The cement being used in the construction industry is the result of a chemical process<p>linked to the decarbonation of limestone conducted at high temperature and results in a<p>significant release of CO2. This thesis is part of the project EcoBéton (Green concrete) funded<p>by the French National Research Agency (ANR), with a purpose to show the feasibility of<p>high substitution of cement by mineral additions such as blast furnaces slag, fly ash and<p>limestone fillers. Generally for high percentages of replacements, the early age strength is<p>lower than Portland cement concrete. To cope with this problem, an optimisation method for<p>mix design of concrete using Bolomey’s law has been proposed. Following the encouraging<p>results obtained from mortar, a series of tests on concretes with different substitution<p>percentages were carried out to validate the optimisation method. To meet the requirements of<p>the construction industry related to performance of concrete at early age, which determine<p>their durability, a complete experimental study was carried out. Standard tests for the<p>characterization of the mechanical properties (compressive strength, tensile strength, and<p>setting) allowed to validate the choice of mix design on the basis of equivalent performance.<p>We focused on the hydration process to understand the evolution of the mechanical<p>properties. Setting time measurement by ultrasound device at different temperatures (10°C,<p>20°C and 30°C) showed that ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) and fly ash<p>delayed the setting process, while use of limestone filler may accelerate this process.<p>Calorimetric studies over mortars and concretes made possible to calculate the activation<p>energy of the different mixtures and a decrease in heat of hydration of concretes with mineral<p>additions was observed which is beneficial for use in mega projects of concrete. Scanning<p>Electron Microscopy observations and thermal analysis have given enough information about<p>the hydration process. It was observed that the hydration products are similar for different<p>concrete mixtures, but the time of their appearance and quantity in the cement matrix varies<p>for each concrete mix.<p>Last part of the thesis was dedicated to the study of main types of shrinkage. First of all,<p>deformations measured were correlated to hydration, capillary depression and porosity<p>evolution. Results allowed concluding that the use of mineral additions has an actual effect on<p>the plastic shrinkage behaviour, but its impact is not proportional to the percentage of<p>additions. Substitution of cement by the additions seems to have a marked influence on the<p>kinetics of the shrinkage without any effect on its long term amplitude. The study of<p>restrained shrinkage under drying conditions by means of ring tests showed that concretes<p>with high percentage of slag addition seem more prone to cracking than the Portland cement<p>concretes. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ulb.ac.be/oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/209985 |
| Date | 14 September 2010 |
| Creators | Khokhar, Muhammad Irfan |
| Contributors | Loukili, Ahmed, Staquet, Stéphanie, Aït-Mokhtar, Abdelkarim, Escadeillas, Gilles, Espion, Bernard, Grondin, Frédéric, De Belie, Nele, Delplancke, Marie-Paule |
| Publisher | Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Université libre de Bruxelles, Ecole polytechnique de Bruxelles – Constructions, Bruxelles |
| Source Sets | Université libre de Bruxelles |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, info:ulb-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, info:ulb-repo/semantics/openurl/vlink-dissertation |
| Format | No full-text files |
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