Application of Alkali-Activated Ternary Blended Cement in Manufacture of Ready-Mixed Concrete

Abstract

Cement industry is typical carbon-emission industry. If the industrial by-products(granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS), fly ash, etc.) are used a large amount, it might be able to reduce cement consumption and mitigate carbon emissions. In this case, however, decrease of early strength is relatively large. Therefore, there is a limitation in increase of the amount of substitute. Considering these circumstances, it would be a good solution to reduce carbon emissions in cement industry to improve the performances of mixed cement through proper alkali-activation in Portland blended cement using GGBFS or fly ash. Therefore, this study prepared concrete in ready-mixed concrete manufacturing facilities with an addition of a binder which used 2.0% modified alkali sulfate activator after mixing Portland cement, GGBFS and fly ash in the ratio of 4:4:2 and assessed its basic properties. The results found the followings: The use of modified alkali-sulfate activator slightly reduced slump and shortened setting time. As a result, bleeding capacity decreased while early strength improved. In addition, there is no big difference in carbonation resistance. It appears that there should be continued experiments and analyses on the related long-term aged specimens.