Ultra High Early Strength Self-compacting Mortar Based on Sulfoaluminate Cement and Silica Fume

The influences of silica fume and aluminum sulfate on hydration process of sulfoaluminate cement were carried out by ring flow, setting time, hydration heat, XRD and DTG analyses. In addition, mortar mixtures with different functional additives have been studied through compressive strength, flexural strength, volume stability at early age and porosity characterization tests. The results show that the addition of silica fume and aluminum sulfate reduces the fluidity and shortens the setting time of sulfoaluminate cement paste, promoting hydration process and increasing hydration products at early age. In the case of appropriate proportion of mortar, the inclusion of hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose, dispersible polypropylene fiber arid organic silicon kind of defoamer can control segregation and bleeding, improve mechanical strength and volume stability at early age, and modify the pore distribution of sulfoaluminate cement mortar, respectively. The sulfoaluminate cement mortar can carry out gravitational grouting in the absence of outside force, the compressive strength of 2 hours and 24 hours have reached 26 and 58 MPa respectively, and have good micro- expansion and tiny.pore distribution characterization.

Preparation for Retarding and High Early Strength Concrete

The primary objective of this research was to determine optimum dosage of mixing concrete containing plasticizers and fly ash, consistent with desirable structural grade concrete properties. Factorial tests were also conducted to investigate the four main factors： water-cementing materials ratio, water content, content of superplasticizers （SP） and fly ash content. It was found that the requirement for setting time played the dominant role in shrinkage and anti-cracking, and fly ash played a critical role in workability and reducing heat of hydration but showed insignificant effects on slump, early strength and initial setting time of concrete.

Onsite strength determination for early-opening decision making of high early strength concrete pavement

High early strength(HES)concrete pavements are commonly opened to traffic within the first 24 h after construction,making early-opening decisions critical for pavement quality and traffic operations.Currently,most state departments of transportation rely on compressive strength testing for early-opening decision making.However,there laboratory tests are labor intensive,costly and not always representative of field strength development.In this study,non-destructive testing(maturity and ultrasonic tomography)was explored for faster and reliable in-situ strength estimations.An experimental section constructed using HES concrete was routinely monitored using compressive testing,maturity,and ultrasonic tomography in the first 24 h after construction.The shear wave velocity,measured using ultrasonic tomography,was able to capture the strength-gain variability within a single slab and between different slabs due to the ability to monitor several locations in a short period of time.Maturity results were consistently conservative in the first 24 h of monitoring.Results show that both maturity testing and ultrasonic tomography are able to replace or add to conventional strength testing for HES concrete pavements to facilitate making the opening decision within the first 24 h.Ultrasonic tomography proved more beneficial as a result of the device's portability,increased speed of testing,and accurate estimations of HES concrete strength for the entire pavement length.

Optimum Level of Replacement Slag in OPC-Slag Mortars

The present paper reports the testing of 14 OPC-slag mortars and 2 controls OPC and slag mortars. The main aim is to determine the optimum level of replacement slag for achievement to the highest early strength with reasonable flow. Variable was the level of GGBFS in the binder. In this experimental work, two types of sands were used that are： silica and mining sands. It is determined that the optimum level of replacement slag is 40% and use of silica sand in OPC is preferable to mining sand and reversely, use of mining sand is preferred in GG100 to silica sand. All mortars had W/B and S/B 0.33 and 2.25, respectively.