Shotcrete using ternary binder made from coal combustion products: from lab tests to an application

Abstract

The paper presents a ternary binder development and its utilization in shotcrete. The binder is made from fluidized bed combustion (FBC) fly ash, siliceous fly ash, and Ca(OH)2 addition, now available under the name Sorfix. XRD and TGA identified ettringite and C-S-H as two main hydration products. In addition, thermodynamic modeling verified robustness in terms of space-filling capabilities when varying input oxide composition.Since alkali-free accelerators produce mostly ettringite in Portland-based systems, a fraction of Portland cement was advantageously replaced with the ternary binder, forming early ettringite as well. Extensive testing led to 45% replacement of Portland cement, following J2 curve for early strength gain used commonly in shotcrete tunnel linings. The shotcrete was successfully tested in a mock-up experiment in a 2 m3 Prague served for the full-scale application, utilizing over 1000 tons of Sorfix and saving over 700 tons of CO2