Granulated Blast-Furnace Slag and Coal Fly Ash Ternary Portland Cements Optimization

Granulated blast-furnace slag (GBFS) and coal fly ash (CFA) are two well-known constituents in Portland cements. Ternary Portland cements (GBFS-CFA-K) provide environmental advantages by reducing Portland cement clinker (K) production and, therefore, promote lower CO 2 emissions. Nevertheless, both of them cause a delay in the compressive strength gain. Given that, the early compressive strength for both constituents is low, but they improve the compressive strength at medium and later ages as consequence of the pozzolanic reaction. In this paper, a full factorial design with two levels was developed for the mortar compressive strength estimation at 2, 7 and 28 days. Mortar prisms made with 25% and 40% of granulated blast-furnace slag (GBFS) and/or coal fly ash (CFA) were tested. The effects of the interaction between GBFS and CFA on the compressive strength development of ternary Portland cement mortars were reported. Results show that the contribution of both cement constituents to the ternary mortar mix reduces the compressive strength for all the tested ages. Nevertheless, the finer the GBFS, the better ternary cement performance was achieved, showing that the synergistic effect is more effective when the finer GBFS is used, probably due to a more adequate particle size distribution. Finally, a relationship between compressive strength, fineness, GBFS content and CFA content was found for each age.