Properties of White Portland Cement Concrete

White cement has been produced for several decades. Yet, it is only quite recent that designers have been expanding in its use in structural application for a variety of reasons. This includes its remarkable white color effect and its better ability for pigmentation by a set of colors thereby requiring less or no plastering. On the whole, white Portland cement has similar chemical composition to that of conventional grey cement with the exception of few oxides alterations. The question always remains as to how well such cement can perform in concrete load-bearing elements. This work aims at achieving better understanding of the properties of white cement when incorporated in concrete mixtures. To meet these objective, several types of commercially available white cement have been acquired and tested together with conventional grey cement. The testing scheme involved chemical analysis and fresh concrete properties such as unit weight, slump, temperature and air content. Hardened concrete properties were evaluated through compressive strength testing after 3, 7 and 28 days as well as flexural strength after 28 days. In addition, samples were made of pigmented concrete and were evaluated for thermal insulation and light reflection. A comparison was held to assess the sensitivity to pigmentation of each cement types. Results reveal that, overall, white concrete has good-to-high performance that can surpass grey cement. The mechanical properties, long term properties as well as environmental merits, all suggest that such cement should be applied on a wider scale in structural concrete and not only be limited to decorative purposes.