• Dhir, R. K.
• Paine, Kevin A.
• Zheng, Li

Abstract

The advisability of controlling the temperature rise and fall in concrete at early age is well recognised, and the choice of an appropriate, low-heat cement with suitable heat of hydration characteristics can assist in this control. This is particularly pertinent with respect to water-retaining and massive concrete structures where the need to prevent early-age thermal cracking is paramount. Portland cement/ground granulated blast furnace slag (PC/ggbs) or PC/fly ash cements are often used in these structures due to their low heat hydration properties. This paper presents the results of isothermal conduction calorimetry tests carried out on PC/ggbs and PC/fly ash cements and describes a model that uses these results to simulate the heat evolution processes in hydration concrete sections at early ages. The tests covered a range up to 90% ggbs and up to 65% fly ash content by mass of cement, at temperatures from 5° to 60°C. For PC/ggbs cements, the total heat of hydration can be considered as a composition of three components, that is heats from an initial Portland cement reaction, a latent ggbs hydraulic reaction and co-reactivity effects of PC and ggbs; whereas for PC/fly ash cements, the initial PC reaction dominated with a small co-reactivity effect.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• cement
• calorimetry