Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e01135

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Case Studies in Construction Materials

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Case study

An experimental study on mechanical, shrinkage and creep

properties of early-age concrete affected by clay content on
coarse aggregate
Yuqi Zhou a, He Du b, Yuhang Liu b, Jiankun Liu b, c, Siming Liang b, c, *
a
China Construction First Group Construction and Development Co., Ltd., Beijing, China
b
School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, China
c
Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The presence of clay particles on coarse aggregate is usually encountered in actual field condi­
Clay content of coarse aggregate tions and may have an adverse influence on concrete properties. However, several aspects con­
Basic creep cerning the clay content of coarse aggregate (e.g., its influence on the creep and crack risk of
Shrinkage
early-age concrete) are still unclear. This study investigated the influence of montmorillonite
Mechanical property
clay content of coarse aggregate on mechanical properties, shrinkage, and creep of early-age
Early-age concrete
concrete by a series of experimental tests. Concretes with coarse aggregate containing 0.0%,
1.5%, and 3.0% montmorillonite clay were prepared for the experimental tests. The results show
that the montmorillonite clay attached to coarse aggregate has a significant influence on the
mechanical properties, shrinkage, and creep of early-age concrete. As the montmorillonite clay
reaches 3.0%, compressive strength, flexural strength, and elastic modulus will decrease by
36.8%, 32.9%, and 38.3%, respectively; while the shrinkage and creep will increase by 31.4% and
45.5%, respectively. The deterioration of the interfacial transition zone due to montmorillonite
clay attached to coarse aggregate can account for the decrease in mechanical properties and
increase in shrinkage and creep. A greater amount of montmorillonite clay attached to coarse
aggregate will lead to a weaker aggregate-paste bond. The findings can contribute to a better
assessment of the early-age crack risk of the concrete structures.

1. Introduction

Microfine particles with sizes of smaller than 75 µm are commonly presented on aggregate, which may impact the aggregate quality
[1–3]. Based on the existing studies, the microfine particles on aggregate can be classified into three major types, i.e., stone dust, clay
particles, and calcium carbonate [2,4–6]. Due to the presence of certain microfine particles attached to coarse aggregates that is
encountered in actual field conditions, the performances of fresh and hardened concretes may be altered [6–8]. Recently, several
attempts have been made to remove the microfine particles from aggregate, which include washing process, methylene blue pre­
treatment, and adding high range water reducer [1,7,9]. However, due to the large specific surface area of microfine particles, most of
them, especially the clay particles, will still be held tightly to the aggregate through the above attempts. The residual clay particles will

* Corresponding author at: School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, China.
E-mail address: liangsm8@mail.sysu.edu.cn (S. Liang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cscm.2022.e01135
Received 5 April 2022; Received in revised form 28 April 2022; Accepted 3 May 2022
Available online 7 May 2022
2214-5095/© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Y. Zhou et al. Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e01135

absorb mixing water from the fresh paste due to their large surface area and loose structure, which will reduce the workability of
concrete and increase the water demand [10,11]. Moreover, the attached microfine particles around the aggregate will become a part
of the interfacial transition zone and thus may have a deleterious effect on the properties of hardened concrete [12,13]. Therefore, the
influence of clay content on aggregate needs to be analyzed from an engineering point of view.
Due to the potentially harmful effect of clay on the performances of concrete, several standards and guidelines (e.g., ASTM C33 [3]
and BS 882 [14]) have specified the maximum clay content of aggregate, however, no consistency has been reached concerning the
maximum clay content of aggregate [6]. For example, in ASTM C33, the maximum clay content of coarse aggregate for concrete that is
not subject to abrasion should be no greater than 1.5% [3], while the maximum clay content of coarse aggregate made by crushed rock
specified in BS 882 code is 4.0% [14]. Recently, many researches have been conducted to investigate the influence of clay content of
aggregate and the results reveal that the attached clay to aggregate has a non-negligible impact on the workability, mechanical
properties, shrinkage, and durability of concrete [1,2,4–7]. In general, concrete slump will decrease as the clay content attached to
aggregate increases [2,8,15], which will bring difficulties to the on-site construction of concrete. Muñoz et al. [2] found that clay
particles coated on aggregate provoked a large increase in shrinkage and contributed to a deterioration of the tensile strength and
freeze-thaw durability. Norvell et al. [1] concluded based on experimental results that the performance variation of concrete depends
on the chemical composition and mineralogy of clay, montmorillonite clay significantly increases drying shrinkage and decreases
compressive strength, while Kaolinite and illite clay minerals only affect the performances of concrete minimally. Both strength loss
and shrinkage gain due to the incorporated clay particles will undoubtedly increase the early-age cracking risk of concrete structures,
and weaken the durability and safety of concrete structures.
In addition to the mechanical and shrinkage properties, creep also plays an important role in the crack resistance of concrete
structures by relaxing the restrained stress partially [16–18]. However, very limited research has been conducted to study the influence
of microfine particles on the creep property of concrete. Li et al. [19] investigated the creep property of C60 concrete containing 7%
limestone dust and found that the incorporated limestone dust does affect the creep development [19]. It is claimed by Li et al. [19]
that the incorporated limestone dust increases the paste volume of concrete and therefore increases the creep, while it can also enhance
the aggregate bond to cement paste and results in less creep. However, the influence of microfine particles on the creep property of
early-age concrete is far from being clear. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out experimental researches on this issue in order to ensure
the accurate assessment of crack risk of concrete structures using aggregate coated by microfine clay.
The main goal of this study is to investigate experimentally the influence of clay content of coarse aggregate on mechanical
properties, shrinkage, and creep of early-age concrete. To this end, three concrete mixtures with water-to-cement (w/c) ratio of 0.4
were prepared by using coarse aggregate containing different montmorillonite clay contents (i.e., 0.0%, 1.5%, and 3.0% by mass ratio).
Experimental campaigns were performed to measure the mechanical properties, autogenous shrinkage, and basic creep of the test
concretes. Then the influence of clay content of coarse aggregate on the compressive strength, flexural strength, elastic modulus,
autogenous shrinkage, and basic creep was quantified and discussed. The findings in this study are expected to shed light on the
influence of clay of coarse aggregate on the mechanical properties and deformations of early-age concrete.

