Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Determining the air-entraining admixture dosage in concrete with non-traditional coal ash

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

A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 04 March 2024

This article has been updated

Abstract

Due to the shortages in traditional fly ash, there is increased interest in using non-traditional coal ash (NTCA) in concrete mixtures. NTCA shows great promise for use in concrete, but there are concerns with the consistency of the material. One area of concern is the impact of the NTCA and traditional fly ash on the air entrainment agent (AEA) demand in concrete. This work aims to investigate the correlation of the foam index [FI], loss on ignition (LOI), and nitrogen surface area (BET), with the AEA dosage required to produce 6% air in a concrete mixture for 12 different coal ash sources. The results show that the foam index has the best correlation with the AEA dosage in concrete. When the LOI is less than 6%, there is a correlation to AEA dosage in concrete, but this same relationship does not hold for fly ash with LOIs greater than this. The LOI and BET show a direct relation to the materials investigated in this study.

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
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Change history

References

  1. Tunstall LE, Ley MT, Scherer GW (2021) Air entraining admixtures: mechanisms, evaluations, and interactions. Cement Concr Res 150:106557

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Harris NJ, Hover KC, Folliard KJ, Ley MT (2008) The use of the foam index test to predict AEA dosage in concrete containing fly ash: part I—evaluation of the state of practice. J ASTM Int 5(7):1–15

    Google Scholar 

  3. Ayanda OS, Fatoki OS, Adekola FA, Ximba BJ (2013) Activated carbon-fly ash-nanometal oxide composite materials: preparation. Charact Tribut Removal Effic J Chem 2013:148129

    Google Scholar 

  4. Chen Y, Shah N, Huggins F, Huffman G, Dozier A (2005) Characterization of ultrafine coal fly ash particles by energy-filtered TEM. J Microsc 217(3):225–234

    Article  MathSciNet  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Al-Shmaisani S, Kalina RD, Ferron RD, Juenger MCG (2019) Evaluation of beneficiated and reclaimed fly ashes in concrete. ACI Mater J 116(4):79–87

    Google Scholar 

  6. American Coal Aah Association (2020) Production and use survey results news release. American Coal Ash Association, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  7. ASTM C618 (2019) Standard specification for coal fly ash and raw or calcined natural pozzolan for use in concrete. ASTM International, West Conshohocken

    Google Scholar 

  8. ASTM C311 (2000) Standard test methods for sampling and testing fly ash or natural pozzolans for use as a mineral admixture in portland-cement concrete. ASTM International, West Conshohocken

    Google Scholar 

  9. Ley MT, Harris NJ, Folliard KJ, Hover KC (2008) Investigation of air-entraining admixture dosage in fly ash concrete. ACI Mater J 105(5):494

    Google Scholar 

  10. Schrader Y (2020) An investigation into the effects of fly ash on freeze-thaw durability prediction. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

    Google Scholar 

  11. ASTM C1827 (2020) Standard test method for determination of the air-entraining admixture demand of a cementitious mixture. ASTM International, West Conshohocken

    Google Scholar 

  12. ASTM E3183 (2019) Harvesting coal combustion products stored in active and inactive storage areas for beneficial use. ASTM International, West Conshohocken

    Google Scholar 

  13. Kim T, Davis JM, Ley MT, Kang S, Amrollahi P (2018) Fly ash particle characterization for predicting concrete compressive strength. Constr Build Mater 165:560–571

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Aboustait M, Kim T, Ley MT, Davis JM (2016) Physical and chemical characteristics of fly ash using automated scanning electron microscopy. Constr Build Mater 106:1–10

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. O’Keefe CA, Watne TM, Hurley JP (2000) Development of advanced scanning electron microscopy techniques for characterization of submicron ash. Powder Technol 108(2–3):95–102

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. ASTM C150 (2019) Standard specification for portland cement. ASTM International, West Conshohocken

    Google Scholar 

  17. ASTM C260 (2016) Standard specification for air-entraining admixtures for concrete. ASTM International, West Conshohocken

