The history of concrete admixtures is as old as the concrete. Concrete admixtures are the part of concrete technology. In olden days, sometimes, site engineer used to suggest (as per their experience) adding chemicals before or during mixing of concrete ingredients. Concrete admixtures are an important component in concrete with cement, water, and aggregates. Nowadays concrete admixtures are an important and increasingly widespread component in the world. Concrete without admixtures is nowadays an exception. They are not harmful to concrete structures however they ultimately improve the properties of the fresh and hardened concrete.
These days concrete is being used for various purposes to make it suitable for different conditions. Ordinary concrete may not give us the required quality performance such as durability, strength, workability and finishing quality of concrete. In such situations, concrete admixtures are used to modify or improve the ordinary concrete properties. i.e. mass concreting, concreting at narrow spaces, at remote places where water is not available easily, where formwork need to be removed early, concreting work near coastal area, etc.