L
Superplasticizer 0.8%
Calcium lignosulfonate 0.0% 0.2% 0.3% 0.4% 0.5%
Remarks Controlled sample Samples with CLS as self-curing agent

load is applied along the length of the cylindrical sample with a 3. Results and discussions:
constant rate until the splitting of the sample along the length.
The tensile strength is then calculated using Eq. 1. 3.1. Property of fresh concrete

2P The property of fresh concrete is presented in term of workabil-

T¼ ð1Þ
pDL ity which is studied in term of slump height. The workability can
be defined qualitatively as the ease of placement or quantitatively
Where
by rheological parameter (Ferraris, 1999). In the present study the
T is tensile strength
workability is studied to understand the ease of placement of con-
P is failure load
crete without the segregation of aggregate or bleeding. The slump
L is length of specimen (300 mm)
height of fresh concrete with water-cement ratio of 0.4 and with
D is diameter of the specimen (150 mm)
0.8% superplasticizer (Auramix 400) which is constant for all spec-
The flexural strength was performed on the unreinforced beam
imens is observed as 53 mm (Fig. 1). However, the slump height
(100 mm  100 mm  500 mm) (ASTM C293/C293M-16, 2016)
increased after adding the CLS at the same water-cement ratio.
using the two point load mechanism. The bending load is applied
We believe that the increase in slump was due to the entrapped
with a constant rate of 180 kg/min till the failure of the specimen
air present in CLS or due to the reason that the CLS does not reach
using the loading machine (supplied by Accro-Tech, AT-115-2) of
its maximum absorption capacity just after mixing (Tu et al., 2019).
maximum load capacity of 2000 kN with an accuracy of 2 kN. Then
Previous researchers have also reported the similar effect of pul-
flexural strength is calculated using Eq. 2 or Eq. 3. The Eq. 2 is used
verized fuel ash (Bai et al., 1999) and rice husk ash (Givi et al.,
when the distance between the failure point and the nearer sup-
2010) on slum of fresh concrete. A nonlinear variation in the slump
port (a) is more than 13.3 cm otherwise Eq. 3 has been used.
height is observed with the increasing percentage of self-curing
agent (Fig. 1).
PL
Fb ¼ 2
ð2Þ
Bd 3.2. Mechanical property

The mechanical property of the hardened concrete is studied

3Pa
Fb ¼ 2
ð3Þ and presented in terms of compressive, tensile, and flexural
Bd strength. Three replicas for each sample are tested and the average
Where: value is reported as the strength. The compressive strength was
P is failure load performed on the cube shaped sample of 150 mm size using com-
a is distance between fracture line and the nearer support pression testing machine (CTM) of capacity 2000 kN and the result
B is width of specimen is presented in term of 7 days and 28 days strength (Fig. 2). The
d is failure point depth
L is supported length
All the results of controlled samples cured in the water and the
samples containing CLS (self-curing agent) obtained after 7 days
and 28 days curing was compared. The resistance towards the
water penetration of the concrete without and with optimum
self-curing agent after 28 days curing is studied using the method
as per DIN 1048 (1991) using concrete permeability apparatus
(Aimil Ltd., Model: AIM 384). Further the durability of the con-
trolled specimen and the specimen with optimum percentage of
self-curing agent in marine environment is studied in term of
change in strength by exposing the specimen to the laboratory pre-
pared salt solution resembling the sea water for 56 days. It would
be worthy to mention here that three replicas of each samples has
been used to study the mechanical property, water penetration
resistance, and durability with the slump test repeated thrice for
same material and the average value with standard deviation has
been presented in this work. The change in strength is correlated
with the change in mineralogy which is studied using the XRD
results. The XRD tests are performed using CuKb target within the
range of 10° – 70° with the scanning rate of 2°/min at 40 kV voltage
and 30 mA current. Fig. 1. Variation of slump with the percentage of calcium lignosulfonate.

