Design of blended cement with high volume ground granulated blast furnace slag by using nano-sized particles

In the current thesis, early-age strength development and hydration properties of CEM III-A (%36 Slag+%64 Clinker), CEM III-B (%66 Slag+%34 Clinker) and CEM III-C (%81 Slag+%19 Clinker) as blended types of cement containing high volume ground granulated blast furnace slag were investigated. For this purpose, fifty-eight mixtures containing 1%, 2%, 3% and 4% of nano calcite, nano SiO2 and nano Al2O3 and also meeting the minimum requirements of TS EN 197-1 have been designed. Both of workability of these mixtures and the compressive strengths at the curing ages of 2, 7 and 28-day were examined. In addition, consistency, setting times and expansion tests of eight selected mixes were also carried out. The experimental results showed that including a higher volume of slag resulted in lower compressive strength at early ages. As a result of the combined effect of both nucleation and chemical effects, early-age strength development and shortening in setting times were observed with the use of nanomaterials. As the rate of nanomaterial usage increased, a partial decrease was observed in the increase in strength, and the best contribution to the strength development were obtained in 1-2% usage of nanomaterials. As the usage of Nano Al2O3 and Nano SiO2 and replacement level of slag increased, the decrease in the diameter of the mini-slump flow, namely decrease in workability, was observed. An increase in workability has been detected in the use of nano calcite. Contribution to the performance properties of mortars has been obtained by the Nucleation effect with the usage of Nano SiO2 and Nano Al2O3 while the contribution has arisen from both nucleation and chemical effects in the case of nano calcite usage. In CEM III-C type cement containing 81% blast furnace slag, CEM III-C 32.5 N cement was produced with 1-2% nanomaterial regardless of nano type.