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Supplementary Cementitious Materials for Concrete: Characterization Needs

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Abstract

A wide variety of materials are currently used as supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) for concrete, including natural materials and byproducts from various industries. Historically, natural SCMs, mostly derived from volcanic deposits, were common in concrete. In recent years, the dominant SCMs have been industrial by-products such as fly ash, ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS), and silica fume. There is currently a resurgence of research into historic and natural SCMs, as well as other alternative SCMs for many reasons. The primary benefits of SCM use in improvement of long-term mechanical performance, durability, and sustainability are widely accepted, so local demand for these materials can exceed supply. This paper describes some of the SCMs that are attracting attention in the global research community and the properties and characteristics of these materials that affect their performance. Special attention is paid to the importance and demands of material characterization. Many SCMs do not necessarily lend themselves to characterization methods used in standardized test methods, which sometimes fail to describe the properties that are most important in predicting reactivity.

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Acknowledgements

This work is an outcome of the committee work of the members of RILEM TC-SCM WG1, a working group on the characterization of supplementary cementitious materials. Members of the committee are thanked for their ideas and contributions. Funding for M. Juenger’s work on SCMs has been provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation (CMMI- 1030972) and the Texas Department of Transportation (project 0-6717). Work performed by H. He, F. Michel and L. Courard on limestone fillers was founded by Post-Doc Grant of Université de Liège and CEMCALC research project (Wallonia Grant).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Texas at Austin, U.S.A.

    Maria Juenger

  2. University of Sheffield, United Kingdom

    John L. Provis

  3. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

    Jan Elsen

  4. Holcim Group Support Ltd., Switzerland

    Winnie Matthes

  5. University of Toronto, Canada

    R. Doug Hooton

  6. Université Laval, Canada

    Josée Duchesne

  7. Université de Liège, Belgium

    Luc Courard, Huan He & Frédéric Michel

  8. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

    Ruben Snellings

  9. Universiteit Gent, Belgium

    Nele De Belie

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  1. Maria Juenger
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Juenger, M., Provis, J.L., Elsen, J. et al. Supplementary Cementitious Materials for Concrete: Characterization Needs. MRS Online Proceedings Library 1488, 8–22 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1557/opl.2012.1536

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