Construction and Building Materials 199 (2019) 688–695

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Construction and Building Materials

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

Effects of limestone powder on the hydration and microstructure

development of calcium sulphoaluminate cement under long-term
curing
Jian Ma a, Zhuqing Yu a,b,⇑, Chenxin Ni a, Hu Shi a, Xiaodong Shen a,b,⇑
a
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, 211816 Nanjing, PR China
b
The Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials, 211816 Nanjing, PR China

h i g h l i g h t s

Calcium sulphoaluminate cement-limestone powder binary system was studied.

Heat, XRD, TG and MIP of the paste mixes up to 1 year of curing are reported.

Accelerated hydration was found at early age in binary system.

Hemicarboaluminate stably exists under long-term curing ages.

Porestructure development of cement with 5% LP is similar to CSA cement.

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

Article history: In order to explore the effects of limestone powder on the long-term performance of calcium sulphoalu-
Received 9 August 2018 minate (CSA) cement, the hydration process and microstructure development of CSA cement incorpo-
Received in revised form 5 December 2018 rated with limestone powder are investigated at the ages from 1 day to 1 year. Three limestone
Accepted 12 December 2018
powder dosages, such as 5%, 15% and 25% are considered. Three techniques, such as isothermal calorime-
try, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetry (TG) were used to study the hydration process of
cement pastes. Mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) was used to determine the pore structure of cement
Keywords:
pastes. The results show that like in Portland cement, the addition of limestone powder in CSA cement
Limestone powder
Calcium sulphoaluminate cement
can participate the reactions and form hemicarboaluminate phase. The difference is that monocarbonate
Hydration phase is not found in the CSA-limestone powder binary system at the curing age from 1 day to 1 year. The
Pore structure addition of limestone powder can reduce the total porosity and critical pore size at 1 day. At long-term
curing period, the critical pore size of CSA cement replaced by 5% limestone powder is almost equally to
that of CSA cement.
Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction be achieved by optimizing clinker production processes, utilizing

Since last century, the attention to the global warming has been
concerned by many countries. Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is
the major cause of global warming. The industrial production gen-
erates about 30 billion tons of carbon emission per year, cement
manufacturing produces 5% anthropogenic carbon emission [1].
Nowadays, energy conservation, emissions reduction and full
utilization of natural resources have become a trend in cement
industrial production. The goal of reducing carbon emissions can
⇑ Corresponding authors at: Nanjing Tech University, No. 30 South Puzhu Road,
Nanjing, PR China.
E-mail addresses: zyu@njtech.edu.cn (Z. Yu), xdshen@njtech.edu.cn (X. Shen).
supplementary cementitious materials and developing new types
of cement [2]. Calcium sulphoaluminate (CSA) cement was
invented by Chinese researchers in the 1970s [3]. It was considered
as a kind of environmentally friendly cement because of its low
carbon emission [4]. CSA cement shows high early strength, quick
setting and low alkalinity [5]. It was stated that CSA cement is
more suitable for cold or corrosion environment construction and
can produce the impermeable concrete [6].
The main mineral composition of CSA cement is ye’elimite (C4A3

S), also known as Klein’s salt. Other phases, such as dicalcium sili-
cate (C2S), calcium titanate (CT) and ferrite (C4AF) may also exist in
the CSA cement [7]. It is well known that CSA cement, viz. ye’elim-
ite can react with water to form monosulphoaluminate (AFm) and

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.12.054
0950-0618/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 J. Ma et al. / Construction and Building Materials 199 (2019) 688–695
aluminium hydroxide (AH3) [8,9] (see Eq. (1)). In order to better
control the reaction rate of cement, calcium sulfate is added
[10,11]. In the presence of calcium sulfate, ye’elimite can react
with calcium sulfate and water to form ettringite (AFt) and alu-
minium hydroxide (see Eq. (2)). The reaction rate of ye’elimite is
very fast and large amount of hydration products are produced at
early age, resulting in denser microstructure of cement paste
[12]. It is certain that CSA cement-based materials shows high
early (1, 3, and 7 days) and later strength (28 days), excellent resis-
tance to sulfate, chloride and freeze-thaw [13–16].
 
