Simulation of Hydration of Portland Cement Blended With Mineral Admixtures

Supplementary cementing materials (SCM), such as silica fume, slag, and low-calcium fly ash, have been widely used as mineral admixtures in high strength and high performance concrete. Due to the chemical and physical effect of SCM on hydration, compared with Portland cement, hydration process of cement incorporating SCM is much more complex. This paper presents a numerical hydration model which is based on multi-component concept and can simulate hydration of cement incorporating SCM. The proposed model starts with mixture proportion of concrete and considers both chemical and physical effect of SCM on hydration. Using this proposed model, this paper predicts the following properties of hydrating cement-SCM blends as a function of hydration time: reaction ratio of SCM, calcium hydroxide content, heat evolution, porosity, chemically bound water and the development of the compressive strength of concrete. The prediction results agree well with experiment results.