Construction and Building Materials 190 (2018) 830–837

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Effect of slag cement on the properties of ultra-high performance

concrete
Zhichao Liu a,b,⇑, Sherif El-Tawil c, Will Hansen c, Fazhou Wang a,b
a
State Key Laboratory of Silicate Materials for Architectures, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
b
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
c
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, USA

h i g h l i g h t s

Slag cement is beneficial in the workability of fresh UHPC mixes.

Slag cement reduces the early-age strength but improves the later-age strength.

Slag cement increases the autogenous shrinkage in the steady stage.

Slag cement has inappreciable effect on the capillary absorption and salt scaling.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study investigates the effects of replacing a portion of Portland cement with slag cement (0%, 25%,
Received 19 March 2018 50% and 65% by mass) on the properties of plain ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) mixes. It is
Received in revised form 23 August 2018 observed that slag cement substantially enhances the flowability of the UHPC mixes and reduces the
Accepted 24 September 2018
superplasticizer dosage. Mechanical properties are evaluated for mixes with similar air void characteris-
tics, indicating that early age strength is reduced while there is more strength gain in the later age. This
early age strength suppression is consistent with semi-adiabatic hydration heat evolution. The presence
Keywords:
of slag cement reduces the maximum temperature rise. Linear deformation measurement on duplicate
UHPC
Slag cement
sealed specimens reveals four distinct stages for the shrinkage development and slag cement increases
Flowability the shrinkage strain in the steady state, associated with the pozzolanic reaction. Simultaneous measure-
Shrinkage deformation ment of moisture uptake, mass loss and relative dynamic modulus of elasticity (RDM) on UHPC mixes for
Freeze-thaw F-T durability shows that the cumulative moisture uptake and mass loss, when normalized with respect
to the paste content, are almost negligible compared with a regular concrete mix. This reconciles the cap-
illary suction dominated surface scaling mechanism. No internal bulk cracking is detected due to the
dense matrix restricting the ingress of external moisture and the amount of freezable pore water.
Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) or in a more specific
form ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHFRC) is
a cementitious composite with superb mechanical and durability
properties compared with ordinary concrete [1,2]. UHPC is charac-
terized by a very low water-binder (w/b) ratio (0.16–0.20 [2]), a
very high cement content (600–1000 kg/m3, more than twice the
amount as that in ordinary concrete [3]) and the uniform distribu-
tion of the reinforcing components (normally steel fibers). The low
⇑ Corresponding author at: 122 Luoshi Road, Wuhan University of Technology,
#303 Cement & Concrete Building, Wuhan, Hubei 430070, China.
E-mail address: liuzc9@whut.edu.cn (Z. Liu).
w/b ratio, coupled with the optimized particle packing [4], results
in a dense matrix that is beneficial in resisting compressive load
and the ingress of deleterious agents. The high cement content
contributes to the rapid development in early strength and autoge-
nous desiccation [5]. In addition, there are a significant amount of
cement unhydrated due to the low w/b ratio [5], which are
involved in dense packing as well [3]. The presence of uniformly
distributed fibers in the matrix enhances its resistance to tensile
and impact loading [6–8].
The unique properties of UHPC have intrigued civil engineers
and promoted a sharply growing interest in using this material
in infrastructure applications [9]. As a result, both proprietary
(such as DuctalÒ [10] and BSI/CERACEMÒ [11]) and non-
proprietary UHPC (such as M-UHPC, [12,13]) products have

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.09.173
0950-0618/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Z. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 190 (2018) 830–837 831

