Abstract
For sustainability purposes, supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) are considered essential components for gaining ultra-high strength properties of concrete and mortar. This study experimentally investigates the influence of single, binary, and ternary partial cement replacements of the SCMs on the performance of ultra-high-strength mortar. The investigated SCMs were included ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), densified silica fume (DSF), un-densified silica fume (UDSF), and Fly ash (FA). Three replacements ratios were implemented; 10%, 20%, and 30% in addition to mortar without SCMs to work as a control mix for comparison reasons. 27 mixes were designed to quantify the replacement ratio that explains the best performance, through examining the workability, compressive and tensile strength of each mix. In addition, XRD test was carried out to identify the various decomposition phases of the hardened mortar. The results indicated that binary replacement of 15% GGBS and 15% UDSF exhibited the best performance among all other replacements ratios.
Highlights
There is a growing demand for high-strength cementitious materials in the field of structural constructions
That could be attributed to the particles patterns of silica fume which have a high surface area that absorbs a high amount of water during mixing, which led to increasing the water demand of the mix
In binary replacement, the addition of ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) combined with densified silica fume (DSF) enhanced the workability for all replacement ratios
Summary
There is a growing demand for high-strength cementitious materials in the field of structural constructions. Production such as these materials involves a high amount of cement which leading to resource consumptions and increases carbon dioxide emissions. In many cases, it might be a challenging to obtain a cementitious matrix with high-performance properties without incorporation SCMs. The role of the SCMs in enhancing the strength mainly attributes to their pozzolanic reaction with the calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) that resulted from cement hydration to produce supplementary calcium-silicate-hydrate (C-S-H) gel which is the source of the strength [2]. Many studies reported that the addition of SCMs significantly improves the mechanical properties of cementitious materials. The improvement depends on the type, properties, and replacements configuration [3 - 9]
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