Effects of Supplementary Cementitious Materials on the Hydration of Ultrahigh-Performance Concrete
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 35, Issue 11
Abstract
With the variety of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) available, there have been fundamental questions regarding how they influence the hydration development of ultrahigh-performance concrete (UHPC), especially at early age. To provide a holistic perspective and side-by-side comparisons, the current study explored the partial replacement of cement with silica fume, natural zeolite, and limestone, which represented artificial pozzolans, natural pozzolans, and non-pozzolanic SCMs, respectively. To evaluate the most critical micro- and macro-scale properties of UHPC, the experimental investigations included temperature and free water measurements, further to thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) performed to determine the amount of physically and chemically bound water in the developed mixtures. Moreover, the X-ray diffractometry (XRD) method was employed to obtain the XRD patterns, which were then paired with the TGA results to quantify the crystalline phases of the UHPC mixtures using the Rietveld refinement method. With a detailed assessment of the UHPC’s degree of hydration over time, the outcome of this study shed light on how various SCMs are capable of reducing the heat of hydration, while enhancing the degree of hydration of cement particles.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The research study, results of which reported in this manuscript, was sponsored by the Iowa Department of Transportation and Accelerated Bridge Construction University Transportation Center (ABC-UTC). The authors would like to acknowledge the sponsors for their support. Opinions and conclusions expressed in this manuscript are of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the sponsors. The authors would like to thank the personnel and staff of the Iowa State University’s Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) Laboratory and Materials Analysis and Research Laboratory (MARL).
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 35 • Issue 11 • November 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 17, 2022
Accepted: Mar 28, 2023
Published online: Aug 23, 2023
Published in print: Nov 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Jan 23, 2024
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