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Tricalcium-silicate (C3S) or Alite is the most important mineral in Portland cement. Since pure tricalcium-silicate is only stable above temperatures of 1250 °C, its decomposition has to be prevented technically by fast cooling after the sintering process. At room temperature, the decomposition velocity is very slow so that metastable tricalcium-silicate is obtained.
Although the mechanisms of clinker phase formation during burning process of Portland cement in a rotary kiln were solved and improved over the years, in view of possible economic and ecological benefits current projects aim to produce clinker phases from metallurgical slags. Recent studies discovered that the mineral phase which remained after a reducing treatment and separation of formed metallic iron from molten Linz-Donawitz (LD-) slags contained about 60 wt.% Alite despite it was cooled slowly. Because the results could be verified using slags from different origins and varying cooling velocities a chemical stabilisation of the Alite can be assumed. First tests in mortars indicate that workability, hardening and solid state properties are comparable with an ordinary Portland cement. An application of the observed phenomenon in cement production requires enhanced knowledge about formation and stabilisation conditions of Alite during crystallisation from melts in contrast to the sintering reactions in conventional Portland cement production. Therefore, this study focuses on the stabilisation mechanisms of Alite in consolidating melts. Samples from different melting experiments are analysed to determine stabilising factors.
Alkali silica reaction (ASR) is a major concrete durability problem resulting in significant maintenance and reconstruction costs for concrete infrastructures all over the world. To determine whether an aggregate is potentially reactive, accelerated concrete tests are used. Aim of this study is the chemical and microstructural characterization of ASR-products formed under the performance conditions of motorway pavements and during subsequent tests on the remaining ASR susceptibility. Samples were taken from concrete motorway pavements. Some of the samples already showed first indications for beginning damages whereas others showed deteriorations only after applying a performance testing procedure for the estimation of future risk of ASR damage. In a first step ASR-products were identified by polarized light microscopy in thin sections. The reaction products where then analyzed by Raman Spectroscopy and finally the chemical composition of the ASR-products was identified by SEM with EDX.
The results indicate that most reaction products show an increasing Ca/Si-ratio with progressive crack length. If an ASR-product develops inside an aggregate and moves through the cement paste, it has a high (Na+K)/Si-ratio at the beginning which decreases with increasing distance from its place of origin. The Raman spectra of the ASR-products are characterized by two broad bands indicating specific Q-species of different amorphous gel networks. Within the scope of the analysis distinctions in the microstructure and the chemical composition of the ASR-gels were detected relating to various conditions of accelerated testing.
Severe mechanical fatigue conditions for worldwide proliferating windfarms are a Major challenge for high-performance concrete in towers, connecting joints and foundations of wind turbines. High-performance concrete offers potential for the application in offshore windfarms, not only regarding its good mechanical, but also chemical resistivity due to low diffusivity in the highly densified microstructure. For a more reliable fatigue assessment, monitoring based on nondestructive testing can be a valuable complement to design rules. Both approaches demand reliable experimental data, information about scalability and the development of standardized testing methods. This article presents results of an ongoing research program of BAM (Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung), which is a part of a joint national project (WinConFat) funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The subproject implemented by BAM examines the fatigue behavior in dependence of size and slenderness for varying concrete strength at different stress levels. Besides fatigue strength, nondestructive testing is carried out additionally.
Methods used are strain measurement and ultrasonic testing. The change of strain, stiffness and ultrasonic pulse velocity in the fatigue process is discussed. Results disclose a deeper insight into the damage process under cyclic loading of high-performance concrete and contribute to improve nondestructive monitoring.
Ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) is characterised by its high compressive strength of more than 150 MPa and its high durability. Due to thermal treatment at 90°C a strength comparable to the 28-days-strength can be achieved immediately after the treatment and in some cases can be even further increased up to 30 %. The explanations for the increase in strength are the accelerated hydration of the clinker minerals and the intensified pozzolanic reaction contributing to a denser microstructure and hence, a high performance in compressive strength.
Former research shows that thermal treatment can lead to inhomogeneities in form of a visible zonation within the cross-section. The width of the margin increases with shorter pre-storage time before the thermal treatment and with omitting protective measures against desiccation during the treatment. Specimens exhibiting a zonation typically show a lower compressive strength compared to the undisturbed reference whereas changes in chemistry, mineral content and microstructure were not reported in detail.
In this study the zonation of thermally treated UHPC is investigated with respect to its chemistry, mineral composition and microstructure to allow predictions on durability and strength development. Measurements show a change in pore sizes, minerals phase composition and element distribution leading to the visible zonation and weaker bending tensile strength compared to the reference.
The low tensile strength of cement-based materials can be improved by the addition of fibres. In a joint research project, an industrial partner designed special coatings for polymer and carbon fibres by integrating surfactants and hydrophilic compounds. Aim of the developed functionalization was to ensure an even coverage of the fibre surfaces and to anchor them chemically in the cement-based matrix. Task of the BAM was to quantify the effect of the improved bond. In a first step a workable mortar adjusted to the strength of the tested fibres was developed and the fibre distribution assessed by light microscopy and computed tomography. To test the new coating for its efficiency to prevent cracking during hardening and to improve the loadbearing behaviour new test setups were developed or existing methods were adjusted.
The experiments showed that the functionalization leads to a reduction of the crack area measured after the exposure of the wet mortar to strong drying conditions in the wind channel. Regarding the Efficiency to mitigate shrinkage cracks the functionalisation turned out to be more efficient for fibres made from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) than for carbon fibres. An improvement of the tensile strength after cracking of the cementitious matrix could only be documented for the coated carbon fibres. It could be quantified, however, only in the three-point bending tests because the fibres turned out to be too brittle for the applied single fibre pull-through test.
The advantages of treating prefabricated components made of Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (UCPC) at 90 °C are largely recognized, while hydrothermal treatment at 185 °C and the corresponding saturation pressure of 1.1 MPa, in contrast, is not applied in building practice so far and was studied only by a few researchers.
In the research presented, the parameters pre-storage-time before treatment and dwell time in the autoclave were systematically varied. The results illustrate in which way compressive strength increases with the duration of treatment. Already samples which were only heated up and immediately cooled down show an increase in strength compared to the 28-day reference of about 10 %. After 20 h the maximum increase of about 25 % is reached. Interestingly the compressive strength of samples treated very long hardly decreases. It can be therefore concluded that for the composition investigated the achievable mechanical strength is not severely sensitive regarding the duration of the treatment.
Also, pre-storage times before autoclaving longer than 0.5 days showed no significant impact on strength development.
The phase composition measured by XRD exhibits significant changes compared to the reference. The amount of ettringite and portlandite have vanished, the cement clinker phases are substantially decreased and hydroxylellestadite and hydrogarnet are formed as new phases. The increase in strength can be assigned to an improved pozzolanic and hydraulic reaction. Contradictory to literature, there was found no tobermorite, a mineral which is known to be susceptible for disintegration at Long autoclaving duration. This explains why no significant strength loss appeared.