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Activation of ground granulated blast furnace slag by using calcined dolomite


Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Jin, F 
Al-Tabbaa, A 
Shi, B 

Abstract

Both reactive MgO and CaO are alternative activators for ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS). In this study natural dolomite, as a source of MgO and CaO, was calcined at 800 °C (D800) and 1000 °C (D1000) in air. The activation of GGBS with the calcined dolomites was investigated using compressive tests, pH measurement of pore solutions, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The results indicated that both calcined dolomites can effectively activate GGBS. D800 showed a relatively slower acceleration to GGBS than D1000 and both were slower than CaO. The use of D800 produced similar compressive strengths as did D1000 after 7 days curing but lower strengths at later ages. By increasing the dosage of activators, significantly higher strengths were obtained using D800 while only small increases were observed using D1000. The detected hydration products by XRD and TGA were mainly C–S–H and hydrotalcite-like phases, similar to those from other alkali-activated slags. The comparison to other activators indicated that using calcined dolomite can induce faster hydration of slag than using reactive MgO in the early age while slower than Portland cement in this study.

Description

Keywords

Alkali-activated slag, Dolomite, Calcination, Hydration

Journal Title

Construction and Building Materials

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0950-0618
1879-0526

Volume Title

68

Publisher

Elsevier BV
Sponsorship
The work presented in this paper was carried out at Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, in the academic year 2012-2013 when the first author was a visiting researcher there. The visit was funded by the China Scholarship Council and the Scientific Research Foundation of the Graduate School of Nanjing University (No.2012CL11), which are greatly appreciated. The financial support for the PhD studentship of the second author from the Cambridge Trust and the China Scholarship Council is also much appreciated.