    Google Scholar 

  18. ASTM C311 (2018) Standard test methods for sampling and testing fly ash or natural pozzolans for use in portland-cement concrete. ASTM International, West Conshohocken

    Google Scholar 

  19. ASTM C3663 (2020) Standard test method for surface area of catalysts and catalyst carriers. ASTM International, West Conshohocken

    Google Scholar 

  20. Harris N, Hover K, Folliard K, Ley M (2008) The use of the foam index test to predict air-entraining admixture dosage in concrete containing fly ash: part II—development of a standard test method: apparatus and procedure. J ASTM Int 5:1–15

    Google Scholar 

  21. Harris NJ, Hover K, Folliard K, Ley T (2008) The use of the foam index test to predict AEA dosage in concrete containing fly ash: part III-development of a standard test method—proportions of materials. ASTM J Test Eval 5(7):11

    Google Scholar 

  22. Tyler L (2010) Determining the air-entraining admixture dosage response for concrete with a single concrete mixture, recent advancement in concrete freezing-thawing (FT) durability. ASTM International, West Conshohocken

    Google Scholar 

  23. ASTM C143 (2015) Standard test method for slump of hydraulic-cement concrete. ASTM International, West Conshohocken

    Google Scholar 

  24. ASTM C138 (2017) Standard test method for density (Unit weight), yield, and air content (gravimetric) of concrete. ASTM International, West Conshohocken

    Google Scholar 

  25. ASTM C231 (2017) Standard test method for air content of freshly mixed concrete by the pressure method. ASTM International, West Conshohocken

    Google Scholar 

  26. Ross JRH (2012) Chapter 2—surfaces and adsorption. In: Ross JRH (ed) Heterogeneous catalysis. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 17–45

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  27. Zhu Z, Wang X, Dai S, Huang B, He Q (2013) Fractional characteristics of coal fly ash for beneficial use. J Mater Civ Eng 25(1):63–69

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was sponsored by funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation [FHWA-PROJ-19-0017].

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering and Physics, Abilene Christian University, Abilene, TX, 79699, USA

    Shinhyu Kang

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, 74078, USA

    Loren Emerson, Josephine Lee & M. Tyler Ley

Authors
  1. Shinhyu Kang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Loren Emerson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Josephine Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. M. Tyler Ley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shinhyu Kang.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The original online version of this article was revised: In this article figures 6 was used for both figure 5 and figure 6. The incorrect figure 5 has been replaced.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Specific materials used to complete the foam index test

Appendix 2: R-squared values for all trend lines of the twelve concrete mixtures

Table 5 shows all the R-squared values of a set of data from concrete mixtures at different AEA demands (the increase in percent air by the total volume of the concrete mixture) and all the plots are provided in Fig. 

Fig. 7
figure 7

Change in the air content with the addition of AEA dosage for all concrete mixtures tested in this study

Full size image

7. The R-squared value of each ash source represents the average dosage lines of two concrete mixes with the same fly ash. The dosage performance of each fly ash in concrete shows consistently above an R-squared value of 0.92 for all the sources.

Table 5 Summary of R-squared values for all trend lines
Full size table

Appendix 3: Table of foam index values at different mix conditions

Code

Mix condition

2 g of ash + 8 g of cement

5 g of ash + 5 g of cement

Form index

STDEV

Form index

STDEV

TC

0.88

0.06

1.16

0.13

TF

1.76

0.04

2.86

0.10

PNF1

1.08

0.00

2.27

0.04

PNF2

1.38

0.08

3.88

0.07

PNF3

0.88

0.04

1.43

0.08

PNF4

0.83

0.07

1.35

0.04

PNF5

2.53

0.10

4.21

0.07

PNF6

0.94

0.04

1.02

0.08

PNF7

1.13

0.04

1.32

0.07

BLF1

1.87

0.04

2.76

0.08

BLF2

1.65

0.07

1.46

0.04

BLF3

1.20

0.05

2.31

0.07

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kang, S., Emerson, L., Lee, J. et al. Determining the air-entraining admixture dosage in concrete with non-traditional coal ash. Mater Struct 56, 9 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-022-02098-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-022-02098-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation