Composite materials Portland cement

Many cements used today are composites of Portland cement and industrial waste materials that can enter into the hydration reactions and contribute to the strength of the hardened product. These substances include pulverized fuel ash (PFA) from burning of pulverized coal in thermal power stations, crushed blast-furnace slag (Section 17.7), and natural or artificial pozzolanas—that is, volcanic ash and similar finely particulate siliceous or aluminosilicate materials that can react with the Ca(OH)2 in Portland cement to form hydrated calcium silicates and aluminates. As noted earlier, the solubility of Ca(OH)2 is such that the pH of pore water in Portland cements will be about 12.7, at which the Si-O-Si or Si-O-Al links in the solid pozzolanas will be attacked slowly by OH- to form discrete silicate and aluminate ions and thence hydrated calcium silicate or aluminate gels. 

A knowledge of the relevant high-temperature phase equilibria is necessary for understanding the factors that govern acceptable bulk compositions for Portland cement clinker, the conditions under which the latter can be manufactured, and the phase composition and microstructure of the resulting material. This chapter deals with these equilibria and with the phases to which they relate, with the exception of the major clinker phases, which were described in Chapter I. Some anhydrous phases primarily of interest in relation to other types of cement are also considered here. Principles underlying the preparation of anhydrous silicate, aluminate and other high-temperature phases are outlined. 

Materials. Portland cement type P H 52.5R, according to EN 197-1 2000, and standard sand, according to ISO 679, were used. The chemical compositions and physical properties of the cement are the same as that used in reference [8], as listed in Table 1 and Table 2. SBR dispersion (solid content 50%) and powder (average particle size 85pm) were used. The properties of the SBR dispersion and the solution of SBR powder in water by 50% are shown in Table 3. 

The most common type of cement used by concrete manufacturers is Portland cement, which is prepared by igniting a mixture of raw materials mainly composed of calcium carbonate or aluminium silicates. Portland cement can be defined as hydraulic cement produced by pulverizing clinker consisting essentially of hydraulic calcium silicates, usually containing one or more of the forms of calcium sulphate as an interground addition . The phase compositions in Portland cement are denoted as tricalcium silicate (C3S), dicalcium silicate (C2S), tricalcium aluminate (C3A), and tetracalcium aluminoferrite (C4AF). 

In various countries, several types of Portland cements are produced as a result of the different composition of basic raw materials, different finenesses and different additives. In Tables 4.1 and 4.2 mineralogical and chemical compositions of Portland cement are shown after data published by several authors. The composition and properties of various kinds of cements is beyond the scope of the book and the reader is referred to special manuals, e.g. Kurdowski (1991), Popovics (1992), Neville (1997), Bensted and Barnes (2001), Mindess, et al. (2003). 

Partial replacement of Portland cement by natural or artificial pozzolans reduces the heat of hydration and also the unit price of concrete it slows down the process of hardening and the early strength is lower. Nevertheless, the majority of the volume of structural concrete used in technically advanced regions of the world are based on rational compositions of Portland cement and so called secondary binding materials fly ash, ground granulated blastfurnace slag, metakaolin, SF, and others. 

Portland cement is classified as a hydrauHc cement, ie, it sets or cures in the presence of water. The term Portland comes from its inventor, Joseph Aspdin, who in 1824 obtained a patent for the combination of materials referred to today as Portland cement. He named it after a grayish colored, natural limestone quarried on the Isle of Portland, which his cured mixture resembled. Other types of hydrauHc cements based on calcium materials were known for many centuries before this, going back to Roman times. Portland cement is not an exact composition but rather a range of compositions, which obtain the desired final properties. The compounds that make up Portland cements are calcium siHcates, calcium aluminates, and calcium aluminoferrites (see ). 

Portland cement is manufactured by two basic processes, the wet process and the dry process. The dry process uses approximately 25% less energy per ton of Portland cement and is used to produce about 68% of the U.S. Portland cement. Both processes start by mixing selected raw materials, cmshed and/or milled to approximately s in. (1.9 cm) diameter, in the correct ratios to give the final desired chemical composition. 