emerged. The trend to utilize locally available raw ingredients and
common curing regimes [12–14] has started gaining momentum in
an effort to reduce its manufacturing cost.
Slag cement, also known as ground granulated blast-furnace slag
(GGBFS or GGBS), is a byproduct of the steel industry and commonly
used supplementary cementitious material in concrete, either inter-
ground with Portland cement or as a partial replacement. The use of
slag cement in ordinary concrete is accompanied by multiple bene-
fits, such as improved workability and added later-age strength gain,
lower permeability and reduced carbon footprint [15]. However,
there has been limited research devoted to its effect on UHPC
[13,16–18]. Kim et al. [17] studied the flowability and compressive
strength when Portland cement was partially replaced up to 50%
by slag cement. They found that slag cement enhanced flowability
while undermining the compressive strength up to 28 days. Alkaysi
et al. [13,18] investigated the freeze-thaw (F-T) and cost-
effectiveness of the UHPC mix with a binary cement system (50%
portland cement + 50% slag cement). They concluded that this mix
showed excellent F-T resistance and that air content was not a reli-
able indicator of F-T resistance. Yazici et al. [16] examined the curing
effect on reactive powder concrete with high volumes of slag cement
and found that 20% slag cement was the optimum replacement level
in terms of compressive strength while 60% slag cement slightly
reduced the compressive strength. 0.83  106/°C
Motivated by a scarcity of test data, a comprehensive experi-
mental program was carried out to study the effect of slag cement
replacement (0%, 25%, 50% and 65% by weight of Portland cement)
on the properties of UHPC mixes, including the air void character-
istics, flowability, compressive strength, hydration heat, shrinkage
and F-T durability. Since the physical and chemical actions of slag
cement primarily affect the cementitious matrix, only plain mixes,
i.e. mixes without steel fibers, were investigated in this work to
eliminate any interference from the fibers. The air content in the
fresh and hardened mixes was determined to facilitate the evalua-
tion of the mechanical and durability properties. Normalization
was utilized in the comparisons made between UHPC and ordinary
concrete considering the significant difference in their paste
contents.
2. Experimental
2.1. Raw materials
Cementitious materials included Type I Portland cement (PC),
undensified silica fume (SF) and Grade 100 slag cement (SC) with
their chemical and physical characteristics listed in Table 1. Silica
Table 1
Checmial and physical properties of cementitious materials.
Portland cement slag cement
CaO, % 61.5 40.8
SiO2, % 19.5 37.1
Al2O3, % 4.6 12.2
Fe2O3, % 3.0 0.87
SO3, % 3.9 2.77
Na2O, % 0.18 0.30
K2O, % 1.14 0.40
MgO, % 3.7 9.98
sands of two different sizes (F12 and F75) were used as the inert
aggregates. The specific gravity of both sands is 2.65 and 90% of
the particles were smaller than 1000 mm and 300 mm for F12 and
F75, respectively. Two commercially available admixtures were
used in the preparation of UHPC. Superplasticizer (SP) was
polycarboxylate-based with a specific density of 1.1 and a solid
content of 40%.
2.2. Mix design and specimen preparation
The UHPC mix design was originally formulated by [12] and fur-
ther optimized by [13,18] with the removal of silica powder (a rel-
atively expensive component) and the addition of slag cement as a
partial replacement for Portland cement.
In this study, four different replacement levels (0%, 25%, 50%
and 65% by weight) of slag cement were adopted to investigate
its effect on the properties of UHPC. The mix was designed such
that the weight of the binary cement was maintained as 1 while
the weights of other ingredients were denoted as the ratio to the
cement weight. The typical mix design is exemplified in Table 2.
The w/b ratio was fixed at 0.178. The total weight of Portland
cement and slag cement was 775 kg/m3 and the silica fume was
20% of the binary cement weight. The weight ratio between the
two silica sands (F75 and F12) was 0.25 and the design air content
was 4.0%. The mix volume was maintained constant by adjusting
the weight of silica sands. The water content was corrected by
including the water contained in the superplasticizer and acceler-
ating admixture. For the UHPC paste specimens, Portland cement
was partially replaced with slag cement by weight while the
remaining ingredients (silica fume, water and superplasticizer)
were maintained the same. One regular air-entrained concrete
mix was prepared to compare the air void property, capillary
absorption and freeze-thaw resistance with UHPC mixes. The mix
had a 0.45 w/c ratio and was prepared using Type I Portland
cement, silica sand as fine aggregate with a 2.43 fineness modulus
and lime stone as coarse aggregate with a 25 mm nominal maxi-
mum size. Mix design was 290 kg/m3 cement, 775 kg/m3 silica
sand and 1115 kg/m3 gravel.
Mortar specimens were prepared using the Hobart 30-quart
food mixers equipped with three positive speeds, respectively. A
specific mixing protocol was followed, in which the dry ingredients
were mixed thoroughly to disaggregate fine particles prior to the
addition of liquid (Fig. 1).
2.3. Test procedures
(1) The flowability of freshly mixed UHPC mortar was evaluated
by the ultimate base diameter of a mortar mass spreading
freely on a Plexiglass plate when a brass cone (70 mm in
top diameter, 100 mm in bottom diameter and 50 mm in
silica fume height) originally holding the mass was lifted vertically.
Detailed test procedure can be found in [12].
0.30
97.8 (2) The air content was measured both on the freshly mixed and
0.20 hardened UHPC mortar samples. The air content on the fresh
0.10 state was tested by the unit weight method while the air
0.20
0.10 Table 2
0.20 Mix design example of UHPC mortar specimens.

