Durability of concretes with ternary cements

The production of cements with calcined clay is becoming increasingly important for the cement industry for ecological and economic reasons. Especially the combination of the cement constituents granulated blast furnace slag (S) and calcined clay (Q) next to Portland cement clinker (K) is very promising in terms of cement properties, durability and CO₂ saving potential. Due to a lack of knowledge and experience, such KSQ cements have not yet been produced in Europe.

With the help of design of experiments and statistical evaluation, both the influence of the cement composition and the reactivity of the clinker and calcined clays used on the cement and concrete properties were determined. For this purpose, a total of 64 different cement compositions consisting of at least 20 wt.% clinker (two different qualities), a maximum of 59 wt.% granulated blast furnace slag and a maximum of 49 wt.% calcined clay (two different qualities) were investigated.

It could be shown that in a wide range of compositions, the production of KSQ cements of strength class 42,5 acc. EN 197‐1 is possible, whereby the water demand of the cements was mainly determined by the amount of calcined clay. Most of the corresponding concretes exhibited a high resistance to carbonation, chloride and freeze thaw attack.