Establishing the Carbonation Profile with Raman Spectroscopy: Effects of Fly Ash and Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag

Abstract

Establishing a carbonation profile is of great significance to the prediction of the service life of reinforced concrete structures. In our previous work, Raman spectroscopy was shown to be an efficient tool for characterizing calcium carbonate (CaCO3) polymorphs and their profile in plain Portland cement (PC) matrices. However, as supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), particularly fly ash (FA) and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), are widely used in concrete, establishing the carbonation profile without considering the possible effects of these SCMs could be of little significance to the real world. This paper, thus, investigated the effects of FA and GGBS on the working capacity and reliability of Raman spectroscopy for establishing the carbonation profile in PC blends containing SCMs. A thermogravimetry (TG) analysis was also conducted to verify the results from the Raman spectroscopy. The results show that Raman spectroscopy demonstrated a good capacity for differentiating the variation of CaCO3 contents in FA or GGBS blends. However, the incorporation of FA and GGBS into the PC system caused a few adverse effects on the quantification of CaCO3 by Raman spectroscopy, which could be attributed to the darker color and weak scatterer nature of FA and the high content of glassy phases in GGBS.

Highly Effective Adsorption Process of Ni(II) Ions with the Use of Sewage Sludge Fly Ash Generated by Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion (CFBC) Technology

“…A further increase in temperature causes another loss of SS-FA mass at 750 °C. This phenomenon may be a consequence of the degradation of the grain wall surfaces caused by the release of gaseous products (CO 2 ) from their interior according to reaction Equation (7) [ 35 , 38 , 39 ]. Based on the literature, the presence of such CaCO 3 polymorphs as aragonite, vaterite, and calcite can be assumed [ 40 ].…”

Durability of Blast-Furnace Slag Cement Concrete With Different Curing Methods

“…Furthermore, researchers [28,29] showed that GGBFS has outstanding workability and is resistant to chemical penetration by acids and seawater. Another study [30] provides a method for forecasting concrete durability using GGBFS. Moreover, previous studies [31,32] reported that using GGBFS as a cement replacement has a significant environmental impact because the CO2 emissions associated with cement production can be reduced and the cost of concrete production can be saved.…”

Effect of Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag Replacement Ratio on Structural Performance of Precast Concrete Beams

“…In addition, Song and Saraswathy (2006) [ 12 ], Caijun and Yinyu (1989) [ 13 ], Gruskovnjak et al, (2008) [ 14 ], Taylor (1997) [ 15 ], Shi et al, (2020) [ 16 ] and Duży et al, (2021) [ 17 ] showed that ground granulated blast furnace slag is known to have excellent workability and high resistance to chemical penetration by acids, seawater and sewage. And Yue et al, (2021) [ 18 ] suggest a method for predicting the durability of concrete using ground granulated blast furnace slag. In particular, Özbay et al, (2016) [ 19 ] and Kim et al, (2014) [ 20 ] reported that the utilization of ground granulated blast furnace slag as a cement replacement has a very significant impact on the environment, because the carbon dioxide emission involved in cement production can be reduced and the cost of concrete production can be saved.…”