Hydration properties and thermal analysis of cement-based materials containing limestone powder

The hydration and thermal properties of cement-based materials containing various proportions of limestone powder as a partial replacement for ordinary Portland cement, were investigated and reported. Both compressive and flexural strengths of cement mortar with various contents of limestone powder were tested to study the influence of limestone powder on the strength development of resulting mixtures. The hydration heat and its rate of evolution were also tested, which clearly showed that the replacement percentage of limestone powder had significant effects on the total hydration heat but only a modest influence on the rate of heat evolution of cement-limestone binder. Importantly, the reduction coefficient of limestone powder on the hydration heat,needed for estimation of adiabatic temperature rise of cement-limestone binder, was found to be approximately 0.51. Fundamental thermal properties of these concrete mixtures containing limestone powder were also studied. Increasing the percentage of limestone powder resulted in a significant reduction in the adiabatic temperature rise but only a slight increase in other thermal properties such as thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity and specific heat. In addition, thermal analysis using finite-element modelling indicated that inclusion of limestone powder did not significantly affect the rate of temperature rise nor the occurrence time of the highest temperature at early ages.