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Determination of the apparent activation energy for composite binder containing blast furnace ferronickel slag

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Abstract

Blast furnace ferronickel slag (BFFS) has the potential to serve as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in the production of cement and concrete. While the composite binder containing BFFS presents varying heat release kinetics under different curing temperatures, the effect of BFFS content on the apparent activation energy (Ea) and temperature sensitivity of the composite cementitious binder has rarely been systematically explored. In this study, the modified ASTM C1074 method with hyperbolic and exponential functions is adopted to calculate the Ea values of the composite binders incorporating different amounts of BFFS via isothermal calorimetry. The results indicate that the calculated Ea values are influenced by different kinetic functions, and increasing the BFFS content from 0 to 50% has significantly elevated the Ea value and enhanced the temperature dependence of BFFS blended cement paste. Moreover, the temperature sensitivity of the composite binder containing BFFS is compared to those containing traditional SCMs, including ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) and low-calcium fly ash (FA). The study reveals that the Ea value of 50% BFFS blended cement paste is close to that of 50% GGBFS blended cement paste, and higher than that of 50% low-calcium FA blended cement paste. The high temperature sensitivity of BFFS blended cement can be leveraged to promote the early-age strength gain under different curing temperatures.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by CSC Chinese Scholarship.

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Author notes

  1. S. R. Yan and Y. Sun have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Qinghai University, Xining, 810016, China

    S. R. Yan

  2. Department of Architectural Engineering, Hanyang University, 1271 Sa 3-dong, Sangrok-gu, Ansan, 15588, South Korea

    Y. Sun

  3. Department of Smart City Engineering, Hanyang University, 1271 Sa 3-dong, Sangrok-gu, Ansan, 15588, South Korea

    Y. Sun

  4. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, 1 Engineering Drive 2, E1A-07-03, Singapore, 117576, Singapore

    W. Y. Kuang

  5. China Railway Electrification Engineering Group Co., Ltd, Beijing, 100036, China

    K. Q. Wang

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Yan, S.R., Sun, Y., Kuang, W.Y. et al. Determination of the apparent activation energy for composite binder containing blast furnace ferronickel slag. J Therm Anal Calorim 148, 7597–7610 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-023-12255-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-023-12255-5

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