Ping Duan

Carbonation of sulphoaluminate cement with layered double hydroxides

The increasing importance of the ecologically minded production of building materials makes it necessary to develop reasonable alternatives to the CO2-intense production of ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The development of new or modified concrete is an important part of existing strategies to improve performance and minimize life-cycle costs. Therefore, we investigated carbonation resistance properties of sulphoaluminate cement (SAC) concrete incorporating layered double hydroxides (LDHs). X-ray diffraction (XRD) and IR-spectroscopy were employed to characterize the component and structural changes of LDHs and cement paste before and after carbonation test. Carbonation resistance of concrete was experimentally evaluated. Finally, carbonation of Portland cement and SAC concrete was compared. The experimental results show that carbonation depth decreases remarkably with the addition of LDHs, especially the calcinated LDHs. Carbonation depth of SAC concrete is smaller than that of PC concrete regardless of curing time.

Combined Effect of Mineral Admixture and Curing Condition on Pore Structure of Concrete

The effect of mineral admixture and curing condition in pore structure of concrete was studied in this paper. Concrete samples with different component were prepared firstly, and then they were put into standard condition, fresh water and salt environment that produced artificially respectively at 20 °C. After the experiments of curing at 3, 28 and 180 days pore structure were tested by mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP). The results obtained reveal that with the increase of the age, the pore structure degradation impact in salt environment of concrete increase dramatically. When at 28 days, total pore volume and porosity of concretes in fresh water is lower by 20% and 5% respectively than the ones with larger mean pore size and critical aperture in salt environment, which represents pore refinement in fresh water had a good effect. Compared to the salt environment erosion, it can be found that the impact of pore refinement in fresh water is more significant.