Compressive strength and hydration with age of cement pastes containing dune sand powder.pdf

Construction and Building Materials 25 (2011) 1263–1269Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Construction and Building Materials journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate /conbui ldmatCompressive strength and hydration with age of cement pastes containing dune sand powder Salim Guettala a,?, Bouzidi Mezghiche b aCivil Engineering Department, University of Djelfa, 17000 Djelfa, Algeria bResearch Laboratory Civil Engineering, University of Biskra, 07000 Biskra, Algeria a r t i c l e i n f oArticle history: Received 23 April 2009 Received in revised form 12 August 2010 Accepted 2 September 2010 Available online 12 October 2010 Keywords: Ordinary Portland cement Pure lime Dune sand powder Compressive strength Hydration0950-0618/$ - see front matter Published by Elsevier doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2010.09.026 ? Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: guettalasalim@ (S. Gu (B. Mezghiche).a b s t r a c t This experimental work has focused on studying the possibility of using dune sand powder (DSP) as a part mass addition to Portland cement. Studying the effect of addition dune sand powder on development of compressive strength and hydration with age of cement pastes as a function of water/binder ratio, was varied, on the one hand, the percentage of the dune sand powder (physico-chemical and chemical effect) and on the other, the fineness of dune sand powder (physical effect). In order to understand better the chemical effect (pozzolanic effect) of dune sand powder in cement pastes, we followed the mixtures hydration (50% pure lime + 50% DSP) by X-ray diffraction. These mixtures pastes present a hydraulic set- ting which is due to the formation of a C–S–H phase (calcium silicate hydrate). The latter is semi-crystal- lized. This study is a simplified approach to that of the mixtures (80% ordinary Portland cement + 20% DSP), in which the main reaction is the fixing of the lime coming from the cement hydration in the pres- ence of the dune sand powder (pozzolanic reaction)