TY - JOUR
T1 - Limestone calcined clay cement
T2 - mechanical properties, crystallography, and microstructure development
AU - Sui, Hao
AU - Hou, Pengkun
AU - Liu, Yanming
AU - Sagoe-Crentsil, Kwesi
AU - Basquiroto de Souza, Felipe
AU - Duan, Wenhui
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are grateful for the financial support of the Australian Research Council (IH150100006) in conducting this study. The authors appreciate the kind support in providing calcined clay samples through the team National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFE0206100 and 2017YFB0310905). The authors acknowledge Junlin Lin, Wei Wang, and Qianhui Zhang from Monash University, as well as the use of facilities within the Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) holds promise as a new type of sustainable cement-based material, but the mechanisms underpinning its engineering performance are still poorly understood. Here, a metal intrusion-enhanced imaging approach was employed to quantitatively analyze and link the pore structure development of LC3 to its hydration process, i.e. solid-phase development, and mechanical performance. We found that the early age microstructural development in LC3 is inhomogeneous, with the perimeter of limestone particles displaying higher porosity relative to that surrounding calcined clay and clinker. At later ages, the formation of carboaluminates and calcium-aluminate-silicate-hydrates homogenized the overall microstructure of LC3, thereby delivering improved mechanical performance. Overall, our analysis suggested a more efficient particle packing in LC3 mixes, which decreases the volume/connectivity of micro-pores and can account for LC3’s notable flexural strength. These findings can assist the development of improved LC3 binder formulations alongside other ternary binders with possibly higher limestone additions.
AB - Limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) holds promise as a new type of sustainable cement-based material, but the mechanisms underpinning its engineering performance are still poorly understood. Here, a metal intrusion-enhanced imaging approach was employed to quantitatively analyze and link the pore structure development of LC3 to its hydration process, i.e. solid-phase development, and mechanical performance. We found that the early age microstructural development in LC3 is inhomogeneous, with the perimeter of limestone particles displaying higher porosity relative to that surrounding calcined clay and clinker. At later ages, the formation of carboaluminates and calcium-aluminate-silicate-hydrates homogenized the overall microstructure of LC3, thereby delivering improved mechanical performance. Overall, our analysis suggested a more efficient particle packing in LC3 mixes, which decreases the volume/connectivity of micro-pores and can account for LC3’s notable flexural strength. These findings can assist the development of improved LC3 binder formulations alongside other ternary binders with possibly higher limestone additions.
KW - flexural strength
KW - Limestone calcined clay cement (LC)
KW - metal intrusion
KW - microstructure development
KW - pore structure
KW - quantitative SEM analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85130592461&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/21650373.2022.2074911
DO - 10.1080/21650373.2022.2074911
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85130592461
SN - 2165-0373
VL - 12
SP - 427
EP - 440
JO - Journal of Sustainable Cement-Based Materials
JF - Journal of Sustainable Cement-Based Materials
IS - 4
ER -