Properties and hydration of cementitious systems containing low, moderate and high amounts of natural zeolites


Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2007

Öğrenci: BURAK UZAL

Eş Danışman: LUTFULLAH TURANLI, HAYRETTİN YÜCEL

Özet:

The extent of the benefits provided by use of SCMs in cementitious systems increases as their percentage amounts in total binder increases. However, the proportion of SCMs in cementitious systems is limited, especially for natural pozzolans, by some factors such as increase in water requirement and decrease in rate of strength development. Therefore investigations are needed to increase the amount of natural pozzolans in blended cements or in concrete as much as possible without decreasing their performance. This aim requires studies on cementitious systems with more reactive natural pozzolans than widely-used ones. The objective of the study was to investigate the pozzolanic activity of natural zeolites (clinoptilolite) from two localities in Turkey, and properties of cementitious systems containing low (15%), moderate (35%) and high (55%) amount of them. The study covers characterization of the natural zeolites used, evaluation of their pozzolanic activity in comparison with some popular mineral admixtures, and properties of pastes, mortars, and concrete mixtures containing low, moderate, and high amounts of natural zeolites. Reactivity of the natural zeolites with Ca(OH)2 was found to be higher than those of the fly ash and the non-zeolitic pozzolan, but lower than that of the silica fume. Natural zeolite blended cements were characterized with the following highlighted properties; faster setting than portland cement, low amounts of Ca(OH)2 and capillary pores larger than 50 nm in hardened pastes, relatively dense microstructure of hardened paste than portland cement, more compatibility with melamine-based superplasticizer than being with naphthalene-based one, and excellent compressive strength performance. Concrete mixtures containing natural zeolites as partial replacement for portland cement were characterized with the following properties; 7-day compressive strength of ~25 MPa and 28-day strength of 45-50 MPa with only 180 kg/m3 portland cement and 220 kg/m3 zeolite dosages (55% replacement), comparable modulus of elasticity with plain portland cement concrete, “low” and “very low” chloride-ion penetrability for low and large levels of replacement, respectively.