Anticipating the Setting Time of High-Volume Fly Ash Concretes Using Electrical Measurements: Feasibility Studies Using Pastes
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 27, Issue 3
Abstract
One common concern limiting the proliferation of high-volume fly ash (HVFA) concrete mixtures is the significant delay in setting that is sometimes encountered in field concrete mixtures. While several methods to mitigate the delayed setting times of HVFA mixtures have been demonstrated, a related issue is the prediction of setting times in field mixtures, so that construction operations including finishing and curing can be anticipated and properly scheduled. This paper presents a feasibility study evaluating the employment of simple electrical measurements to predict the setting time of paste mixtures on which concurrent Vicat needle penetration testing was performed. Electrical, setting, and accompanying calorimetry tests are conducted at three different temperatures, each under quasi-isothermal conditions to minimize the confounding influence of temperature variation on the obtained results. Electrical resistance (or heat flow) measurements can be used to adequately predict a mixture’s initial setting time for a wide variety of binary and ternary powder blends, prepared at a constant water volume fraction. However, a simple parametric study in 100% ordinary portland cement pastes in which water content (water-to-cement ratio) is varied indicates that the relation between resistance trends and subsequent setting times is strongly dependent on the water content, as is also the case for the thermal measurements. This suggests that employment of this approach for field mixtures may require predetermination of the resistance-setting time relationship for each mixture of interest (e.g., calibration) or at least that the on-site water content of the concrete mixture be assessed and verified by a separate measurement.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Mr. Sterling Brooks and Mr. Luis Manrique for their assistance with the experimental measurements at NIST. The provision of materials by Lafarge, the Lehigh Cement Company, OMYA, Inc., and Separation Technologies LLC is gratefully acknowledged.
References
ASTM. (2008a). “Standard test method for time of setting of concrete mixtures by penetration resistance.” C403, West Conshohocken, PA.
ASTM. (2008b). “Standard test methods for time of setting of hydraulic cement by Vicat needle.” C191, West Conshohocken, PA.
ASTM. (2009). “Standard practice for measuring hydration kinetics of hydraulic cementitious mixtures using isothermal calorimetry.” C1679, West Conshohocken, PA.
ASTM. (2012). “Standard specification for portland cement.” C150, West Conshohocken, PA.
Bentz, D. P. (2007). “Cement hydration: Building bridges and dams at the microstructure level.” Mater. Struct., 40(4), 397–404.
Bentz, D. P. (2014). “Activation energies of high-volume fly ash ternary blends: Hydration and setting.” Cem. Concr. Compos., in press.
Bentz, D. P., and Ferraris, C. F. (2010). “Rheology and setting of high volume fly ash mixtures.” Cem. Concr. Comp., 32(4), 265–270.
Bentz, D. P., Ferraris, C. F., and Snyder, K. A. (2013a). “Best practices guide for high-volume fly ash concretes: Assuring properties and performance.”, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Washington, DC.
Bentz, D. P., Peltz, M. A., and Winpigler, J. (2009). “Early-age properties of cement-based materials: II. Influence of water-to-cement ratio.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 512–517.
Bentz, D. P., Tanesi, J., and Ardani, A. (2013b). “Ternary blends for controlling cost and carbon content.” Concr. Int., 35(8), 51–59.
De la Varga, I., Spragg, R. P., Di Bella, C., Castro, J., Bentz, D. P., and Weiss, W. J. (2014). “Fluid transport in high volume fly ash mixtures with and without internal curing.” Cem. Concr. Compos., 45, 102–110.
Li, Z., Xiao, L., and Wei, X. (2007). “Determination of concrete setting time using electrical resistivity measurement.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 423–427.
Mancio, M., Moore, J. R., Brooks, Z., Monteiro, P. J. M., and Glaser, S. D. (2010). “Instantaneous in-situ determination of water-cement ratio of fresh concrete.” ACI Mater. J., 107(6), 586–592.
Robeyst, N., Grosse, C. U., and De Belie, N. (2011). “Relating ultrasonic measurements on fresh concrete with mineral additions to the microstructure development simulated by Cemhyd3D.” Cem. Concr. Compos., 33(6), 680–693.
Shimizu, Y. (1928). “An electrical method for measuring the setting time of portland cement.” Science Rep. of the Tohoku Imperial Univ., Tohoku, Japan, Series I, XVII(1), 423–429.
Snyder, K. A., Ferraris, C. F., Martys, N. S., and Garboczi, E. J. (2000). “Using impedance spectroscopy to assess the viability of the rapid chloride test for determining concrete conductivity.” J. Res. Nat. Inst. Stand. Technol., 105(4), 497–509.
Subramaniam, K. V., Lee, J., and Christensen, B. J. (2005). “Monitoring the setting behavior of cementitious materials using one-sided ultrasonic measurements.” Cem. Concr. Res., 35(5), 850–857.
Tanesi, J., Bentz, D. P., and Ardani, A. (2013). “Enhancing high volume fly ash concretes using fine limestone powder.” ACI SP-294: Advances in Green Binder Systems, American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, MI.
Weiss, J., Snyder, K., Bullard, J., and Bentz, D. (2013). “Using a saturation function to interpret the electrical properties of partially saturated concrete.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 1097–1106.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 27 • Issue 3 • March 2015
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 18, 2013
Accepted: Feb 14, 2014
Published online: Jul 17, 2014
Discussion open until: Dec 17, 2014
Published in print: Mar 1, 2015
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.