Search

A vitreous breccia with variable amount of mordenite was studied for its use as pozzolan. The raw material was characterized by optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and the zeolite content was estimated by the methylene blue staining technique. After being ground, physical characteristics, cation exchange capacity (CEC), pozzolanicity, and the compressive strength activity index (SAI) were determined. The staining technique and the CEC measurement were used to evaluate the average content of zeolite. The vitreous breccia has pozzolanic activity after 7 days, the water demand increases slightly, and its addition stimulates the early hydration of portland cement. At later ages, the pozzolanic reaction around the grains, as revealed by SEM studies, improves the compressive strength of blended cements having a SAI > 0.85 at 28 days.

Optimization methods are tools of vital importance in composite material design, where large numbers of components and design criteria must be taken into account. The formulation of today’s separately milled custommade cements is a clear example of just such a case, for the components must be proportioned to yield mortars and concretes with the proper balance of durability, strength, financial and environmental features. Multicriteria optimization has been used to develop many materials, although its application in cement formulation has yet to be explored. The present paper discusses the use of an objective function to jointly optimize sorptivity and compressive strength in limestone- (up to 20%) and/or granulated blast furnace slag- (up to 20%) additioned Portland cement concrete.

With today’s extensive use of cements containing two or more additions (blended cements), predicting concrete durability on the grounds of its strength alone leads to errors that may affect the service life of the resulting structures. Indeed, concrete of a given strength class can be made from different materials and proportions of widely varying durability. The present study evaluated water absorption, sorptivity and initial surface absorption in concrete made with unadditioned Portland, binary (limestone) and ternary (limestone and granulated slag) blend cement.

El filler calcáreo produce un incremento de la hidratación temprana debido al efecto físico (relleno y nucleación heterogénea). El efecto de dilución contrarresta este beneficio y limita su contenido. La escoria reacciona lentamente, provoca el refinamiento de granos y poros, y mejora las propiedades mecánicas y durables. En este trabajo se estudia la hidratación de cementos con filler (0 a 20 %) y Escoria (0 a 35%), empleando el modelo de Powers ampliado por Chen & Browers para escoria. A partir de los resultados de la hidratación, se analizan la resistencia mecánica del hormigón (a/mc = 0.50), y el proceso de segmentación de poros en relación con la tasa de absorción capilar. Los resultados muestran una limitación del contenido de filler para obtener una respuesta adecuada de la resistencia mecánica y durable a largas edades, y del contenido de escoria para obtener valores apropiados a temprana edad.

While there is ample information in the literature on the mechanical performance and durability of concrete made with either limestone or granulated blast furnace slag,very little is known about the effect of the combined action of these two additions on concrete properties. The present paper evaluates the early stage properties and mechanical strength of binary and ternary cement concrete containing up to 18% limestone and 20% granulated blast furnace slag. The results show that the use of ternary cements has no substantial effect on concrete setting time, although it does reduce bleeding and enhance mechanical strength with respect to unadditioned Portland and/or binary cement concrete.

For reasons of market demand and Portland cement production,the manufacture of cements with two or more separately ground additions to produce customized cements is becoming common practice. When pozzolan or slag content in this type of cements is high, however, the initial strength of the resulting product may be adversely impacted. This problem can be minimized by activating one or both of the replacement materials. The present study analyzes the effect of Portland cement additions such as physically activated natural pozzolan(up to 20%) and/or granulated blast furnace slag (up to 35%) on mortar flexural and compressive strength. The results show that higher strength is attained in ternary than binary cements. Initially (2 and 7 days), the highest compressive strengths are reached by mortars with up to 13% natural pozzolan and 5% slag, whereas at later ages mortars with larger proportions of additions are found to perform best.

During the 1990's the use of cements made with port land clinker and two mineral admixtures, called ternary or blended cements, has grown considerably. Nowadays, cements containing several combinations of fly ash and silica fume, blast-furnace slag and silica fume or blast-furnace slag and limestone filler are commonly used. There are numerous works on the influence of blended cements on the fresh state and mechanical properties of mortar and concrete, but the their deformations due to drying shrinkage are not so well described. Analysis of drying shrinkage is relevant because this property influences the possibility of cracking occurrence and, hence, the deterioration of mechanical and durable properties of concrete structures. This paper evaluates the influence on the drying shrinkage of mortars of variable contents of limestone filler and/or blast-furnace slag in Portland cement. Additionally, flexion strength and non evaporable water content were evaluated. Test results show that the inclusion of these mineral admixtures, Joint or separately, increments drying shrinkage of mortars at early ages. Despite this fact, mortars made with limestone filler cement are less susceptible to cracking than mortars made with cements incorporating blast-furnace slag or both admixtures.

In this paper, the hydration mechanism of portland cement pastes with limestone, quartz and natural pozzolan (80/20 weight) was analized. The techniques used were nonevaporable water content, pozzolanic activity and X-ray diffraction. Results show that filler effect increases initially the amount of hydration products in all pastes. For limestone pastes, the dilution effect is significant at long time, for quartz and pozzolan pastes the dilution effect was lower due to the contribution of the pozzolanic reaction.

This paper analyses the influence of portland cement replacement by silica fume (up to 10%) and/or granulated blast furnace slag (up to 70%) on the hydration cement (XRD, heat of hydration, non evaporable water content and calcium hydroxide content) curing under sealed conditions and their effect on the mechanical strength. The obtained results indicate that binary cements containing silica fume and ternary cements there was a significant increase of hydration rate at early age. At later ages, most of studied cements have an equivalent or greater strength that those obtained in the plain portland cement.