3
R. Ali Khan, C. Gupta and S. Alam
Fig. 2. Variation of compressive strength with the percentage of calcium
lignosulfonate.
strength of the controlled sample (without any self-curing agent)
cured in the water for 28 days is obtained as 36.40 MPa (Fig. 2)
which is well in agreement with the calculated target strength
(36.23 MPa) of M30 concrete.
The specimen with 0.2% CLS and cured at ambient condition
results a decrease in compressive strength by 4.14%. However,
the specimen with 0.3% self-curing agent gives the compressive
strength of 36.62 MPa. The specimen with higher percentage (more
than 0.3%) self-curing agent and cured at ambient condition shows
continuous decrease in the compressive strength. The pattern of
the variation of compressive strength is found in well agreement
with previous researchers (Sastry and Kumar, 2018). The tensile
strength test is performed on the cylindrical specimen and the
strength of the controlled specimen after 28 days curing in water
is obtained as 3.18 MPa (Fig. 3).
Similar strength (3.19 MPa) has also been shown by the speci-
men with 0.3% self-curing agent that was cured at ambient condi-
tion. The specimen with 0.4% self-curing agent shows lower
strength whereas addition of 0.5% self-curing agent again increases
the tensile strength but it is lower than that of with 0.3%. However,
Fig. 3. Variation of tensile strength with the percentage of calcium lignosulfonate.
4
Journal of King Saud University – Engineering Sciences xxx (xxxx) xxx
further investigation with higher percentage is required to under-
stand the actual behavior. The flexural strength is performed on
the beam and the 28 days flexural strength of the controlled spec-
imen cured in water is observed as 6.90 MPa (Fig. 4).
The addition of self-curing agent is observed to increase the
strength by 13.04% when 0.3% self-curing agent is added. The lower
strength at 0.2% self-curing agent may be attributed to the release
of insufficient water for curing. Whereas, high percentage of addi-
tives may result in the large volume of void in concrete after
releasing the water thereby will reduce the strength (Dudziak
and Mechtcherine, 2009). In the present study, it is observed that
0.3% CLS is optimum that does not show any negative impact on
the strength but increases the strength up to some extent by pro-
viding extra curing water (Justs et al., 2013). Calcium lignosul-
fonate (0.3%) also helps in dispersion (Ouyang et al., 2006; Yang
et al., 2008) of cement in the concrete which gives better binding
among the aggregate. However, addition of 0.4% self-curing agent
decreases the flexural strength which may be attributed to the
development of larger voids (Dudziak and Mechtcherine, 2009).
Most of the researchers reported the loss in strength when super-
absorbent polymers (SAP) are used as self-curing agent (Tu et al.,
2019; Zhong et al., 2019) whereas sulphated naphthalene
formaldehyde doesn’t have any negative impact on strength
(Mousa et al., 2015b). The tensile and flexural strength is observed
to increase again when 0.5% calcium lignosulfonate is added which
needs further detailed study to understand this behavior. A com-
parison among the rate of change of the strength (compressive,
tensile, and flexural) is presented in the Fig. 5.
It is observed that the compressive strength decreased consid-
erably in case of 0.2% CLS, whereas, there is negligible change in
the tensile and flexural strength. However, the maximum value
of all the strength values (compressive, tensile, and flexural) are
observed at 0.3% CLS (Fig. 5). Higher percentage (more than 0.3%)
of CLS is observed to decreases the compressive and tensile
strength significantly whereas; marginal chance in the flexural
strength is observed.
3.3. Density of hardened concrete
The density of the hardened concrete after 28 days curing is cal-
culated by using the weight and the volume of the specimen. It is
observed that the controlled sample cured in water shows the
Fig. 4. Variation of flexural strength with the percentage of calcium lignosulfonate.
R. Ali Khan, C. Gupta and S. Alam Journal of King Saud University – Engineering Sciences xxx (xxxx) xxx

laboratory prepared salt solution resembling the marine water

for 56 days after 28 days curing. The salt solutions were prepared
in the laboratory containing different salts in different percentage
as presented in Table 2.
After the exposure of 56 days, the compressive strength tests
were performed on the specimen. It was observed that the salt
solution shows the negative impact on the controlled sample with
18.32% loss in compressive strength (Fig. 7).
However, the specimen with self-curing agent was observed to
gain strength by 20.01% (Fig. 6) after exposure to salt solution. The
fall in strength of the controlled sample can be attributed to the
larger depth of penetration of salt solution in the specimen as dis-
cussed in the next section. But further detailed microstructural
analysis is required in this direction to understand the change in
strength.

3.5. Water penetration test

Fig. 5. Comparisons among the variation of different strength after 28 days curing.
The water penetration test is performed on the specimen after
28 days curing to find the movement of water in the hardened con-
crete under pressure. The cubic sample of size 150 mm was
clamped and the water is allowed to penetrate the sample at
0.5 MPa pressure for 72 hrs (DIN 1048, 1991). After three days,
the specimen was broken and the depth of penetration of water
was measured. It was observed that in the controlled sample the
water penetrated upto the depth of 5 mm. On the other hand,
the sample that went through 28 days self-curing (with 0.3%
CLS) shows higher resistance towards water penetration with pen-
etration depth of only 2.2 mm. The greater depth of penetration in
controlled sample causes the loss of strength of concrete in salt
solution as discussed in previous section.

