Blast furnace slag (SL) is an amorphous calcium aluminosilicate material that exhibits both pozzolanic and latent hydraulic activities. It has been successfully used to reduce the heat of hydration in mass concrete. However, SL currently available in the market generally experiences pre-treatment to increase its reactivity to be closer to that of portland cement. Therefore, using such pre-treated SL may not be applicable for reducing the heat of hydration in mass concrete. In this work, the adiabatic and semi-adiabatic temperature rise of concretes with 20% and 40% SL (mass replacement of cement) containing calcium sulfate were investigated. Isothermal calorimetry and thermal analysis (TGA) were used to study the hydration kinetics of cement paste at 23 and 50 °C. Results were compared with those with control cement and 20% replacements of silica fume, fly ash, and metakaolin. Results obtained from adiabatic calorimetry and isothermal calorimetry testing showed that the concrete with SL had somewhat higher maximum temperature rise and heat release compared to other materials, regardless of SL replacement levels. However, there was a delay in time to reach maximum temperature with increasing SL replacement level. At 50 °C, a significant acceleration was observed for SL, which is more likely related to the pozzolanic reaction than the hydraulic reaction. Semi-adiabatic calorimetry did not show a greater temperature rise for the SL compared to other materials; the differences in results between semi-adiabatic and adiabatic calorimetry are important and should be noted. Based on these results, it is concluded that the use of blast furnace slag should be carefully considered if used for mass concrete applications.
Ultrasonic wave reflection coefficients of aqueous solutions were measured using high-impact polystyrene as a buffer material to provide enhanced sensitivity over metal or ceramic buffer materials. The wave reflection values showed linear reduction when the concentration of chemical species in solution was increased, but a distinct relation between concentration and reflection coefficient was obtained for each solute species tested. However, more unified relationships were observed between reflection coefficient and other solution parameters - solution density, acoustic impedance, and P-wave velocity - that were consistent for all solution species. Based on this behavior an expression to compute solution density solely from reflection coefficient is derived, which can be applied to estimate solution density in solutions of unknown solute species and concentration when other measurements, such as wave velocity, are not possible.
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