Effect of Silica Modulus on Concrete Maturity at Different Curing Temperatures
Downloads
The variation in early-age strength development of concrete mixes containing locally produced OPC, cured at different temperatures throughout the seasons, has motivated many researchers to investigate this issue. This study analyzed how differences in the constituents of locally sourced OPC, particularly the silica modulus, affect strength development and its impact on concrete maturity at various temperatures. Concrete maturity was calculated using strength development over time to determine an equivalent age required to achieve a specific strength at a standard temperature. The equivalent age is a vital factor for determining the appropriate time to remove formwork at construction sites or to open roads to traffic. The study experimentally evaluated three different proportions of OPC constituents, producing three silica modulus (S.M.) values of 2.4, 2.7, and 3.0. It compared the effect of S.M. variation for two cement contents by assessing two groups of concrete with compressive strengths of 20 N/mm² and 35 N/mm², cured at temperatures of 7, 20, and 35 °C. The results revealed that strength increased with increasing curing temperature at all ages, while the rate of strength development decreased as S.M. increased for both strength levels. In contrast, the activation energy of concrete increased with increasing S.M., with the greatest increase observed in concrete with the higher cement content (35 N/mm²). The maturity function results, expressed in terms of equivalent age for concrete cured at non-standard temperatures (7 and 35 °C), showed that equivalent age was influenced by variations in the OPC S.M., with the effect being more pronounced at S.M. = 2.4 compared with S.M. values of 2.7 and 3.0.
Downloads
[1] Taylor, H. F. W. (1997). Cement chemistry. Thomas Telford Publishing, London, United Kingdom. doi:10.1680/cc.25929.
[2] Rao, D. S., Vijayakumar, T. V., Prabhakar, S., & Raju, G. B. (2011). Geochemical assessment of a siliceous limestone sample for cement making. Chinese Journal of Geochemistry, 30(1), 33–39. doi:10.1007/s11631-011-0484-8.
[3] Lea, F. M. (1970). The Chemistry of Cement and Concrete (3rd Ed.). Hodder Arnold, London, United Kingdom.
[4] Peray, K. E. (1986). Rotary Cement Kiln (2nd Ed.). California Historical Society, San Francisco, United States.
[5] Harrisson, A. M. (2019). Constitution and Specification of Portland Cement. Lea’s Chemistry of Cement and Concrete, 87–155, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, United kingdom. doi:10.1016/B978-0-08-100773-0.00004-6.
[6] ASTM C1074-17. (2015). Standard Practice for Estimating Concrete Strength by the Maturity Method. ASTM International, Pennsylvania, united States. doi:10.1520/C1074-17.
[7] Carino, N. J., & Lew, H. S. (2001). The Maturity Method: From Theory to Application. Structures 2001, 1–19. doi:10.1061/40558(2001)17.
[8] Malhotra, V. M., & Carino, N. J. (2003). Handbook on Nondestructive Testing of Concrete. CRC Press, Boca Raton, United States. doi:10.1201/9781420040050.
[9] Chindaprasirt, P., De Silva, P., Sagoe-Crentsil, K., & Hanjitsuwan, S. (2012). Effect of SiO2 and Al2O3 on the setting and hardening of high calcium fly ash-based geopolymer systems. Journal of Materials Science, 47(12), 4876–4883. doi:10.1007/s10853-012-6353-y.
[10] Yusuf, M. O., Megat Johari, M. A., Ahmad, Z. A., & Maslehuddin, M. (2015). Impacts of silica modulus on the early strength of alkaline activated ground slag/ultrafine palm oil fuel ash based concrete. Materials and Structures/Materiaux et Constructions, 48(3), 733–741. doi:10.1617/s11527-014-0318-3.
[11] Ekinci, E., Kantarci, F., Karakoc, M. B., & Turkmen, I. (2018). Effect of silica modulus on compressive strength of volcanic tuff based geopolymer concrete. International Journal of Advances in Mechanical and Civil Engineering, 5(6), 33-35.
[12] Firdous, R., & Stephan, D. (2019). Effect of silica modulus on the geopolymerization activity of natural pozzolans. Construction and Building Materials, 219, 31–43. doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.05.161.
[13] Salih, M. A., Aldikheeli, M. R., & Shaalan, K. A. (2020). Evaluation of factors influencing the compressive strength of Portland cement statistically. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 737(1), 737 012059. doi:10.1088/1757-899X/737/1/012059.
