Hydration and properties of blended cement system incorporating aerogel

Abstract

The utilization of supplementary cementing materials (SCMs) to produce economical cement that is cheaper and greener is an ongoing issue. The objectives of this study are to determine the effect of SCMs on the hydration and properties of blended cement. In this study, OPC was improvised by addition of GGBS and RHA with different weight percentages. Both types of respective were added with 1%, 2% and 3% of aerogel to improve its strength and hydrated for 7 and 28 days. The specimens was characterized by using compressive strength test, FTIR, FESEM, XRD and TGA techniques. The compressive strength test show all specimens have increase in strength for 7 and 28 days in which the composition of OPC-GGBS with 1% aerogel shows the highest compressive strength at early hydration. FTIR shows the functional group present in the OPC- GGBS-Aerogel and OPC-RHA-Aerogel blended cement which are the water lattice of CH, CSH and CASH. The hydration product formed such as CH, CSH and ettringite were observed by using FESEM having plated shaped, foil honey-comb and fine needle-like crystal structure respectively. The formation of the hydrated was confirmed by XRD technique. The TGA technique indicates that there were 3 stages of percentage decomposition of weight loss occur on both type of specimens associated with aerogel.