Use of Isothermal Conduction Calorimetric Method for Measuring the Heat of Hydration of Cement

In the present study, an extensive test program is conducted to measure and compare the heat of hydration obtained from both calorimeter and ASTM C186-05 test methods. A statistical analysis is performed to evaluate the variations of the test data. The results indicate that the isothermal conduction calorimeter method is a more reliable, less time-consuming, and less labor-intensive method than the ASTM C186-05 test method. The heat of hydration at 3 days showed the least variation in all calorimeter tests. These suggest that ASTM shall consider adopting the isothermal conduction calorimeter method for measuring the heat of hydration of cement. The 3-day heat of hydration value can be used for specifying the limit of heat release for type II cements.