Abstract
Nowadays, cement manufacture is one of the most polluting worldwide industrial sectors. In order to reduce its CO2 emissions, the clinker replacement by ground granulated blast–furnace slag and fly ash is becoming increasingly common. Both additions are well-studied when the hardening conditions of cementitious materials are optimum. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to study the short-term effects of exposure, to both laboratory simulated and real in situ Mediterranean climate environments, on the microstructure and durability-related properties of mortars made using commercial slag and fly ash cements, as well as ordinary Portland cement. The real in situ condition consisted of placing the samples at approximately 100 m away from the Mediterranean Sea. The microstructure was analysed using mercury intrusion porosimetry. The effective porosity, the capillary suction coefficient and the non-steady state chloride migration coefficient were also studied. In view of the results obtained, the non-optimum laboratory simulated Mediterranean environment was a good approach to the real in situ one. Finally, mortars prepared using sustainable cements with slag and fly ash exposed to both Mediterranean climate environments, showed adequate service properties in the short-term (90 days), similar to or even better than those in mortars made with ordinary Portland cement.
Highlights
At present, cement manufacture is one of the most pollution-producing industrial sectors worldwide
As has been explained for CEM I mortars, the higher temperature and relative humidity values reached in several periods of each exposure day to real in situ environment would facilitate the development of slag hydration
For all the studied environments, the pore network of slag and fly ash cement mortars was overall more refined at 90 days than that noted for CEM I ones
Summary
Cement manufacture is one of the most pollution-producing industrial sectors worldwide. Improving the sustainability of cement industry is still an important challenge and is mainly focused on lessening the CO2 emissions produced by cement production. In this way, the use of additions as clinker replacement is becoming increasingly common [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. The use of additions as clinker replacement is becoming increasingly common [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9] Many of those supplementary cementitious materials are pollutant wastes produced along other industrial processes, so their reuse would partly solve other environmental problems, such as their storage. Two of the most popular additions are ground granulated blast-furnace slag and fly ash, and several researches [10,11,12,13] have noted that cementitious materials, which incorporate these additions, have a better performance compared to those made only with ordinary Portland cement (OPC).
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