C3S 49 – – 0S 25S 50S 65S

C2S 19 – –
Portland cement 1 0.75 0.50 0.35
C3A 7 – –
Slag cement 0 0.25 0.50 0.65
C4AF 9 – –
Silica fume 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25
Blaine fineness, m2/kg 382 551 23,700 Silica sand (F75) 0.309 0.306 0.302 0.30
Loss of ignition, % 2.0 – 0.6 Silica sand (F12) 1.237 1.222 1.208 1.199
Specific gravity 3.15 2.90 2.30 Water 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22
Slag activity index, % – – 115 Superplasticizer 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03
832 Z. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 190 (2018) 830–837
Fig. 1. Mixing procedure of UHPC.
Table 3
Air void parameters of concrete mixes for F-T test.
Air content (%)
Designed air Fresh air content
content (unit weight
method)
0S 4.0 5.8
25S 4.0 4.1
50S 4.0 3.9
65S 4.0 4.1
content on the hardened state was tested by the linear tra-
verse method according to ASTM C457 [19]. The air void
characteristics of specimens for freeze-thaw test is shown
in Table 3.
(3) Uniaxial compressive strength at various ages up to 56 days
was measured using 50.8 mm cubes according to ASTM
C109 [20]. Four specimens were tested for each age and
the average result was reported. Prior to testing, the two
loading faces were smoothened by a grinding machine to
create a uniform stress distribution during loading during
loading. Curing regimes consisted of 1-day sealed curing
and the subsequent water curing at 20 °C. Specimens were
tested immediately after their removal from the mold in
the case of 1-day age and from the water storage in the case
of other ages. A loading rate of 900–1800 N/s was applied to
the specimen until failure.
(4) Heat of hydration was described by the measurement of
temperature evolution in a 150 mm  300 mm cylinder
stored in a semi-adiabatic chamber. Right after the freshly
mixed mortar sample was cast into the cylindrical mould,
it was sealed by a lid with a small hole punctured in the cen-
ter. Two Type-T thermocouples were inserted halfway into
the sample through the hole. The thermocouples were con-
nected to a data acquisition system, from which temperature
was monitored every 1 min. The same semi-adiabatic cham-
ber was used to ensure that comparison between different
mixes is valid.
(5) Freeze-thaw test was carried out on UHPC specimens having
a thickness of 70 mm and a cross-section of
100 mm  100 mm. An F-T test machine was employed for
the concurrent measurement of cumulative mass loss, bulk
moisture uptake and internal cracking in the specimens.
Prior to F-T test, specimens were dried in the oven at
50 ± 2 °C, followed by pre-saturation in de-mineralized
water to characterize the capillary absorption process. This
provides important information regarding the surface scal-
ing resistance [21]. The preconditioned specimens were
placed in the F-T chamber with the bottom surface
immersed in a 3% sodium chloride (NaCl) solution while
undergoing a specific temperature profile. One F-T cycle is
12 h with the temperature decreasing from 20 °C to 20 °C
and ultimately going back to 20 °C. After a number of cycles,
Powers’ specific Paste
spacing surface, content, %
Hardened air content
factor, mm mm1
(linear traverse method)
Total <500 mm
4.75 2.18 681 9.59 50.8
3.45 2.24 695 10.87 51.3
2.95 2.14 681 11.99 51.9
3.16 2.24 577 13.70 52.2
measurements were taken when the temperature was
brought back to 20 °C, including cumulative moisture up
based on specimen weight gain, surface scaling based on
cumulative mass loss and internal bulk cracking based on
variation in the relative dynamic modulus of elasticity
(RDM).
(6) Volume deformation of UHPC was measured on a slender
rectangular specimen (60  100  1000 mm) placed in a U-
shaped stainless steel rig. A removable NeoprenÒ sheet
was used to separate the specimen and the rig to avoid the
wall friction. The specimen was sealed in plastic wraps to
prevent moisture loss. One end of the specimen was
anchored to the rig while the other free end was in contact
with a LVDT from which the displacement was recorded
every 5 min. A thermocouple was inserted in the specimen
to register the temperature change during testing.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Flowability and air void characteristics
Laboratory experience indicates a UHPC mix with 200 mm (or
8 in.) spread before the introduction of steel fibers is considered
to be friendly to the dispersion of steel fibers and casting of the
fresh mix. It can be seen from Fig. 2 that slag cement substantially
increases the UHPC flowability. Partial replacement of 25% Port-
land cement with slag cement reduces the dosage of superplasti-
cizer almost by half to reach the 200 mm spread. This beneficial
effect can be partly attributed to the low water absorption and
the smooth and dense surface characteristics of the slag particles