C 4 A3 S þ18H ! C 3 A  C S H12 ðAFmÞ þ 2AH3 ð1Þ
  
C 4 A3 S þ2C S þ38H ! C 3 A  3C S H32 ðAFtÞ þ 2AH3 ð2Þ
Although CSA cement shows high performance, it is still expen-
sive to produce CSA cement due to limited raw materials (alu-
minium and sulfur sources) [17]. At present, industrial by-
products such as fly ash [18], silica fume [19], blast furnace slag
[20] and limestone [21] can be used as mineral admixture in
cement to reduce costs and modify the properties of cement. Cur-
rently, the use of limestone in cement is obtained extensive atten-
tion. According to the European Standard EN 197-1 [22], 6–35 wt%
of limestone powder can be added into Portland cement. The ASTM
595/C595M-12 Standard Specification for Blended Hydraulic
Cements [23] allows up to 15 wt% limestone to produce Type IL
cement. That is similar to the Canadian standard CSA A300-13
[24]. In China, the standard GB 30190-2013 allows cement mixed
with 15–35 wt% limestone [25]. The mechanism of the reaction
of limestone powder in Portland cement has been studied well
by many researchers. It was stated that the addition of limestone
powder in Portland cement can accelerate the early hydration of
cement [26–29]. That is because limestone powder particles can
provide nucleation sites for the hydration products. Furthermore,
limestone powder can fill in the pores of cementitious materials,
thus reducing the porosity of cement-based materials [30]. The
use of limestone powder can improve the strength [31], permeabil-
ity [32], carbonation resistance and corrosion resistance of rein-
forced concrete [33,34]. In the case of CSA cement paste blended
with limestone powder, Hargis et al. [35] demonstrated that in
CSA cement calcite can react with monosulphoaluminate (AFm)
to produce monocarboaluminate and ettringite. The reactions of
limestone powder in CSA cement are shown in Eq. (3) and Eq. (4)
[36]. Limestone powder can promote early age heat evolution of
CSA cement, leading to a higher hydration heat [36–38]. The addi-
tion of calcite result in the maximal rate of heat evolution earlier
than CSA cement without calcite [35]. Pelletiter-Chaignat et al.
[37] pointed out that the use of limestone powder in CSA cement
also can accelerate the early hydration of CSA cement because of
its filler effect. The formation of calcium carboaluminate can stable
the ettringite resulting in lower porosity at early ages. Martin [38]
found that ettringite, monocarboaluminate and hemicarboalumi-
nate coexist in the systems of CSA clinker, calcium sulphate and
limestone powder when the M-value is less than 2 (M-value, the
molar ratio of calcium sulfate to ye’elimite). A significant accelera-
tion of early cement hydration is found when the M-value is 1.1.
For these reasons, the addition of limestone powder can improve
the early strength of CSA cement paste and also improve the
strength at later ages (28 days) [37,39].
   
3C 4 A3 S þ2C C þ72H ! 2C 4 A C H11 þ C 3 A  3C S H32 þ 6AH3 ð3Þ
   
6C 4 A3 S þC C þ135H ! 2C 4 AC 0:5 H11 þ 2C 3 A  3C S H32
þ 14AH3 þ 5CH ð4Þ
689
Based on above literature review, it can be seen that current
researches about the CSA cement-limestone powder binary system
mainly focused on the hydration reactions and mechanical proper-
ties. For the hydration products, such as monocarboaluminate and
hemicarboaluminate phases [40–42], however, there are few stud-
ies on the mechanism of formation and transformation conditions.
Furthermore, the durability of cement-based materials is closely
related to the hydration and microstructure development of
cement paste. Therefore, in this study, the hydration process and
microstructure development of CSA cement-limestone powder
binary system is investigated comprehensively in view of long-
term performance of CSA cement-based materials. The curing per-
iod is from 1 day to 1 year. Different dosages of limestone powder
(0, 5, 15, 25 wt%) are discussed. Isothermal calorimetry, X-ray
diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetry (TG) are used to study
the hydration process of CSA cement-limestone powder binary sys-
tem. Mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) is used to study the pore
structure of this binary system.
2. Experimental procedures
2.1. Materials
The cement used in this study is a kind of commercial CSA cement. The used
limestone powder was obtained by grinding limestone in laboratory ball mill.
Table 1 shows the chemical compositions of CSA cement and limestone powder,
determined by XRF (ARL ADVANT’XP). Fig. 1 presents the XRD pattern of CSA
cement. Through X-ray diffraction pattern, the main mineral compositions of CSA

