Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Outcomes of the RILEM round robin on degree of reaction of slag and fly ash in blended cements

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Materials and Structures Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Working group 2 of the RILEM TC 238-SCM undertook a comparison of laboratories and techniques for the quantification of the degree of reaction of supplementary cementitious materials in blended cements. A common set of binary pastes of Portland cement with two slags, a calcareous and a siliceous fly ash was tested in seven laboratories. The results obtained by selective dissolution produced were quite scattered and seemed to underestimated the degree of reaction. The analysis of portlandite consumption was found to significantly underestimate the reaction unless additional data from XRD and electron microscopy was gathered to complete the corrections. Despite limited access to electron microscope among the participants and thus only a small data set being collected, this technique appeared as one of the most consistent. XRD-PONKCS gave considerable scatter, due mainly to a lack of a strict protocol and excessive overlap of slag and C–S–H signals. Overall, the study indicated that the precision of determination of the degree of reaction of SCMs in cement pastes is rather low and at best ±5%.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Scrivener KL, Lothenbach B, De Belie N, Gruyaert E, Skibsted J, Snellings R et al (2015) TC 238-SCM: hydration and microstructure of concrete with SCMs. Mater Struct 48:835–862

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Whittaker M, Zajac M, Ben Haha M, Bullerjahn F, Black L (2014) The role of the alumina content of slag, plus the presence of additional sulfate on the hydration and microstructure of Portland cement-slag blends. Cem Concr Res 66:91–101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Deschner F, Winnefeld F, Lothenbach B, Seufert S, Schwesig P, Dittrich S et al (2012) Hydration of Portland cement with high replacement by siliceous fly ash. Cem Concr Res 42:1389–1400

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Durdziński PT, Dunant CF, Ben Haha M, Scrivener KL (2015) A new quantification method based on SEM-EDS to assess fly ash composition and study the reaction of its individual components in hydrating cement paste. Cem Concr Res 73:111–122

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Scrivener K (2004) Backscattered electron imaging of cementitious microstructures: understanding and quantification. Cem Concr Compos 26:935–945

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Scarlett NVY, Madsen IC (2006) Quantification of phases with partial or no known crystal structures. Powder Diffr 21:278–284

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Snellings R, Salze A, Scrivener KL (2014) Use of X-ray diffraction to quantify amorphous supplementary cementitious materials in anhydrous and hydrated blended cements. Cem Concr Res 64:89–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Lumley JS, Gollop RS, Moir GK, Taylor HFW (1996) Degrees of reaction of the slag in some blends with Portland cements. Cem Concr Res 26:139–151

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Vollpracht A, Brameshuber W (2010) Investigations on ten years old hardened cement paste samples. In: International RILEM conference on materials science, pp 79–91

  10. Rossen JE, Lothenbach B, Scrivener KL (2015) Composition of C–S–H in pastes with increasing levels of silica fume addition. Cem Concr Res 75:14–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Rossen JE, Lothenbach B, Scrivener KL. Composition of C-A-S-H in matured blended cement pastes (in Preparation)

  12. Famy C, Brough AR, Taylor HFW (2003) The C-S-H gel of Portland cement mortars: part I. The interpretation of energy-dispersive X-ray microanalyses from scanning electron microscopy, with some observations on C–S–H, AFm and AFt phase compositions. Cem Concr Res 33:1389–1398

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Rossen JE, Scrivener KL (2017) Optimization of SEM-EDS to determine the C-A–S–H composition in matured cement paste samples. Mater Charact 123:294–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Kocaba V, Gallucci E, Scrivener KL (2012) Methods for determination of degree of reaction of slag in blended cement pastes. Cem Concr Res 42:511–525

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Youden WJ (1959) Graphical diagnosis of interlaboratory test results. Ind Qual Control 15:24–28

    Google Scholar 

  16. Lothenbach B, Scrivener K, Hooton RD (2011) Supplementary cementitious materials. Cem Concr Res 41:1244–1256

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Taylor HFW (1997) Cement chemistry, 2nd edn. Thomas Telford, London

  18. Bonaccorsi E, Merlino S, Kampf AR (2005) The crystal structure of tobermorite 14 A (Plombierite), a C–S–H Phase. J Am Ceram Soc 88:505–512

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Bastien Le Gars Santoni and Alexandre Ouzia (EPFL, Switzerland), Xinyuan Ke, Oday H. Hussein (U. Sheffield, UK), Salaheddine Alahrache (Empa, Switzerland), Sandra De Buck and Tom Planckaert (UGent, Belgium), Ricardo García-Roves (IETcc-CSIC) for their participation in the experiments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Construction Materials, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Station 12, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Paweł T. Durdziński & Karen L. Scrivener

  2. HeidelbergCement Technology Center GmbH, Rohrbacher Str. 95, 69181, Leimen, Germany

    Mohsen Ben Haha, Christopher Stabler & Maciej Zając

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Sir Robert Hadfield Building, Sheffield, S1 3JD, UK

    Susan A. Bernal, John L. Provis & Zhijun Tan

  4. Magnel Laboratory for Concrete Research, Ghent University, Technologiepark Zwijnaarde 904, 9052, Ghent, Belgium

    Nele De Belie, Elke Gruyaert & Yury Villagrán Zaccardi

  5. Laboratory for Concrete and Construction Chemistry, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Überlandstrasse 129, 8600, Dübendorf, Switzerland

    Barbara Lothenbach, Axel Schöler & Frank Winnefeld

  6. Eduardo Torroja Institute of Construction Science (IETcc-CSIC), C/. Serrano Galvache 4, 28033, Madrid, Spain

    Esperanza Menéndez Méndez

  7. LEMIT-CONICET, 52 entre 121 y 122, 1900, La Plata, Argentina

    Yury Villagrán Zaccardi

  8. Institute of Building Materials Research, RWTH Aachen University, Schinkelstr. 3, 52062, Aachen, Germany

    Anya Vollpracht

Authors
  1. Paweł T. Durdziński
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mohsen Ben Haha
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Susan A. Bernal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Nele De Belie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Elke Gruyaert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Barbara Lothenbach
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Esperanza Menéndez Méndez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. John L. Provis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Axel Schöler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Christopher Stabler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Zhijun Tan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Yury Villagrán Zaccardi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Anya Vollpracht
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Frank Winnefeld
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  15. Maciej Zając
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  16. Karen L. Scrivener
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paweł T. Durdziński.

Ethics declarations

The participation of members of U. Sheffield (UK) was funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement #335928 (GeopolyConc).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Appendix: Experimental setups

Appendix: Experimental setups

See Tables 6, 7, 8, 9.

Table 6 Experimental setup for the thermogravimetric experiments
Full size table
Table 7 Experimental setup for electron microscopy and image analysis
Full size table
Table 8 Experimental setup for powder XRD measurements
Full size table
Table 9 Conditions of the XRD-Rietveld refinement with PONKCS analysis
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Durdziński, P.T., Ben Haha, M., Bernal, S.A. et al. Outcomes of the RILEM round robin on degree of reaction of slag and fly ash in blended cements. Mater Struct 50, 135 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-017-1002-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-017-1002-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation