ARIZONA CONCRETE

John McCollam

Geology 101, Section 12262

Randy Porch
20 November 1996

ARIZONA CONCRETE
According to the Mine Faculty at the University of Arizona, cement is manufactured
primarily from suitable limestone and shale rocks. Arizona had two dry-process
cement plants in 1969, namely the Arizona Portland Cement Company plant in Pima
County, near Tucson, and the American Cement Corporation plant at Clarkdale, in
Yavapai County (52-53).
The use of cementing materials goes back to the ancient Egyptians and Romans, but
the invention of modern portland cement is usually attributed to Joseph Aspdin, a
builder in Leeds, England, who obtained a patent for it in 1824. Currently, the
annual world production of portland cement is around 700 million metric tons
(Danbury).
Many people use the words concrete and cement interchangeably, but they=re not.
Concrete is to cement as a cake is to flour. Concrete is a mixture of ingredients
that includes cement but contains other ingredients also (Day 6-7).
Portland cement is produced by pulverizing clinker consisting essentially of
hydraulic calcium silicates along with some calcium aluminates and calcium
aluminoferrites and usually containing one or more forms of calcium sulfate
(gypsum) as an interground addition. Materials used in the manufacture of portland
cement must contain appropriate proportions of calcium oxide, silica, alumina, and
iron oxide components. During manufacture, analyses of all materials are made
frequently to ensure a uniformly high quality cement.
Selected raw materials are crushed, milled, and proportioned in such a way that the
resulting mixture has the desired chemical composition. The raw materials are
generally a mixture of calcareous (calcium oxide) material, such as limestone,
chalk or shells, and an argillaceous (silica and alumina) material such as clay,
shale, or blast-furnace slag. Either a dry or a wet process is used. In the dry
process, grinding and blending operations are done with dry materials. In the wet
process, the grinding and blending are done with the materials in slurry form. In
other respects, the dry and wet processes are very much alike.
After blending, the ground raw material is fed into the upper end of a kiln. The
raw mix passes through the kiln at a rate controlled by the slope and rotational
speed of the kiln. Burning fuel (powdered coal, oil, or gas) is forced into the
lower end of the kiln where temperatures of 2600�F to 3000�F change the raw
material chemically into cement clinker, grayish-black pellets about the size of
1/2-in.-diameter marbles.
The clinker is cooled and then pulverized. During this operation a small amount of
gypsum is added to regulate the setting time of the cement. The clinker is ground
so fine that nearly all of it passes through a No. 200 mesh (75 micron) sieve with
40,000 openings per square inch. This extremely fin gray powder is portland cement
(Kosmatka and Panarese 12-15).
Dany Seymore of Show Low Ready Mix said that the cement used by Show Low Ready Mix
is trucked in by Apex Freight Company and comes from the cement plant in Clarkdale,
Arizona, now know as Phoenix Cement. Their aggregate comes from Brimhall Sand and
Rock in Snowflake, Arizona. Show Low Ready Mix uses Fly Ash from the A.P.S. power
plant just out side of Joseph City, Arizona, in their cement. The mixtures they use
are as follows:
Silicia Dioxide Cement 21% Ash 62%
Aluminum Trioxide Cement 4% Ash 23%
Ferric Oxide Cement 3% Ash 6%
Calcium Oxide Cement 64% Ash 3.5%
Mag. Oxide Cement 2.5% Ash 1.2%
Sulfur Trioxide Cement 3% Ash .2%
These combine to make:
1. Tricalcium silicate C3S
2. Dicalcium silicate C2S
3. Tricalcium aluminate C3A
4. Tetracalcium aluminoferrite C4AF
1 and 2 make up 75% of cement. 1 and 2 plus H2O equal CSH (Calcium Silicate
Hydrate) which is the glue. Fly Ash is C3S plus C2S which equals Calcium hydrazide
which is a white stuff and water soluble. Calcium Hydrazide and Fly Ash equal CSH.
The winter and summer mixtures are different due to the weather conditions. For
winter, Fly Ash is not used because it inhibits the set time of the concrete. Also
used is accelerators to help the concrete set faster. A material called Fibermesh
is used in the concrete for reinforcement and to control cracking as the concrete