[14] Luukkonen, T., Sreenivasan, H., Abdollahnejad, Z., Yliniemi, J., Kantola, A., Telkki, V. V., Kinnunen, P., & Illikainen, M. (2020). Influence of sodium silicate powder silica modulus for mechanical and chemical properties of dry-mix alkali-activated slag mortar. Construction and Building Materials, 233, 117354. doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.117354.
[15] Kaze, C. R., Adesina, A., Lecomte-Nana, G. L., Alomayri, T., Kamseu, E., & Melo, U. C. (2021). Alkali-activated laterite binders: Influence of silica modulus on setting time, Rheological behaviour and strength development. Cleaner Engineering and Technology, 4, 100175. doi:10.1016/j.clet.2021.100175.
[16] Sivasakthi, M., & Jeyalakshmi, R. (2021). Effect of change in the silica modulus of sodium silicate solution on the microstructure of fly ash geopolymers. Journal of Building Engineering, 44, 102939. doi:10.1016/j.jobe.2021.102939.
[17] Ishaq, M. B., Mohammed, A. S., & Mohammed, A. A. (2025). Efficient Models for Evaluating Silica and Alumina Modulus Impact in Glass Powder on Long-Term Concrete Strength. Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy, 11(3), 3060–3081. doi:10.1007/s40831-025-01136-w.
[18] Iraqi specification, No. 5. (2019). Portland Cement. Central Organization for Standardization and Quality Control, Ministry of Planning, Baghdad, Iraq.
[19] ASTM C128-15. (2023). Standard Test Method for Relative Density (Specific Gravity) and Absorption of Fine Aggregate. ASTM International, Pennsylvania, United States. doi:10.1520/C0128-15.
[20] ASTM C29/C29M-23. (2023). Standard Test Method for Bulk Density (“Unit Weight”) and Voids in Aggregate. ASTM International, Pennsylvania, United States. doi:10.1520/C0029_C0029M-23 .
[21] Iraqi Standard Specifications No. (45). (2004) Aggregate from Natural Sources for Concrete and Construction. Central Organization for Standardization and Quality Control, Ministry of Planning, Baghdad, Iraq.
[22] ASTM C191-21. (2021). Standard Test Methods for Time of Setting of Hydraulic Cement by Vicat Needle. ASTM International, Pennsylvania, United States. doi:10.1520/C0191-21 .
[23] BS EN 12390-4:2000. (2000). Testing hardened concrete - Compressive strength. Specification for testing machines. British Standards Institution (BSI), London, United Kingdom.
[24] Adewumi, A. A., Ariffin, M. A. M., Maslehuddin, M., Yusuf, M. O., Ismail, M., & Al-Sodani, K. A. A. (2021). Influence of silica modulus and curing temperature on the strength of alkali-activated volcanic ash and limestone powder mortar. In Materials (Vol. 14, Issue 18, p. 5204). doi:10.3390/ma14185204.
[25] Ramanathan, S., Pestana, L. R., & Suraneni, P. (2022). Reaction kinetics of supplementary cementitious materials in reactivity tests. Cement, 8, 100022. doi:10.1016/j.cement.2022.100022.
[26] Mindess, S., Young, F., & Darwin, D. (2003). Concrete (2nd Ed.). Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, United States.
[27] Krauss, P., & Paret, T. (2014). Review of Properties of Concrete, 5th Edition, by A. M. Neville, Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, 28. doi:10.1061/(asce)cf.1943-5509.0000595.
[28] Hamada, H., Alattar, A., Tayeh, B., Yahaya, F., & Almeshal, I. (2022). Influence of different curing methods on the compressive strength of ultra-high-performance concrete: A comprehensive review. Case Studies in Construction Materials, 17, e01390. doi:10.1016/j.cscm.2022.e01390.
[29] Jan, A., Pu, Z., Khan, K. A., Ahmad, I., Shaukat, A. J., Hao, Z., & Khan, I. (2022). A Review on the Effect of Silica to Alumina Ratio, Alkaline Solution to Binder Ratio, Calcium Oxide + Ferric Oxide, Molar Concentration of Sodium Hydroxide and Sodium Silicate to Sodium Hydroxide Ratio on the Compressive Strength of Geopolymer Concrete. Silicon, 14(7), 3147–3162. doi:10.1007/s12633-021-01130-3.
- Authors retain all copyrights. It is noticeable that authors will not be forced to sign any copyright transfer agreements.
- This work (including HTML and PDF Files) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
