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Low-temperature curing strength enhancement in cement-based materials containing limestone powder

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Abstract

With the ongoing sustainability movement, the incorporation of limestone powder in cementitious binders for concrete in the U.S. has become a subject of renewed interest. In addition to accelerating the early age hydration reactions of cementitious systems by providing additional surfaces for nucleation and growth of products, limestone powder is also intriguing based on its influence on low-temperature curing. For example, previous results have indicated that the utilization of limestone powder to replace one quarter of the fly ash in a high volume fly ash mixture (40–60% cement replacement) produces a reduction in the apparent activation energy for setting for temperatures below 25 °C. In the present study, the relationship between heat release and compressive strength of mortars at batching/curing temperatures of 10 and 23 °C is investigated. For Portland-limestone cements (PLC) with limestone additions on the order of 10%, a higher strength per unit heat release is obtained after only 7 d of curing in lime water. Surprisingly, in some cases, the absolute strength of these mortar cubes measured at 7 d is higher when cured at 10 °C than at 23 °C. Solubilities vs. temperature, reaction stoichiometries and enthalpies, and projected phase distributions based on thermodynamic modeling for the cementitious phases are examined to provide some theoretical insight into this strength enhancement. For a subset of the investigated cements, thermogravimetric analysis, quantitative X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy are conducted on 7-d paste specimens produced at the two temperatures to examine differences in their reaction rates and the phases produced. The strength enhancement observed in the PLC cements is related to the cement hydration products formed in the presence of carbonates as a function of temperature.

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Notes

  1. Powder Diffraction Database, International Center for Diffraction Data, http://www.icdd.com.

  2. Certain commercial equipment and software are identified to describe the subject adequately. Such identification does not imply recommendation or endorsement by NIST, nor does it imply that the equipment identified is necessarily the best available for the purpose.

  3. Available at http://gems.web.psi.ch.

  4. Available for free from EMPA at https://www.empa.ch/web/s308/cemdata.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Todd Laker and Tim Cost of LafargeHolcim, Dr. Isaac Howard of Mississippi State University, and Larry Rowland of Lehigh Cement for their assistance in obtaining the cements investigated in the present study and Brett Philpotts of Lehigh Cement for providing XRF data. The assistance of Max Peltz of the Engineering Laboratory at NIST in providing the particle size distribution, BET surface area, and He pycnometry density data is gratefully acknowledged, as are useful discussions with Dr. Didier Lootens of Sika Technology, AG. The useful comments and suggestions of the journal reviewers are also appreciated.

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  1. Franco Zunino

    Present address: Laboratory of Construction Materials, EPFL-STI-IMX-LMC, Station 12, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Engineering Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8615, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-8615, USA

    Dale P. Bentz & Paul E. Stutzman

  2. Faculty of Engineering, Universidad del Desarrollo, Avenida La Plaza 680, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile

    Franco Zunino

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  1. Dale P. Bentz
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Correspondence to Dale P. Bentz.

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Bentz, D.P., Stutzman, P.E. & Zunino, F. Low-temperature curing strength enhancement in cement-based materials containing limestone powder. Mater Struct 50, 173 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-017-1042-6

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