Long-Term Influence of Nanosilica on the Microstructures, Strength, and Durability of High-Volume Fly Ash Mortar
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 33, Issue 8
Abstract
Nanosilica has been proven able to strengthen the early-age performance of high-volume fly ash (HVFA) cementitious composites. However, the long-term influence of nanosilica on HVFA composites is yet unclear. This research aimed to investigate the long-term microstructures, strength, durability and volume stability of HVFA mortars incorporating nanosilica. In this study, nanosilica was added to cement mortar where 50% of the binder was fly ash. At the age of 2 years, despite some fly ash particles remaining incompletely hydrated, the benefits of nanosilica could still be retained in HVFA mixtures. The experiments revealed that a 2% nanosilica addition could increase the compressive strength of HVFA mortar by 50% and reduce the water sorptivity, chloride-ion penetration, and drying shrinkage by 80%, 90%, and 13%, respectively. The improvements on the various measurements are attributed to the reduced porosity and refined pore size by nanosilica.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
This study is funded by the Ministry of Education of Singapore (Research Grant No. R-302-000-183-114). The authors are grateful to Professor Pengkun Hou, the University of Jinan in China, for his kind help with the MIP tests.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 33 • Issue 8 • August 2021
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© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Aug 20, 2020
Accepted: Jan 4, 2021
Published online: May 24, 2021
Published in print: Aug 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Oct 24, 2021
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