Effects of sand and silica fume on the vibration damping behavior of cement

The addition of sand to cement paste was found to degrade the vibration damping ability, as shown by decreases in both loss tangent and storage modulus under flexure. However, further addition of silica fume more than restored the vibration damping ability, due to the silica fume causing increases in both loss tangent and storage modulus. Silica fume increased the loss modulus of mortar by as much as three orders of magnitude.