Modeling the Influence of Ground-Granulated Blast Furnace Slag on Hydration of Cement

Portland cement is usually substituted with granulated blast furnace slag to make a slag-blended cement. A slag-incorporating cement has a more complicated hydration process than Portland cement due to the interactions between the slag reaction and the hydration of Portland cement in the cementitious systems. Understanding the effect of slag substitution on the hydration of cement is still challenging; hence, this research is aimed at predicting the hydration of slag-incorporating cement. To achieve this, the extended CEMHYD3D model was employed to predict the hydration of a slag-blended cement. The simulation was done with cement paste samples made with various water-to-cement ratios and different slag substitution levels, in which the interaction between the hydration of Portland cement and the reaction of slag was considered. The prediction model has been validated with experimental results and verified to be successful in predicting the hydration of slag-blended cement.