which produces slip planes [22]. In addition, when Portland
cement is replaced on a mass basis, the paste content is slightly
increased as a result of its lower specific gravity, combined with
enhanced cohesiveness [23]. All these factors facilitate the particle
movement and thus improve workability.
The air content of UHPC mixes was measured in the fresh state
using the unit weight method and characterized in the hardened
state using the ASTM C457 linear traverse method. As listed in
Table 3, the total air content in the hardened concrete is normally
lower than the fresh mix with a difference of less than 1%. This may
be because very slight consolidation is employed in the specimen
preparation for the linear traverse method which very likely
 Z. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 190 (2018) 830–837
Fig. 2. Effect of slag cement on the flowability of UHPC mixes (the measuring cone
has a 100-mm bottom diameter; thus 100-mm spread indicates no spread at all).
removes some of the big air bubbles. However, the small discrep-
ancy indicates the unit weight method is a reliable way for the ini-
tial determination of the total air content.
UHPC mixes with different slag cement contents are found to
exhibit similar air void size distribution from the linear traverse
method (Fig. 3). When compared with an air-entrained regular
concrete mix based on a normalized paste content, almost half of
the air voids in UHPC mixes have a size larger than 500 mm (a typ-
ical upper limit value for defining entrained air) with the majority
concentrated between 500 and 1000 mm (Figs. 3 and 4). In the case
of regular concrete, 75% of the air voids are less than 500 mm.
Meanwhile, unlike the typical entrapped air voids observed in ordi-
nary concrete with an irregular shape, UHPC mixes, even though
non-air entrained, have the spherical air voids with the size class
of a wide range. This may be accounted for by the absence of coarse
aggregate particles and the excessive use of superplasticizer [24].
3.2. Compressive strength development
The compressive strength development of plain UHPC mixes
was shown in Fig. 5(a). Air void characteristics of the four mixes
Fig. 3. Normalized air void size distribution based on the chord length.
833
listed in Table 3 are similar and thus will not significantly interfere
in the strength evaluation. It is noted the compressive strength of
the mixes at 28 days is below 150 MPa, the commonly accepted
minimum value for UHPC. The main reason is the absence of steel
fibers which contributes substantially to the compressive strength
[18]. In addition, the presence of air voids also leads to a drop in the
compressive strength as demonstrated in [12]. These two caveats
are deemed acceptable because the study is comparative in nature.
UHPC gains compressive strength gradually with age and the
development pattern is analogous to regular concrete, following
a F-H model (Eq. (1)), originally developed for fitting cement
hydration curves [25], since the hardening process is essentially
a result of chemical reaction of cementitious materials with water.
The fitting parameters for the compressive strength development
of the four mixes are obtained by the least square method as
shown in Table 4.
s m
f c ¼ f c  eð t Þ
0
ð1Þ
where f c is the ultimate compressive strength, s is the time param-
0
eter and a highers denotes a larger delay in strength development,
m is the curvature parameter representing the rate of strength
development in the linear portion.
The partial replacement with slag cement results in reduced
strength in the early age but increased strength at the later age.
This is in accordance with the hydration heat-induced temperature
evolution in which the temperature rise is suppressed in line with
the degree of slag cement replacement (Fig. 5(b)). Hydration of slag
cement alone is a slow process restricted by the formation of a less
permeable layer upon contact with water, but can be later acceler-
ated by the presence of portland cement whose hydration pro-
duces the hydroxyl ions that break down the glassy structure
[26]. The initial reaction is with alkali hydroxide while the subse-
quent reaction is primarily with calcium hydroxide consisting of
consuming the calcium hydroxide and producing the dense cal-
cium silicate hydrate gel, which leads to a more refined and con-
densed pore structure [27]. This explains higher compressive
strength in the later ages for the UHPC mixes with slag cement.
However, this secondary reaction lags behind the hydration of
Portland cement at early hydration stage, which is exacerbated
by the rapid hydration of silica fume consuming calcium hydroxide
834 Z. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 190 (2018) 830–837

Fig. 4. Air void profile in hardened UHPC samples.

