Activation of Slag as Partial Replacement of Cement Mortar: Effects of Superfine GGBS, Temperature, and Admixture
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 32, Issue 7
Abstract
With perspective to the precast industry, this paper is a study of superfine (SF) ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) as replacement (0%, 30%, 50%, and 70%) of rapid-hardening cement (CEM 1 42.5R) under two types of activation, namely discrete temperature activation (20°C–35°C for 16 h) and two accelerating admixtures. The thermal activation is found to provide the larger improvements in early-age strength as against use of the admixtures; however, the combined effect achieves measurably better performance at early age. Also, the novel admixture, designed to activate SFGGBS, is found to deliver definitive strength enhancement at both (low and moderate) temperature conditions during early ages. Further, the 28-day strength of mortars remains unaffected and is marginally improved under the combined effect of SFGGBS, the novel admixture, and temperature activation.
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Acknowledgments
The researchers greatly acknowledge the support provided by Enterprise Ireland and Ecocem Ireland in funding this research under Contract No. IP 2016 0454, titled “Activated Slag for Precast Concrete (ASPC).” Thanks, are also due to Flood Precast for providing the access to their factory, their mix designs and pre-early-age concrete data for benchmarking the program.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 32 • Issue 7 • July 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 19, 2019
Accepted: Oct 25, 2019
Published online: Apr 21, 2020
Published in print: Jul 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Sep 21, 2020
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