Hydration of Cement Pastes Using the Cement LC3

The ferrite aluminate cement (FAC) could rapidly lose fluidity or workability due to its excessive hydration rate, and greatly reduce the construction performance. Chemical admixtures are commonly used to provide the workability of cement-based materials. In this study, to ensure required fluidity of FAC, chemically different water reducing agents are incorporated into the FAC pastes. The experiments are performed with aliphatic water reducing agent (AP), polycarboxylic acid water reducing agent (PC) and melamine water reducing agent (MA), respectively. Influence of the water reducing agents on fluidity, setting time, hydration process, hydration product and zeta potential of the fresh cement pastes is investigated. The results show that PC has a better dispersion capacity compared to AP and MA. Besides decreasing water dosage, PC also acts as a retarder, significantly increasing the setting times, delaying the hydration rate and leading to less ettringite in the hydration process of FAC particles. The water reducing agents molecules are adsorbed on the surface of positively charged minerals and hydration products, however, for PC, steric hindrance from the long side chain of PC plays a critical role in dispersing cement particles, whereas AP and MA acting through an electrostatic repulsion force.

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Effect of Calcium Nitrate on the Properties of Portland–Limestone Cement-Based Concrete Cured at Low Temperature

Materials ◽

10.3390/ma14071611 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (7) ◽

pp. 1611

Author(s):

Gintautas Skripkiūnas ◽

Asta Kičaitė ◽

Harald Justnes ◽

Ina Pundienė

Keyword(s):

Compressive Strength ◽

Cement Paste ◽

Setting Time ◽

Calcium Nitrate ◽

Curing Temperature ◽

Hardened Concrete ◽

Cement Pastes ◽

Initial Setting Time ◽

Initial Setting ◽

Early Strength

The effect of calcium nitrate (CN) dosages from 0 to 3% (of cement mass) on the properties of fresh cement paste rheology and hardening processes and on the strength of hardened concrete with two types of limestone-blended composite cements (CEM II A-LL 42.5 R and 42.5 N) at different initial (two-day) curing temperatures (−10 °C to +20 °C) is presented. The rheology results showed that a CN dosage up to 1.5% works as a plasticizing admixture, while higher amounts demonstrate the effect of increasing viscosity. At higher CN content, the viscosity growth in normal early strength (N type) cement pastes is much slower than in high early strength (R type) cement pastes. For both cement-type pastes, shortening the initial and final setting times is more effective when using 3% at +5 °C and 0 °C. At these temperatures, the use of 3% CN reduces the initial setting time for high early strength paste by 7.4 and 5.4 times and for normal early strength cement paste by 3.5 and 3.4 times when compared to a CN-free cement paste. The most efficient use of CN is achieved at −5 °C for compressive strength enlargement; a 1% CN dosage ensures the compressive strength of samples at a −5 °C initial curing temperature, with high early strength cement exceeding 3.5 MPa but being less than the required 3.5 MPa in samples with normal early strength cement.

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Utilization of Solid Waste from Brick Industry and Hydrated Lime in Self-Compacting Cement Pastes

Materials ◽

10.3390/ma14051109 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (5) ◽

pp. 1109

Author(s):

Mati Ullah Shah ◽

Muhammad Usman ◽

Muhammad Usman Hanif ◽

Iqra Naseem ◽

Sara Farooq

Keyword(s):

Mechanical Properties ◽

Solid Waste ◽

Manufacturing Industry ◽

Setting Time ◽

Hydrated Lime ◽

Pozzolanic Reaction ◽

Early Age ◽

Cement Pastes ◽

Brick Powder ◽

High Degree

The huge amount of solid waste from the brick manufacturing industry can be used as a cement replacement. However, replacement exceeding 10% causes a reduction in strength due to the slowing of the pozzolanic reaction. Therefore, in this study, the pozzolanic potential of brick waste is enhanced using ultrafine brick powder with hydrated lime (HL). A total of six self-compacting paste mixes were studied. HL 2.5% by weight of binder was added in two formulations: 10% and 20% of waste burnt brick powder (WBBP), to activate the pozzolanic reaction. An increase in the water demand and setting time was observed by increasing the replacement percentage of WBBP. It was found that the mechanical properties of mixes containing 5% and 10% WBBP performed better than the control mix, while the mechanical properties of the mixes containing 20% WBBP were found to be almost equal to the control mix at 90 days. The addition of HL enhanced the early-age strength. Furthermore, WBBP formulations endorsed improvements in both durability and rheological properties, complemented by reduced early-age shrinkage. Overall, it was found that brick waste in ultrafine size has a very high degree of pozzolanic potential and can be effectively utilized as a supplementary cementitious material.

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