Hydration and Strength Evolution of Ternary-Blend High-Volume Fly Ash Concretes

The increase of carbon emissions due to the annual growth of portland cement (PC) production has promoted research into the development of sustainable green concrete using a range of readily available industrial waste materials. The present study is focused on developing two high-volume fly ash (HVFA) concretes with cement replacement levels of 65% (HVFA-65) and 80% (HVFA-80). The required lime for both HVFA concrete mixtures was initially determined and the optimized mixture designs identified, based on the 28-day compressive strength, by varying the low-calcium Class F fly ash-hydrated lime composition. The optimized concrete mixtures achieved a compressive strength of 53 and 40 MPa (7.69 and 5.80 ksi) for HVFA-65 and HVFA-80 concretes, respectively. The early-stage strength development is dependent on the matrix produced in the specific HVFA concrete, which is itself dependent on the number of unreacted fly ash spheres. The increase of fly ash and hydrated lime dosage in HVFA concrete increases the rate of hydration of the C3A and C4AF phases, but decreases the hydration of the C3S phase, which resulted in lower early-age strength development than occurs in PC concrete. It was noted that the initial setting time of HVFA concretes increase with an increase of fly ash content. However, addition of hydrated lime accelerates the hydration and decreases the final setting time for HVFA concretes.