Fig. 5. (a) Compressive strength development and (b) semi-adiabatic temperature evolution in UHPC with different slag cement contents.

Table 4
Fitting parameters for the F-T model.
0S 25S 50S
0
fc 130.8 143.3 135.5
s 1.43 1.48 2.02
m 0.74 0.58 0.70
as well. This is further demonstrated by their lower compressive
strength initially, which is consistent with the variation pattern
of the time characteristic parameter s. With a higher slag cement
content, the value of s is increased, indicating an increasing extent
of delay in strength development in the early stage. It can be con-
cluded that the optimal replacement ratio of slag cement is
between 25% and 50%, considering its synergic effect on flowability
and strength.
3.3. Volume deformation
The volume deformation of plain UHPC mixes is characterized
by the measured linear total strain on duplicate specimens. The
positive strain denotes shrinkage while the negative strain denotes
expansion in the following plots. The average strain development
for different slag cement contents is shown in Fig. 6. The zero time
on the abscissa represents the time when water was added during
mixing. The measured total strain in the early stage consists of two
components, the autogenous shrinkage and the thermal deforma-
tion associated with the released latent hydration heat, as evi-
denced by the change in specimen temperature (Fig. 7). Once the
temperature is stabilized, the measured strain is mainly autoge-
nous shrinkage.
As can be seen from Fig. 6, The UHPC shrinkage exhibits four
distinctive stages: (I) the dormant stage with almost zero shrink-
65S age at varying lengths depending on the slag cement content; (II)
154.9 the acceleration stage with rapidly occurring shrinkage lasting
3.76 around 7 h; (III) a short-lived plateau stage; (IV) the steady stage.
0.59 The dormant period is prolonged compared with the regular
cementitious system with a high w/c ratio, which may be a result
of the high dosage of superplasticizer in UHPC [28,29]. The acceler-
ation stage in shrinkage strain development is a result of the re-
accelerated hydration reaction of cementitious materials (primar-
ily cement and silica fume) with water, as evidenced by the con-
comitant increase in specimen temperature (Fig. 7). This leads to
the rapid depletion of free water and the decrease in the internal
relative humidity [5]. When coupled by its fine pore size [1,30],
intense self-desiccation occurs. It has to be noted a thermal expan-
sion is typically observed with the temperature rise in regular con-
crete mix [31], which is however absent and replaced by the
substantial contraction in the case of UHPC. This again enhances
the notion of the appreciable extent of shrinkage in the accelera-
tion stage. The intense hydration in this stage consumes most of
the free moisture, thus considerably impeding further cement
hydration. However, the pozzolanic reaction of the silica fume
and slag cement can still occur by the availability of chemically
combined water contained in the hydrates such as calcium hydrox-
ide [32]. This explains the subsequently decreasing but steady
stage. When the shrinkage strain is plotted for the steady state
only, the pozzolanic reaction from slag cement can be detected
by the larger shrinkage at a higher replacement ratio (Fig. 8), as
also reported in regular concrete [31]. In addition, the existence
of a transient plateau is noted in between the abovementioned
two stages, the duration of which corresponds well with that of
the cooling stage on the temperature curve (Fig. 7). There may be
 Z. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 190 (2018) 830–837 835

Fig. 6. Shrinkage strain development of plain UHPC mixes with x-axis on (a) a logarithmic scale and (b) a linear scale for different slag cement contents.

Fig. 7. Simultaneous representation of temperature and strain evolution in the early stage.

a short expansion that offsets the shrinkage and it is obviously con-

nected to the presence of slag cement. Currently, there is a lack of
sound explanation for this abrupt and ephemeral phenomenon.

