Influence of mineral additions on temperature increase of mass concrete of high compressive strength

ABSTRACT

The construction of large foundation blocks for tall buildings has become common in the country. The high compressive strength of concretes, coupled with the fact that they are often self-compacting concretes, generally lead to high binder consumption, possibly causing problems of thermal origin to these structural elements. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of different mineral admixtures on the temperature rise of mass concrete with high compressive strength. For this, an adiabatic calorimeter was used, which simulates the condition of a concrete in an autogenous cure regime. The compressive strengths of the concretes in autogenous and ambient cure regimes were determined at 28 days. In addition, the pastes that composed the concretes were evaluated by thermogravimetric analysis at 28 days, in order to verify the influence of temperature on the reactions of the compounds of the mixtures. The results showed that there was a trend of lower heat release for the parameters °C/MPa and °C/kg of binder for CP III-RS, compared to the other binders used. Thermogravimetric analysis indicated that the type of curing did not significantly influence the pozzolanic activity and the hydration of the Portland cement. Finally, it was verified that the higher compressive strengths for the same water/binder ratio were obtained by the combination of CP V-ARI + metacaulim, because this mineral addition showed high pozzolanic activity. On the other hand, in the CP V - ARI + active silica combination, the mineral admixtures seems to have contributed predominantly to the formation of nucleation points, presenting low calcium hydroxide consumption.

Keywords
Mass concrete; Temperature rise; Mineral admixtures