Relationship Between Pozzolanic Activity and Chemical and Physical Characteristics of Selected Canadian Fly Ashes

Abstract

Raymond E. Davis and his associates appear to have coined the term “fly ash” in 1937. Following the pioneering studies by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for the Hungry Horse Dam, the use of fly ash for massive hydroelectric structures increased rapidly in the U.S., with ASTM issuing the first standard in 1954. In 1982, Canada issued a National Standard, CAN 3-A23.5-M82, entitled “Supplementary Cementing Materials and Their Use in Concrete Construction.” Because of the increasing interest in fly ash utilization, Canada Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology (CANMET) initiated research in the area of supplementary cementing materials in the early 1970's and has since published several comprehensive reports on the subject [1,2]. At the University of Calgary, we are studying Canadian fly ashes and their use in concrete, through an investigation of the physical, chemical, mineralogical and pozzolanic properties of fly ashes from fourteen sources across the country. We report here preliminary results from this study.