Effect of Partial Substitution of Highly Reactive Mineral Additions by Nanosilica in Cement Pastes
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 31, Issue 1
Abstract
The phenomena involved in portland cement hydration and interactions with nanosilica are very complex and not yet fully understood. In addition, few papers have currently proposed to investigate the microstructure and mechanical properties of ternary mixtures using portland cement, colloidal nanosilica, and highly reactive mineral additions. This article investigates, for the first time, the behavior of different highly reactive mineral additions (silica fume and metakaolin) when partially replaced by colloidal nanosilica in the microstructure and hydration of cementitious materials. For the study of the cementitious material microstructures, a Langavant calorimeter, compressive strength, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetry, infrared spectroscopy, and mercury intrusion porosimetry were used. The pastes with a 1% substitution of highly reactive mineral additions by nanosilica showed higher compressive strength and more refined porosity than the pastes with only silica fume or metakaolin. The results show that nanosilica appears to have better synergism with metakaolin than with silica fume.
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Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge support provided by the European Commission, the Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES) Project Geotechnical and Geological Responses to Climate Change Exchanging Approaches and Technologies on a Worldwide Scale (GREAT) (Grant No. FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IRSES-612665), the Addendum to the Framework Agreement for Collaboration between University of Brasilia (UnB-Brazil) and Spanish National Research Council (CSIC-Spain) (Grant No. 201504001653451013W-2017), and the Laboratory of Ceramic Materials (LACER) of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS-Brasil) for the laser granulometry and specific surface BET tests.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 31 • Issue 1 • January 2019
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 17, 2017
Accepted: Jul 17, 2018
Published online: Nov 14, 2018
Published in print: Jan 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Apr 14, 2019
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