Ambrose, J. orcid.org/0009-0009-5922-036X, Shenbagam, V.K., Provis, J.L. et al. (2 more authors) (2025) Assessment of standard test procedures applied to calcium sulfoaluminate based cements. Advances in Cement Research, 37 (2). pp. 125-132. ISSN 0951-7197
Abstract
Cements containing calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) have reported excellent characteristics at both early and later ages. However, there are a number of studies reporting poor durability when compared with Portland cement (PC). Durability tests are used as an indicator for service life, and thus the viability of a cement system relies on its performance in these tests. Test methods often assume a sufficient maturity based on extensively tested PC systems; however, slower hydrating binder assemblages and variable chemistries can be severely underestimated when tested at the default 28 days. For example, a belitic CSA (BCSA) cement tested at this time will fail to account for later-stage hydration products that can improve the durability of the system. Tests on the durability of BCSA cements beyond 28 days of curing are sparsely covered in the literature, although in each study the results have shown a marked improvement in durability performance – a characteristic paralleled by other slow-hydrating binders such as fly ash composite cements. The use of an equivalent cement hydration/maturity in testing protocols is proposed, which could be considered a baseline for subsequent improvements that can be made with regard to how alternative binder systems are tested. A call to action for the cement community is outlined to (a) understand what tests are actually testing at a chemical level, (b) develop a ‘cure test’ to assess maturity and (c) undertake round-robin testing.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2025 The Authors. Except as otherwise noted, this author-accepted version of a journal article published in Advances in Cement Research is made available via the University of Sheffield Research Publications and Copyright Policy under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Keywords: | alternative cements; calcium sulfoaluminate; codes of practice & standards; curing conditions; durability; equivalent hydration/ maturity; specifications; test methods |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number UK RESEARCH AND INNOVATION MR/V023829/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 21 Feb 2025 12:37 |
Last Modified: | 21 Feb 2025 14:20 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Emerald |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1680/jadcr.24.00033 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:223652 |
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