Concurrently to research conducted on ordinary Portland cement (PC), new types of binders were developed during the last decades. These are formed by alkali-activation of metakaolin or ground-granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) and are named, respectively, geopolymers (GP) or alkali-activated slag (AAS). Four different cementitious materials were synthesised: PC, AAS, GP, and a mix GP-AAS and...

In this paper, an ultrasonic shear wave reflection method was adopted to mimic the microstructural evolution of hydrating Portland cement pastes with different water/cement-ratios (0.35, 0.5 and 0.6) cured under a constant temperature of 25°C. The reflection coefficient measured with this technique was correlated to microstructural parameters of the cement pastes. The application of numerical s...

Part III of this three-part paper about CARDIFRC 1 , a class of high performance short steel fibre-reinforced cementitious composites (HPFRCCs), deals with the measurement of the tensile response of CARDIFRC 1 mixes on a specially developed specimen geometry and loading arrangement. It also compares the measured mechanical properties (Young’s modulus, E, compressive strength, fc, tensile streng...

The pressure to reach sustainability favours the development of ternary composite cement. The synergistic effect on mechanical behaviour at 28 days between limestone powder (LP) and pozzolanic additives, i.e. fly ash (FA) and blast furnace slag (BFS), has been documented. In order to better understand the synergistic effect, this article investigated the effect of LP on the microstructure of PC...

The current route in the UK for the conditioning and immobilization of most intermediate level waste for interim storage and geological disposal is to encapsulate in a cementitious matrix. However, certain waste materials, such as those containing reactive metals (e.g. uranium and aluminium), can corrode in the presence of the highly alkaline water in a cementitious environment. In their initia...

Electrical measurements are becoming a common method to assess the transport properties of concrete. For a saturated homogenous system, the surface resistance and the uniaxial resistance measurements provide equivalent measures of resistivity once geometry is appropriately taken into account. However, cementitious systems are not always homogenous. This article compares bulk and surface resista...

One of the main phases formed at the beginning of the carbonation reaction of cementitious building materials is the calcium hemicarboaluminate (abbreviated as Hc). This AFm (shorthand for hydrated calcium aluminate phases structurally related to hydrocalumite) phase was synthesized, crystallized and then studied by synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction and micro-Raman spectroscopy. At room temp...

Silica fume has been largely used in concrete in recent decades due to its effect on improvement of strength and durability of concrete. On the other hand, attention has been recently paid to the use of limestone powder as a substitute for part of cement in concrete, basically because of its low price and its positive effect on the durability of concrete. The aim of the current study is the i...

This article presents an overview of fiber applications in cementitious composites. The socio-economic considerations surrounding materials development in civil engineering in general, and fiber reinforced cementitious materials in particular, are described. Current FRC appliations are summarized, and the where, how, and why fibers are used in these applications, are documented. An attempt is m...

A model has been formulated for analyzing the influence of fiber inclination angle on its rupture load in fiber reinforced cementitious composite. As a stiff fiber is pulled with an angle to the direction of pulling, the fiber rupture load decreases compared to the case with zero inclination angles. This phenomenon is called fiber apparent strength (defined as rupture load divided by fiber cros...