Nowadays it is well known that using blast furnace slag as partial replacements for Portland cement adds technological, economic and environmental benefits. Those are some of the reasons why cements containing several additions (blast furnace slag, fly ash, calcareous material, etc) are commonly used. In recent years, blended cements started to increase amounts of additions as replacement of Portland cement; in this regard these variations influence the rate and the mechanism of hydration and, consequently, strength development. The present work evaluated the effect of different curing temperatures (20, 40 and 60 ºC) on the mechanical strength of cement paste with different proportions of granulated blast-furnace slag (0 to 80 %). Pastes were prepared with water/cementitious material ratio (w/cm) equal to 0,4. The hydration evolution was determinated following the hydration products using XRD analysis and evaluated the content of non evaporable water. Mechanical strength was evaluated trough central composite experimental design. When granulated blast-furnace slag content increases with curing temperature, the results show that mechanical strength and non evaporable water increases, while the calcium hydroxide content decreases.
Portland cement; Granulated blast furnace slag; mechanical strength; XRD; non evaporable water; thermal activation