cement are determined, viz. ye’elimite (C4A3S), larnite (C2S), anhydrite (CaSO4),
mayenite (C12A7) and calcite (CaCO3). The particle size distributions (PSD) of CSA
cement and limestone powder were analyzed by laser particle size analyzer (Mal-
vern Masterizer 2000) and shown in Fig. 2. The mean particle size of CSA cement
and limestone powder is 17.01 lm and 22.87 lm, respectively.
2.2. Specimens preparation
CSA cement was partially replaced by limestone powder in order to explore the
effect of different limestone powder dosages on the cement hydration and
microstructure development. The addition of limestone powder used in this study
were 0, 5%, 15%, 25% by weight of total binder. The mixture proportions are given
in Table 2. The water to binder ratio of all mixtures was set as 0.5. All specimens
were prepared by overhead stirrers under 600 revolutions per minute, cast in plas-
tic bottles, sealed and cured under 20 ± 1 °C. At the curing age of 1 day, 3 days,
7 days, 28 days, 90 days, 270 days and 365 days, the samples were stopped hydra-
tion by immersing into ethanol.
2.3. Test methods
The hydration heat was determined by using Isothermal calorimetric measure-
ments. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to
study the hydration products of CSA-LP binary system. Mercury intrusion
porosimetry (MIP) was used to explore the microstructure development of this bin-
ary system.
The isothermal calorimetric measurement was used to evaluate the early
hydration of CSA cement with and without limestone powder in 48 h. During the
measurement, 4 g of cement and limestone powder were mixed with 2 g of deion-
Table 1
Chemical compositions of raw materials (wt%).
CSA cement Limestone powder
Calcium oxide, CaO 42.68 55.49
Silicon dioxide, SiO2 13.62 0.61
Aluminium oxide, Al2O3 22.18 0.05
Sulfur trioxide, SO3 12.60 0.02
Ferric oxide, Fe2O3 1.65 0.08
Magnesium oxide, MgO 3.04 0.21
Potassium oxide, K2O 0.37 0.004
Sodium oxide, Na2O 0.14 0.002
Titanium oxide, TiO2 1.07 0.002
Loss on ignition 1.78 43.07
690 J. Ma et al. / Construction and Building Materials 199 (2019) 688–695
Fig. 1. XRD pattern of CSA cement.
ized water for 2 min in a sample vial. Then, the sample vials were loaded into an 8-
channel isothermal calorimeter (TAM Air, Thermometric AB, Sweden). The heat
flow curve and cumulative heat values of samples were recorded in 48 h.
For XRD measurement, the specimens were crushed and ground by pestle in a
agate mortar, In order to avoid the phase transformation or decomposition, ethanol
was poured in the mortar when grinding the hydrated cement pastes. The ground
powder was dried at 40 °C for 12 h in oven. XRD analysis was performed by using
Rigaku SmartLab 3000A diffractiometer with CuKa radiation. All XRD scans were
determined in the 2h angle between 5 °C and 65 °C at the speed of 5° per minute.
TGA test were performed in a simultaneous thermal analyser (TGA/DSC1/1600F).
The temperature was varied from 30 °C to 1000 °C with a heating rate of 10 °C
per minute. The measurement was carried out in nitrogen atmosphere.
The pore structure of hydrated cement pastes were determined by MIP tech-
nique. Before testing, the hydrated samples cylinders were cut into small pieces
(<6 mm) and immersed in ethanol for 24 h, and then dried at 40 °C for 12 h in an
oven. The tests were carried out by Quanta chrome PoreMaster GT60 mercury
intrusion porosimeter. During the MIP test, a high pressure range of 140–420 kPa
and a low pressure range of 1.5–350 kPa are used. Correspondingly, the detectable
pore size of pastes ranges from 0.0035 lm to 400 lm. The total porosity, pore size
distribution and critical pore width (dcr) can be calculated from the MIP results.
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Heat evolution
The Isothermal calorimetry data of CSA cement and CSA
cement-limestone powder binary system are shown in Fig. 3. Four
dosages of limestone powder 0%, 5%, 15% and 25% are considered.
As shown in Fig. 3(a), the dormant period of all samples end
before 2 h. After 2 h, all curves exhibit two exothermic peaks.
The first exothermic peak is attributed to the formation of ettrin-
Fig. 2. Particle size distribution of raw materials: (1) differential particle size distribution. (2) Cumulative particle size distribution.
gite. It occurs at 2.30, 2.10, 2.28 and 2.27 h for CSA, CL5, CL15
and CL25, respectively. Clearly, the addition of limestone powder
in CSA cement brings the reaction forward. The nucleation effect
of limestone powder in CSA-LP binary system is the main reason.
It was reported that limestone powder can provide nucleation sites
for precipitation of hydration products [28,43]. Martin et al. [38]
investigated the hydration of CSA clinker-gypsum-limestone pow-
der ternary system, the results show that the addition of limestone
powder significantly promote the hydration, which is mainly
caused by the nucleation effect. The acceleration effect due to
nucleation effect in CSA-limestone powder system has also been
stated in other researchers [35–37]. The second peak which is
caused by the depletion of gypsum [37] occurs at 4.82, 4.51, 4.83
and 4.71 h for CSA, CL5, CL15 and CL25, respectively. 5% limestone
powder has the greatest positive impact on early hydration.
The total heat of hydration after 48 h is 292.8 J/g-cement for
CSA. The sample of CL5 shows a higher total heat (302.2 J/g-
binder) than CSA. The total heat of CL15 and CL25 are lower than
CSA cement. That is resulted from the dilution effect which is
related to the coarse limestone powder used in this research
(d50 = 22.87 lm). It was mentioned that the content of cementi-
tious materials reduces when cement is replaced by limestone
powder. The nucleation sites provided by coarse limestone powder
(mean particle size  20 lm) is less than that of fine limestone
powder [44]. Therefore, the dilution effect caused by limestone
powder is enhanced by coarse limestone powder. In general, when
the content of it is 5 wt%, the limestone powder can accelerate the
early hydration of cement
3.2. X-ray diffraction analyses
Fig. 4 shows the XRD patterns of hydrated cement pastes with
different dosages of limestone powder at different curing ages.
As shown in Fig. 4a, it can be seen that the main hydration prod-
ucts of CSA cement after 1 day of curing are ettringite and alumi-
nate hydroxide. That is due to the chemical reaction between
ye’elimite and anhydrite. After 3 days of curing, the hemicarboalu-
minate phase is found in the hydrated cement paste. Limestone
powder reacts with ye’elimite and water to generate hemicarboa-
luminate (see Eq. (4) [36]). The hemicarboaluminate phase exists
in each cement paste from 3 days to 1 year of curing ages. In the
Portland cement-limestone powder system, hemicarboaluminate
phase can slowly transform into monocarboaluminate [45]. In
the case of CSA cement, however, monocarboaluminate is not
found in the binary system. The pH value of pore solution of Port-
land cement-limestone binary paste is about 13 [29], while the pH
value of CSA cement-limestone paste is around 11 [46]. Therefore,
the different formation mechanism of carboaluminate phase is
 J. Ma et al. / Construction and Building Materials 199 (2019) 688–695
Table 2
Mixture design.
Mixture name w/b Proportion (wt%)
CSA
CSA 0.5 100
CL5 95
CL15 85
CL25 75
probably due to the different pH value between hydrated Portland
cement and CSA cement.
In CSA cement, Ye’elimite will react with limestone powder and
produce ettringite, aluminate hydroxide and portlandite. Port-
landite continues to participate in the hydration reaction to form
AFt phase (see Eq. (5) [47]).
  
