The effect of pozzolan additions on the shrinkage of cement pastes and mortars during their first hours of age

Abstract

The traditional favour enjoyed by cement including additions and by their diverse uses in Chile calls for an extense investigation of their behaviour in order that the results may justify their utilization in specific projects. This works studies volume changes occurring in cement pastes and mortars containing pozzolan additions during their first hours of age. This investigation used cements made in the laboratory from raw materials supplied by chilean manufacturers. Two types of clinkers were used, namely; a gypsum type and a natural pozzolan type, added in proportions ranging from 0 to 30%.Tests were conducted to ascertain the shrinkage of cement pastes and mortars since the first moments following their mixing operation, employing there for moulds fitted with a special device designed and implemented at the laboratory of the IDIEM Department of Agglomerants. The results thus gathered corroborated the fact that independently of cement characteristics, in general the deformation of pastes and mortars exhibits successive periods of first shrinkage swelling, and second shrinkage. The first shrinkage is affected by the ambient conditions of humidity, temperature, and wind (evaporation), but also in a preponderant way by cement specific surface, which allows higher velocity in the chemical reactions occurring during that period. Moreover the compactation degree is also affecting shrinkage, here. On the other hand, it was confirmed that with cements of like fineness, those having higher C 3 A contents exhibit an overall shrinkage larger than that of cements having low contents. At last it was possible to ascertain that an increase in pozzolan contents does not affect shrinkage directly, but that its presence may eventually modify the gypsum/clinker ratio and thus give rise to changes, specially in the two States of swelling and second shrinkage.