Developing Low-Clinker Ternary Blends for Indian Cement Industry

Abstract

In today’s scenario cement-concrete has become the backbone of infrastructure development. The use of concrete is increasing day by day and so does cement. One of the major concerns is that the cement manufacturing contributes 7% of total man-made CO2 emission in the environment. At the same time India being a developing country secured the second position in cement production. On the other hand solid waste management is one of the growing problems in India. As we are one of the major contributors in this situation so, the time has come to think about the sustainable alternatives. From various researches it has been observed that the low clinker cement can be suitable option. In the present paper we have tried to develop a low clinker ternary blend for Indian cement industry using the concept of synergetic behavior of fly ash–limestone reaction and formation of more stable monocarboaluminate hydrate and hemicarboaluminate hydrate. 30% fly ash and 15% limestone and 5% gypsum have been used as supplementary cementing material for replacing 50% clinker. The mechanical properties like, compressive strength, have been studied for the fly ash limestone ternary blends cements and the results have been compared with the other controlled blends and ternary blends. The effect of intergrinding of constituent materials has shown a comparable properties which can be used for various structural application. The effect of dolomitic limestone has also been studied in fly ash limestone ternary blends and the result shows the relation between compressive strength and dolomite content is inversely proportional.