C 4 A3 S þ8C S þ6CH þ 90H ! 3C 6 AS3 H32
Fig. 4(b)–(d) presents XRD patterns of CL5, CL15 and CL25,
respectively. The main hydration products are ettringite, aluminate
hydroxide and hemicarbonate, which are similar to CSA cement
paste. From 270 days, the characteristic peaks of strätlingite
(C2ASH8, 2h position at 7.03°, 14.15° and 21.26°) phase are obvious
in CL25. The reaction of belite with aluminate hydroxide results in
the formation of strätlingite according to Eq. (6) [48]. The strätlin-
gite phase exists in CL25 cement paste up to 1 year.
C 2 S þ AH3 þ 5H ! C 2 ASH8
However, the characteristic peaks of strätlingite phase are not
observed in the specimens of CL5 and CL15. As stated by Damidot
[49], strätlingite can stably exist when the system is in the absence
of portlandite. From above results, it can be concluded that there is
no portlandite in CL25 at long-term curing period, such as 270 days
and 365 days.
3.3. Thermogravimetric analyses
Fig. 5 shows the DTG results of hydrated CSA cement pastes and
CSA-LP pastes at different curing ages.
The mass loss in the range of relative temperature can be
obtained by DTG curve, thus the type of resultant can be inferred.
The DTG results of CSA cement pastes (Fig. 5a) show that the
hydration products are mainly ettringite (at approximately
100 °C), monosulfoaluminate (weight loss at 150 °C–200 °C) alu-
Fig. 3. Isothermal calorimetry data for CSA-LP binary system. (a: heat flow curves; b: cumulative heat curves.)
691
minium hydroxide (at around 270 °C), and the weight loss of cal-
cium carbonate occurs in the range of 600–800 °C. Two phases,
such as ettringite and aluminium hydroxide exist at all curing ages.
LP Monosulfoaluminate phase is detected after 3 days of curing. That
is because when anhydrite is all consumed, ye’elimite will react
–
5
with water to form AFm (Eq. (1)).
15 As shown in Fig. 5b–d, the hydration products of CSA cement
25 pastes blended with limestone powder are ettringite, monosulfoa-
luminate and aluminium hydroxide. The addition of limestone
powder has no influence on the formation of hydration products.
The difference is that the monosulfoaluminate phase appears after
7 days of curing for CL5 and CL15. For CL25, this phase appears
after 3 days. This phenomenon indicates that a certain amount of
limestone powder can delay the formation of monosulfoaluminate.
In CSA-LP binary system, ye’elimite can react with limestone pow-
der to form hemicarboaluminate, ettringite, aluminium hydroxide
and portlandite. This reaction will inhibit the formation of mono-
ð5Þ sulfoaluminate which produced by the reaction of ye’elimite and
water.
3.4. Pore structure analysis
Based on the results of MIP test, the total porosity of all samples
can be calculated and presented in Fig. 6.
As shown in Fig. 6, unquestionably, the total porosity of CSA
cement paste and CSA cement paste blended with limestone pow-
ð6Þ der decreases with the increase of curing age due to continuous
reaction of reactants in the system. However, after 270 days of cur-
ing, the total porosity of the specimens, viz. CSA, CL5 and CL15
increases. The curing conditions in the hydration process of
cement-based materials have an important effect on the evolution
of pore structure. When the cuing water is insufficient, the hydra-
tion reaction will lead to the self-desiccation in the pores. At later
curing ages, the self-desiccation effect can result in the reopening
of the pores and lead to the increase of connectivity of the pores
[50–52]. In this study, all samples were cured in sealed condition.
It is supposed that after 270 days of curing the capillary pressure
caused by self-desiccation is the reason for increasing total poros-
ity. For CL25, it can be seen that the total porosity decreases from
270 days to 365 days. That is attributed to the formation of large
amount of strätlingite (see Fig. 4(d)). The formation of strätlingite
can fill in the pores, leading to the decrease of total porosity.
The effect of limestone powder on the total porosity of pastes at
different curing age is different.
692 J. Ma et al. / Construction and Building Materials 199 (2019) 688–695

