Monitoring and Interpreting the Early Properties of Alkali-Activated Materials by Electrical Conductivity Measurement

Alkali-activated materials are attracting more and more attention worldwide thanks to their low carbon footprint. Different from the binders based on ordinary Portland cement, the early properties such as flowability, setting, and early strength development, of alkali-activated materials can vary very much and are very sensitive to the compositions of concrete mixture. Conventional methods for testing such early properties are often time-consuming and laborious, whilst the measurement of electrical conductivity is relatively simple and can easily be monitored in an automatic manner. This paper presents a simple monitoring technique based on Winner’s resistivity method and some results measured from mortar samples with various compositions of alkali-activated materials as well as ordinary Portland cements. The preliminary results show some reasonable correlations between monitored conductivity curves and measured/observed early properties. Some interpretations and theoretical considerations to these measured conductivity curves in relation to the early properties and possible chemical reactions are discussed.