sets. Mr. Seymore also states that heat and moisture are the main components to
make concrete set up.
The concrete is mixed out of the plant into the truck so the materials can be
feathered together and mixed up properly. The PSI ratings are determined by the
mixture of sand, aggregate, cement, water, and chemical additives that are mixed
together. The most common mixtures for residential are 2500 to 3000 PSI.
Concrete cannot be delivered any where that is more than 90 minutes away from the
batch plant, unless a chemical inhibiter is used to put the concrete to sleep until
it reaches the sight of delivery. Then another chemical is added to activate the
concrete.
Show Low Ready Mix mixes approximately 25,000 to 30,000 cubic yards of concrete in
Show Low per year. That is only 70 to 75 percent of the total concrete poured in
Show Low. There are a few other companies that also handle the Show Low area.
Concrete is basically a mixture of two components: aggregates and paste. The paste,
comprised of Portland cement, (the term APortland cement@ pertains to a calcareous
hydraulic cement produced by heating the oxides of silicon, calcium, aluminum, and
iron.) Water binds the aggregates (sand and gravel or crushed stone) into a
rocklike mass. The paste hardens because of the chemical reaction of the cement and
water.
The paste is composed of Portland cement, water, and intrapped air or purposely
entrained air. Cement paste ordinarily constitutes about 25% to 40% of the total
volume of concrete. Since aggregates make up about 60% to 75% of the total volume
of concrete, their selection is important. Aggregates should consist of particles
with adequate strength and resistance to exposure conditions and should not contain
materials that will cause deterioration of the concrete.
Aggregates are generally divided into two groups: fine and coarse. Fine aggregates
consist of natural or manufactured sand with particle sizes ranging up to 3/8
inches; coarse aggregates are those with particles retained on the No.16 sieve and
ranging up to 6 inches. The most commonly used maximum aggregate size is 3/4 inch
or 1 inch. A continuous gradation of particle sizes is desirable for efficient use
of the cement and water paste.
For any particular set of materials and conditions of curing, the quality of
hardened concrete is determined by the amount of water used in relation to the
amount of cement . Some advantages of reducing water content are: increased
compressive and flexural strength, lower absorption, increased resistance to
weathering, better bond between successive layers and between concrete and
reinforcement, less volume change from wetting and drying, and reduced shrinkage
cracking tendencies. The less water used, the better the quality of the concrete,
provided it can be consolidated properly.
The freshly mixed (plastic) and hardened properties of concrete may be changed by
adding admixtures to the concrete, usually in liquid form, during batching.
Admixtures are commonly used to: adjust setting time or hardening, reduce water
demand, increase workability, intentionally entrain air, and adjust other concrete
properties (Kosmatka and Panarese 1-2).
After completion of proper proportioning, batching, mixing, placing,
consolidating, finishing, and curing, hardened concrete becomes a strong,
noncombustible, durable, abrasion-resistant, and practically impermeable building
material that requires little or no maintenance. Concrete is also an excellent
building material, because it can be formed into a wide variety of shapes, colors,
and textures for use in almost unlimited number of applications.
Works Cited
ACement and concrete.@ The 1996 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD-ROM.
Danbury: Grolier, 1996.
Day, Richard. The Home Owner Handbook Of: Concrete and Masonry. New York: Bounty
Books, No Copyright Date.
Kosmatka, Steven H., and William C. Panarese. Design and Control of Concrete
Mixtures. Skokie, Ill.: Portland Cement Association, 1990.
Seymore, Dany. President of Show Low Ready Mix. Personal interview. 11
November 1996.
College of Mines Faculty, University of Arizona. Arizona: Its People and
Resources. Tucson, AZ.: The University of Arizona Press, 1972.