Extending blending proportions of ordinary Portland cement and calcium sulfoaluminate cement blends: Its effects on setting, workability, and strength development

Abstract

This study extended blending proportion range of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) cement blends, and investigated effects of proportions on setting time, workability, and strength development of OPC-CSA blend-based mixtures. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were conducted to help understand the performance of OPC-CSA blend-based mixtures. The setting time of the OPC-CSA blends was extended, and the workability was improved with increase of OPC content. Although the early-age strength decreased with increase of OPC content, the strength development was still very fast when the OPC content was lower than 60% due to the rapid formation and accumulation of ettringite. At 2 h, the OPC-CSA blend-based mortars with OPC contents of 0%, 20%, 40%, and 60% achieved the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of 17.5, 13.9, 9.6, and 5.0 MPa, respectively. The OPC content had a negligible influence on long-term strength. At 90 d, the average UCS of the OPC-CSA blend-based mortars was 39.2 ± 1.7 MPa.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

calcium sulfoaluminate cement / cement blends / hydration reaction / setting / workability / compressive strength

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for its financial support (NSERC RGPIN-2017-05537), the CTS Cement Manufacturing Corp., USA, for supplying the CSA cement, and Mr. Rizaldy Mariano for his support in the laboratory work. The first author would like to express his gratitude for the scholarship provided by the China Scholarship Council.

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