Fig. 4. XRD patterns of hydrated cement pastes at different curing ages: (a) CSA (b) CL5 (c) CL15 (d) CL25. (1-Ettringite, 2-Hemicarbonate, 3-Ye’elimite, 4-Anhydrite, 5-
Aluminate hydroxide, 6-Calcite, 7-strätlingite.)

Fig. 5. DTG curves for specimens at different curing ages. (a: CSA, b: CL5, c: CL15, d: CL25.)
 J. Ma et al. / Construction and Building Materials 199 (2019) 688–695 693

1) At the curing age of 1 day, in general, the addition of lime-

2) After 1 day, it is clear that the addition of limestone powder
Fig. 6. Total porosity of CSA cement paste and CSA cement paste blended with
various limestone power (CL) at different curing ages.
stone powder can decrease the total porosity of CSA cement
paste. 5% limestone power has a significant effect. The two
specimens, CSA cement paste and blended with 25% dosage
of limestone powder, have similar total porosity value. As
described above, the addition of limestone powder in CSA
cement accelerates the early hydration of cement, especially
when the limestone content is 5%. That leads to rapid densi-
fication of pore structure. In addition, fine limestone powder
fills in the pores, resulting in the decrease of total porosity.
increases the total porosity of CSA cement paste. More lime-
stone powder results in high total porosity. Although lime-
stone powder participates in the hydration reaction and
fills the pores which benefit the refining of the pore struc-
ture, the dilution effect is more remarkable than other
effects after 1 day of curing. With the replacement of cement
by limestone powder, the total volume of hydration prod-