Table 2
Percentage of different salt used to prepare the salt solution.

Salt Percentage by weight of water per liter (%)

Sodium chloride 3%
Potassium chloride 0.08%
Magnesium sulfate 0.66%
Sodium hydrogen carbonate 0.05%
Fig. 6. Variation of density of concrete with the percentage of calcium
Calcium chloride 0.13%
lignosulfonate.

maximum density (2528.16 kg/m3) (Fig. 6) whereas the density

decreases with the addition of self-curing agent.
The variation of the density is observed as nonlinear which
shows minimum value at 0.35% self-curing agent beyond which,
the density further increases. The pattern of variation observed
in the present work is in well agreement with the previous litera-
ture (Pereira et al., 2012). The initial decrease in the density till
0.35% may be due to the increase in entrapped air in the specimen.
The lower density will help in reducing the self-weight of the con-
crete, however, the strength at 0.35% CLS need to be studied. It may
also be mentioned here that the conclusion drawn in the present
study is based on the limited number of data and is required to
add more data in the future study to understand the actual
behavior.

3.4. Durability

The ability of the developed self-curing concrete to retain its

strength under adverse environmental condition has been studied
and discussed. The controlled specimen and the specimen with
self-curing agent with optimum percentage (0.3%) are exposed to Fig. 7. Impact of salt solution on the compressive strength.

5
R. Ali Khan, C. Gupta and S. Alam
Fig. 8. XRD pattern of concrete without and with optimum percentage of CLS.
3.6. Mineralogical analysis
The mineralogical analysis is performed using XRD results to
compare the mineralogical difference between the concrete sam-
ple cured in water and the self-curing concrete with 0.3% CLS.
The formation of cementitious materials like calcium silicate
hydrate, tricalcium aluminate, calcium aluminum silicate, and cal-
cium hydrogen silicate were confirmed in both the specimen
(specimen without CLS and with CLS) from the XRD results (Fig. 8).
However, the difference in terms of the peak intensity of
cementitious materials like calcium silicate hydrate, calcium alu-
minum silicate, and calcium hydrogen silicate can be observed in
the controlled specimen and specimen containing 0.3% CLS
(Fig. 8). The higher intensity of peaks confirm the formation of
higher quantity of these cementitious materials which increases
the strength of specimen containing 0.3% CLS. Nowadays,
microstructural image captured using CT scanning (Tang et al.,
2016) or SEM technology is commonly utilized to correlate the
increase/decrease in strength. But, in the present study, CLS is used
as self-curing agent and chemical reaction with CLS is not expected
which is also observed in XRD result. So, in the present study CT or
SEM analysis has not been presented, however, it may be included
in future study to understand the exact mechanism.
4. Conclusions
In this paper the calcium lignosulfonate is used as the self-
curing agent in different percentage to develop self-curing con-
crete and the impact of the same on mechanical property has been
studied and discussed. Along with the mechanical property, the
workability, density, durability, and resistance towards the water
penetration has also been studied. This is the first attempt towards
utilizing the calcium lignosulfonate as self-curing agent in concrete
as per the knowledge of the authors and will invite attention of
researchers for further studies in this direction.
6
Journal of King Saud University – Engineering Sciences xxx (xxxx) xxx
Based on the laboratory experiments following conclusions
have been drawn.
1. The workability of fresh concrete increases non-linearly with
the increase in the percentage of calcium lignosulfonate and
no segregation of aggregate was observed till 0.5%, however,
further segregation test is suggested if higher percentage of cal-
cium lignosulfonate is used.
2. The optimum percentage of calcium lignosulfonate is obtained
as 0.3% by strength point of view. The 28 days compressive
strength at this percentage is observed as 36.63 MPa whereas
the tensile and flexural strength are observed as 3.19 MPa and
7.8 MPa, respectively, after 28 days. Although, the strength is
maximum at 0.3% CLS, the minimum density is observed at
0.35% CLS with non-linear variation.
3. The salt solution is observed to show negative impact on the
controlled sample with 18.32% loss in compressive strength
whereas the specimen with CLS is observed to gain the strength
by 20.01% after exposure to salt solution. The loss in strength
can be attributed to the fact that the concrete without CLS
shows lower resistance towards water penetration with pene-
tration depth of 5.0 mm as compared to the concrete with CLS
that shows penetration depth of only 2.2 mm.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
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