Special purpose and blended Portland cements are manufactured essentially by the same processes as ordinary Portland cements but have specific compositional and process differences. White cements are made from raw materials of very low iron content. This type is often difficult to bum because almost the entire Hquid phase must be furnished by calcium aluminates. As a consequence of the generally lower total Hquid-phase content, high burning-zone temperatures may be necessary. Past cooling and occasionally oil sprays are needed to maintain both quaHty and color. 

There are less exotic ways of increasing the strength of cement and concrete. One is to impregnate it with a polymer, which fills the pores and increases the fracture toughness a little. Another is by fibre reinforcement (Chapter 25). Steel-reinforced concrete is a sort of fibre-reinforced composite the reinforcement carries tensile loads and, if prestressed, keeps the concrete in compression. Cement can be reinforced with fine steel wire, or with glass fibres. But these refinements, though simple, greatly increase the cost and mean that they are only viable in special applications. Plain Portland cement is probably the world s cheapest and most successful material. 

Some materials to which fillers have been added can be considered composites. These include a number of the so-called cements including concrete (Section 12.2). As long as the added particles are relatively small, of roughly the same size, and evenly distributed throughout the mixture, there can be a reinforcing effect. The major materials in Portland cement concrete... 

Pozzolanic S/S systems use portland cement and pozzolan materials (e.g., fly ash) to produce a strucmrally stronger waste/concrete composite. The waste is contained in the concrete matrix by microencapsulation (physical entrapment). It is a chemical treatment that uses commercially available soluble silicate solutions and various cementious materials such as cement, lime, poz-zolans, and fly ash. By addition of these reagents and rigorous mixing, the waste is fixed or stabilized. Contaminant mobility is reduced through the binding of contaminants within a solid matrix, which reduces permeability and the amount of surface area available for the release of toxic components. 

There are three fundamental stages in the process of manufacture of Portland cement, namely. (I) preparation of the raw mixture. (2) production of the clinker. (3) preparation of Ihe cement. Whether the process used is wet or dry. the raw materials are selected, analyzed, and mixed so dial, alter ireatmeni, Ihe product, or clinker, has a desired, narrowly specified composition A factory analysis of slurry, where the wet process is in use. is as follows calcium oxide 44%. aluminum oxide 3.5%. silicon oxide... 

The incorporation of fly ash into Portland cement has been identified as one of the treatment parameters of cement composition to be evaluated. There is already an extensive experience database on the performance of fly-ash-modified Portland cement for heavy-metal immobilization and the solidification/stabilization (S/S) of radioactive waste. The United Kingdom (Wilding, 1992) and the United States (Huang et al., 1994) have used these materials, in the form of cement grouts, for the S/S of low- and intermediate-level radioactive wastes. In this section, we will review the known benefits of fly-ash-modified Portland cement over unmodified Portland cement, along with the anticipated improvements expected by the supercritical C02 treatment of modified Portland. 

Particulate composites are used in greater volume than any others because concrete is a particular composite. In many ways, concrete is the archetype of this class of composites. It consists of particles or aggregates of various sizes almost always of mineral materials, bonded together by a matrix of an inorganic cement originally mixed with and hardened by its chemical reaction to water. Many types of particles are employed, at least five different types of Portland cements and several other types of inorganic cements act as binders. 

Values of the thermal conductivity, k, have been determined in the present work with a thermal conductivity probe (24). It has long been known that sulfur has a low thermal conductivity although the values are even lower in such materials as PVC and expanded polystyrene. Sulfur-bonded composites made with inexpensive fillers such as soil and sand have thermal conductivities which are below those of typical portland cement concrete but with values higher than those of sulfur itself. The values for the composites are, however, still low as may be seen by comparison with the values for conductors such as steel and copper (Table II). 

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