Fig. 7. Differential PSD curve of samples at different curing ages. (A-1 day, B-3 days, C-28 days, D-90 days, E-270 days, F-365 days.)
694 J. Ma et al. / Construction and Building Materials 199 (2019) 688–695
ucts are reduced, resulting in the increase of total porosity
[53]. The more content of limestone powder exists in the
binary system, the more obvious the phenomenon is.
Except the total porosity, the differential pore size distribution
is also an important pore parameter in discussing the pore struc-
ture of CSA cement paste. Fig. 7 shows the differential pore size
distribution of all mixtures at different curing ages, such as
1 day, 3 days, 28 days, 90 days, 270 days and 365 days (1 year).
Critical pore width is the smallest diameter of continuous pores
throughout the cement paste sample, and it is the steepest slope of
the cumulative intrusion curve [54]. The critical pore width is
related to the permeability of cement-based materials [55].
Through the differential pore size distribution curves, the critical
pore width of all mixtures can be defined and marked on the figure
(Fig. 7).
As shown in Fig. 7, at the curing age of 1 day, the CSA cement
paste has the maximum dcr value than CSA cement paste blended
with limestone powder. That is in accordance with the develop-
ment of total porosity at 1 day. The critical pore width and total
porosity of CL5 cement paste is lower than that of all the other
samples at 1 day, which is attributed to the rapid early hydration
and filler effect, resulting in a refine pore structure. The total poros-
ity and critical pore width CL15 and CL25 cement pastes are larger
than that of CL5 cement pastes. Although the early hydration rate
of CL15 and CL25 cement pastes are faster than CSA cement pastes,
the dilution effect of CL15 and CL25 is more obvious than CL5
cement paste. It can be concluded that the filler effect and nucle-
ation effect are the domiant effect when the limestone content is
5 wt%, the dilution effect is the domiant effect when the limestone
content is more than 15 wt% of cement.
From 3 days to 270 days, the specimen of CL25 has a higher dcr
value than other samples. Large amount of limestone powder is
detrimental to the development of pore structure of binary system.
At long-term curing ages, such as 365 days, the dcr values of CSA
and CL5 have a similar critical pore width.
The good relationship between permeability and critical pore
width was found by many researchers [56–58], the small critical
pore width result in a good resistance of permeability, the dcr of
CL5 cement paste is almost equal to CSA cement at later ages,
therefore, the cement with 5 wt% limestone powder have a positive
effect on the durability of CSA cement.
4. Conclusions
This paper investigated the effect of limestone powder on the
hydration process and microstructure development of CSA cement
at long-term curing period up to 1 year. The following conclusions
have been drawn:
(1) The hemicarboaluminate exists in each sample from 3 days
to 1 year curing ages, which is due to the chemical reaction
between ye’elimite and limestone powder. However, the
monocarbonate phase is not found in all specimens, which
is difference from portland cement-limestone powder bin-
ary system. The reaction of belite with aluminate hydroxide
results in the formation of strätlingite. The strätlingite phase
exists in CL25 cement paste from 270 days to 1 year.
(2) After 1 day, the addition of limestone powder increases the
total porosity of CSA cement paste because of its dilution
effect. After 270 days of curing, the total porosity of CSA,
CL5 and CL15 increases, which is caused by self-
desiccation effect. The total porosity of CL25 decreases. That
is attributed to the formation of strätlingite can fill in the
pores.
(3) At long-term curing ages, the critical pore size of CL5 cement
are almost equally to CSA cement, it means that the durabil-
ity of CL5 cement may be the same as CSA cement.
Conflict of interest
The authors declared that they have no conflicts of interest to
this work.
Acknowledgements
I hereby express gratitude for the financial support of the
National Key R & D Program of China (Grant No.
2017YFB0310002), the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (Grant No. 51708290), the Natural Science Foundation of
Jiangsu Province, China (Grant No. BK20161001), the Natural
Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions
of China (Grant No. 16KJB430018), the Priority Academic Program
Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD),
Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University
(No. IRT_15R35).
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