Theoretical analysis of the hydration dependence of low heat Portland cements with or without silica fume on their packing fractions

Abstract

The reaction process between components in mixed systems consisting of silica fume and low-heat Portland cement was studied by using an extended version of the Tomozawa’s equation that considers particle size distributions. In addition, the relationship between the hydration reaction of the cement and the pozzolanic reaction of silica fume was quantitatively analyzed. In order to determine theoretical porosity of the silica fume containing cements, a special equation including the hydration reaction of the mixed system was described and used to quantify cement porosity as a function of time. The comparison of the simulated porosity results with the measured values revealed that the silica fume reactivity was similar to that of alite.