3.4. Capillary absorption and freeze-thaw durability

In this section, the water absorption behavior before and during

Fig. 8. Shrinkage development in the steady state.
F-T test is characterized by the moisture uptake of 70-mm thick
concrete specimens with the test surface immersed 5-mm in water
and 3% salt solution, respectively. It can be seen in Fig. 9 that there
is initially a rapid linear development with the square-root of time
during the pre-saturation at 20 °C, a typical capillary suction pro-
cess occurring in well-connected pores. This gradually tapers off
and transitions into a diffusion-controlled slow process. When
moisture absorption is coupled with F-T exposure, the uptake is
accelerated due to a ‘‘pumping effect” [33]. Nevertheless, the
836 Z. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 190 (2018) 830–837
Fig. 9. Moisture uptake curves of UHPC mixes.
amount and rate of normalized moisture absorption is much lower
compared with regular normal and high strength concrete alike
(Fig. 10(a)). It can be seen there is very limited absorption of UHPC
mixes, consistent with its extremely low porosity and high discon-
tinuity [1,30]. Its cumulative absorption is even lower than a regu-
lar concrete with silane surface treatment. It is also noted the rate
of capillary suction is similar at different slag cement contents
Fig. 10. Normalized (a) moisture uptake and (b) mass loss between different concrete mixes (Moisture uptake and mass loss results for regular concrete mixes can be found
in [21]).
Fig. 11. Surface scaling and internal cracking indicated by (a) the mass loss and (b) RDM.
except that the 65S mix is slightly higher, consistent with a lower
compressive strength (Fig. 5(a)). This indicates the densifying
effect from slag cement as normally seen in regular concrete
[27,31] is insignificant at such a low w/b ratio.
The durability performance of UHPC mixes is represented by
the surface scaling and internal bulk damage as shown in
Fig. 11(a) and (b), respectively. No internal cracking is observed
based on the almost constant RDM development with F-T cycles
(Fig. 11(b)), even though the spacing factor for the four mixes is
much higher than the typical 200–250 mm threshold [34]. This
can be attributed to the following synergistic effects: (I) the
amount of freezable water is very low due to the low porosity
and the fine pore structure and (II) the dense matrix inhibits
the ingress of external moisture as evidenced by Fig. 10(a). Thus,
air-entrainment is not a prerequisite in this case. The excellent
imperviousness also accounts for the limited mass loss on the
exposed surface when compared with other concrete mixes on
a normalized basis with respect to the mortar phase (Fig. 10
(b)). As a matter of fact, the amount of cumulative mass loss is
so low for the four mixes that there is noticeable scatter even
between duplicate specimens (Fig. 11(a)) and the effect of slag
cement is overshadowed as in the case of capillary suction
(Fig. 9). The good correlation between the surface scaling and
moisture uptake rate again demonstrates capillary suction is
the governing mechanism for salt scaling, consistent with previ-
ous studies [21].
 Z. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 190 (2018) 830–837
4. Conclusions
This study presents the effect of slag cement on different prop-
erties of plain UHPC mixes and the major findings are drawn as
follows:
(1) The addition of slag cement facilitates particle movement
during mixing due to its low water absorption and smooth
surface morphology, which in turn improves the flowability
of UHPC mixes. The air void system in hardened UHPC mixes
demonstrates a similar distribution pattern and resembles
the characteristics found in a conventional air-entrained
concrete, which is a result of excessive use of superplasti-
cizer and the absence of coarse aggregate. This minimizes
the impact of air void presence on the interpretation of
strength results.
(2) Slag cement presents a counteracting effect on the hydration
characteristics of the cementitious system. In the early stage,
slag cement retards the hydration due to its low reactivity.
This leads to the ‘‘diluting” effect with an equivalently
increasing w/c ratio, which causes a strength reduction
and suppresses the temperature rise associated with the
release of hydration heat. In the late stage, the secondary
pozzolanic reaction of slag cement is accompanied by the
consumption of calcium hydroxide and the densification of
the hardened paste. This results in improved compressive
strength and also exacerbates autogenous shrinkage strain
due to the refined pore structure and the enhanced deple-
tion of moisture.
(3) UHPC mixes with different slag cement contents exhibit
inappreciable damage from salt/F-T exposure. This is attrib-
uted to the extremely dense matrix, which limits the pene-
tration of extra moisture and the available freezable water.
This in turn overshadows the slag cement effect.
Conflict of interest statement
None.
Acknowledgements
Financial Supports are gratefully acknowledged from the
National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFB0310000) and the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (51702242). The
authors would like to thank Jan Pantolin for assisting the labora-
tory work and the Michigan Department of Transportation for pro-
viding the raw materials.
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