Effect of Internal Activation Using Porous Ceramic Aggregate on Hardness and Pore Structure of Fly Ash Cement Paste

The utilization of fly ash not only reduces the environmental impact but also improves some mechanical properties and durability of concrete. However, the early-age strength of fly ash concrete is sometimes lower than that of normal concrete due to the slow pozzolanic reaction of fly ash. In recent years, some researchers have suggested alkali or sulfate activation to accelerate the pozzolanic reaction. Some studies have used sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution, while others have applied potassium sulfate (K2SO4) or sodium sulfate (Na2SO4) as activators which are effective in accelerating the pozzolanic reaction and increasing the strength at early age. On the other hand, the early-age strength of fly ash concrete is also improved by using porous ceramic aggregate (PCA) as an internal curing agent. Therefore, the present study aims at investigating the effect of an internal activating agent using PCA on hardness and pore structure of fly ash cement paste. In the experimental program, PCA immersed in two kinds of solution (K2SO4 and Na2SO4) was placed in the center of specimen with dimension of 21x21x20 mm. In addition, normal aggregate (NS) was used for reference. As a result, internal sulfate activation using PCA improved the hardness of interfacial transition zone (ITZ) between paste and PCA, and reduced the Ca(OH)2 content in cement paste with 40% replacement with fly ash significantly at the age of 1 day, but negligibly at the ages of 7 and 28 days when compared with reference specimen. K2SO4 was more effective in improving hardness of ITZ as an internal activating agent than Na2SO4. Although the total pore volumes of the fly ash cement pastes using PCA imbibing sulfate activators were not reduced at the age of 28 days, their pore volumes with diameters less than 0.05 µm were increased.