Influence of Calcium Sulfate Varieties on Properties of Calcium Aluminate Cement-Based Self-Leveling Mortars

The effect of calcium sulfates varieties on the properties of calcium aluminate cement-based self-leveling mortar have been investigated, and the hydration kinetics, hydrated products and microstructures are characterized by isothermal calorimeter, X-ray diffraction and mercury intrusion porosimetry, respectively. The results show that the technological properties of mortars are significantly affected by calcium sulfate varieties and content. The setting times are shortened drastically with the addition of calcium sulfates. Mortars with hemihydrate show higher early strength and less drying shrinkage. In contrast, using anhydrite in mortars cause lower strength and higher drying shrinkage at early age but larger growth of strength in the late. The increasing calcium sulfates content may result in the delay of main hydration peak in the heat evolution curve. For formulation with hemihydrate, the appearance of main hydration peaks are advanced compared with formulation without addition of calcium sulfates. Moreover, mortar microstructures are optimized by addition of β-hemihydrate, the proportion of large pores are lower than that of mortars with anhydrite.