Note for CONCRETE TECHNOLOGY - CT By JNTU Heroes

Topics ( 5 )

Text from page-1

CONCRETE TECHNOLOGY III B. Tech I semester (JNTUH-R13) CIVIL ENGINEERING 1

Text from page-2

UNIT- 1 Cement, Aggregates and Admixtures 1.1 Portland Cement Concrete is made by portland cement, water and aggregates. Portland cement is a hydraulic cement that hardens in water to form a water-resistant compound. The hydration products act as binder to hold the aggregates together to form concrete. The name portland cement comes from the fact that the colour and quality of the resulting concrete are similar to Portland stone, a kind of limestone found in England. 1.1.1 Manufacture of Portland cement Portland cement is made by blending the appropriate mixture of limestone and clay or shale together and by heating them at 1450oC in a rotary kiln. The sequence of operations is shown in following figure. The preliminary steps are a variety of blending and crushing operations. The raw feed must have a uniform composition and be a size fine enough so that reactions among the components can complete in the kiln. Subsequently, the burned clinker is ground with gypsum to form the familiar grey powder known as Portland cement. 2

Text from page-3

The raw materials used for manufacturing Portland cement are limestone, clay and Iron ore. a) Limestone (CaCO3) is mainly providing calcium in the form of calcium oxide (CaO) CaCO3 (1000oC) → CaO + CO2 b) Clay is mainly providing silicates (SiO2) together with small amounts of Al2O3 + Fe2O3 Clay (1450oC) → SiO2 + Al2O3 + Fe2O3 + H2O c) Iron ore and Bauxite are providing additional aluminium and iron oxide (Fe2O3) which help the formation of calcium silicates at low temperature. They are incorporated into the raw mix. High temperature 3 CaOoSiO2 2 CaOoSiO2 (1,450 oC) 3 CaOoAl2O3 Limestone Clay 4 CaOoAl2O3oFe2O3 Iron Ore, Bauxite d) The clinker is pulverized to small sizes (< 75 μm). 3-5% of gypsum (calcium sulphate) is added to control setting and hardening. The majority particle size of cement is from 2 to 50 μm. A plot of typical particle size distribution is given below. (Note: “Blaine” refers to a test to measure particle size in terms of surface area/mass) 3

Text from page-4

1.1.2 Chemical composition a) Abbreviation: CaO = C, SiO2 = S, Al2O3 = A; Fe2O3 =F, H2O = H, SO3 = S (sulphur trioxide) Ca(OH)2 = CH, Thus we can write 3 CaO = C3 and 2 CaOoSiO2 = C2S. b) Major compounds: Compound Oxide composition colour Common name Weight percentage C3 S white Alite 50% C2 S white Belite 25% C3 A white/grey --- 12% black Ferrite 8% Tricalcium Silicate Dicalcium Silicate Tricalcium Aluminate Tetracalcium Aluminoferrite C4AF Since the primary constituents of Portland cement are calcium silicate, we can define Portland cement as a material which combine CaO SiO2 in such a proportion that the resulting calcium silicate will react with water at room temperature and under normal pressure. c) Minor components of Portland cement The most important minor components are gypsum, MgO, and alkali sulphates. Gypsum (2CaSO4o2H2O) is an important component added to avoid flash set. Alkalies (MgO, Na2O, K2O) can increase pH value up to 13.5 which is good for reinforcing steel protection. However, for some aggregates, such a high alkaline environment can cause alkali aggregate reaction problem. 4