Carbonation Curing of Precast Fly Ash Concrete
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 28, Issue 11
Abstract
The feasibility of carbonation curing of precast fly ash concrete is studied. If fly ash concrete can be produced by carbonation curing, the carbon footprint of the products can be significantly reduced. In this paper, the relationship between carbonation reaction and pozzolanic reaction was examined. After carbonation curing with different duration and fly ash content, the cement reaction degree was estimated through the equivalent nonevaporable water content, and the fly ash reaction degree was analyzed through a selective acid dissolution test. It was found that the pozzolanic reaction of fly ash in a fly ash–ordinary portland cement (OPC) system was hindered by early carbonation reaction. The higher the early carbonation degree, the lower the pozzolanic reaction of fly ash. In addition, fly ash–OPC paste was more reactive with carbon dioxide than plain cement paste. Therefore, controlled carbonation at an early age is necessary to trade off the carbon emission reduction with performance gain. The study shows that if fly ash content is limited to 20% of cementitious material and carbonation curing duration is not to exceed 12 h, fly ash concrete can be produced with higher early strength, comparable late strength, better durability performance, and a carbon emission reduction of 36%. After subsequent hydration, carbonated fly ash concrete can have a pH value comparable with the hydration reference and can be used in precast concretes with steel reinforcement.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The financial support received by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada and the Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation (CCEMC) of Alberta are gratefully acknowledged.
References
Alexander, M., and Magee, B. (1999). “Durability performance of concrete containing condensed silica fume.” Cem. Concr. Res., 29(6), 917–922.
Berger, R., Young, J., and Leung, K. (1972). “Acceleration of hydration of calcium silicates by carbon dioxide treatment.” Nature, 240(97), 16–18.
Bertos, M. F., Simons, S., Hills, C., and Carey, P. (2004). “A review of accelerated carbonation technology in the treatment of cement-based materials and sequestration of .” J. Hazard. Mater., 112(3), 193–205.
Chen, C., Habert, G., Bouzidi, Y., and Jullien, A. (2010). “Environmental impact of cement production: Detail of the different processes and cement plant variability evaluation.” J. Clean. Prod., 18(5), 478–485.
Heng, M., and Murata, K. (2004). “Aging of concrete buildings and determining the pH value on the surface of concrete by using a handy semi-conductive pH meter.” Anal. Sci., 20(7), 1087–1090.
Khan, M., and Lynsdale, C. (2002). “Strength, permeability, and carbonation of high-performance concrete.” Cem. Concr. Res., 32(1), 123–131.
Lam, L., Wong, Y., and Poon, C. (2000). “Degree of hydration and gel/space ratio of high-volume fly ash/cement systems.” Cem. Concr. Res., 30(5), 747–756.
Li, S., Roy, D. M., and Kumar, A. (1985). “Quantatative determination of pozzolanas in hydrated systems of cement or with fly ash or silica fume.” Cem. Concr. Res., 15(6), 1079–1086.
Lothenbach, B., Scrivener, K., and Hooton, R. (2011). “Supplementary cementitious materials.” Cem. Concr. Res., 41(12), 1244–1256.
Neville, A. M. (1995). Properties of concrete, Longman Group, London.
Ohsawa, S., Asaga, K., Goto, S., and Daimon, M. (1985). “Quantitative determination of fly ash in the hydrated fly ash- system.” Cem. Concr. Res., 15(2), 357–366.
Poon, C., Lam, L., and Wong, Y. (2000). “A study on high strength concrete prepared with large volumes of low calcium fly ash.” Cem. Concr. Res., 30(3), 447–455.
Rostami, V., Shao, Y., and Boyd, A. J. (2011). “Durability of concrete pipes subjected to combined steam and carbonation curing.” Constr. Build. Mater., 25(8), 3345–3355.
Rostami, V., Shao, Y., Boyd, A. J., and He, Z. (2012). “Microstructure of cement paste subject to early carbonation curing.” Cem. Concr. Res., 42(1), 186–193.
Young, J., Berger, R., and Breese, J. (1974). “Accelerated curing of compacted calcium silicate mortars on exposure to .” J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 57(9), 394–397.
Zeng, Q., Li, K., Fen-chong, T., and Dangla, P. (2012). “Determination of cement hydration and pozzolanic reaction extents for fly-ash cement pastes.” Constr. Build. Mater., 27(1), 560–569.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 28 • Issue 11 • November 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 7, 2016
Accepted: Mar 18, 2016
Published online: Jun 3, 2016
Published in print: Nov 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Nov 3, 2016
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.