2. Experiments

2.1. Raw materials and mixture proportions

To assess the influence of clay content of coarse aggregate on the mechanical properties, shrinkage, and creep of concrete, three
types of concretes with w/c ratio of 0.4 were prepared. The mixture proportions are summarized in Table 1. P.I 42.5 Portland cement
that complies with the Chinese National Standard GB 175–2007 [20] was used as the cementitious material, whose chemical com­
positions and physical properties are shown in Table 2. In this study, crushed limestone with a maximum size of 10 mm was used as the
coarse aggregate. Concretes made by coarse aggregates with 0.0%, 1.5%, and 3.0% clay content were denoted as C0, C15, and C30,
respectively. As shown in Fig. 1, the carefully-washed crushed gravel was taken as the coarse aggregate with no
externally-incorporated clay, i.e., 0.0% clay content. While the coarse aggregates used in C15 and C30 concretes were dopped with a
suitable amount of montmorillonite clay, i.e., 1.5% and 3.0% of the coarse aggregate mass. To ensure the montmorillonite clay can be
coated well with the coarse aggregate, a small amount of water was added. Then all the coarse aggregates were dried naturally in the
air before they were used to prepare concrete mixtures. Standard sand with particle size ranging from 0.08 mm to 2 mm according to
ISO 679 [21] was used as the fine aggregate. Naphthalene-based superplasticizer was used to ensure that the three concrete mixtures
share similar workability.
After being mixed carefully without bleeding, the fresh concrete mixtures were cast into concrete molds. All the specimens were
kept in their molds in the curing room with temperature of 25 ± 2 ℃ and relative humidity of 65 ± 5% until 24 h and then were

Table 1
Mixing proportions of concretes.
Concrete No. Water Cement Coarse aggregate (kg/m3) Sand Superplasticizer Attached clay (kg/m3)
(kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3)

C0 196 490 1034 689 1.18 0

C15 196 490 1034 689 1.71 15.3
C30 196 490 1034 689 2.20 30.1

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Table 2
Chemical compositions and physical properties of ordinary Portland cement.
Material SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 CaO MgO SO3 Na2O Ignition loss (%) Specific Blaine fineness (cm2/g)
(%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) gravity

OPC 22.08 4.58 3.43 61.23 2.41 2.67 0.52 1.65 3.14 3500

Fig. 1. Coarse aggregate used in this study.

demouled and sealed with three layers of self-adhesive aluminum foils to prevent any moisture exchange with the environment. The
sealed specimens are again cured at 25 ± 2 ℃ until the testing age. All the tests were conducted in the room with temperature
controlled at 25 ± 2 ℃.

2.2. Mechanical properties measurement

In order to study the influence of clay content of coarse aggregate on the mechanical properties, the measurements of compressive
strength, flexural strength, and elastic modulus of the three types of concrete mixtures shown in Table 1 were performed at different
curing ages. A universal digital hydraulic testing machine was used to measure the compressive strength and flexural strength of
concrete. As shown in Table 3, Specimens with dimensions of 100 mm × 100 mm× 100 mm were prepared for the compressive
strength test. The flexural strength was measured on 400 mm × 100 mm× 100 mm specimen, which will be used to determine the
applied stress in the flexural creep test. Both compressive strength and flexural strength were measured at the curing ages of 1, 3, 7, and
28 days. For each curing age, three parallel specimens were prepared for each concrete mixture. More details about the test procedures
for compressive strength and flexural strength can refer to ASTM C39 standard [22] and ASTM C78 standard [23], respectively.
The measurement of elastic modulus of concrete was conducted by using the same test set-up for creep measurement, which is
shown in Fig. 2a. The dimensions of the elastic modulus specimen were 1000 mm × 50 mm× 50 mm. Since the ratio of the minimum

Table 3
Summary of experimental tests.
Types of tests Specimen size (mm) Curing age (d) Number of specimens

Compressive strength 100 × 100 × 100 1, 3, 7, 28 3 × 4 × 3 = 36

Flexural strength 400 × 100 × 100 1, 3, 7, 28 3 × 4 × 3 = 36
Elastic modulus 1000 × 50 × 50 1, 7, 28 3 × 3 × 2 = 18
Autogenous shrinkage 400 × 100 × 100 1 3×1×2=6
Creep 1000 × 50 × 50 1, 7, 28 3 × 3 × 2 = 18

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dimension of the specimen to the maximum aggregate size is 5.0 (greater than 3.0), the measured result can reflect the homogenous
property of the concrete specimen according to ASTM C512 standard [24]. In the elastic modulus measurement, the concrete beam was
simply supported on two steel bars with diameter of 16 mm. During the elastic modulus measurement, the midspan deflection of
concrete beam was continuously measured by a linear variable differential transformer (LVDT) with the precision of 1 µm. The LVDT
(shown in Fig. 2c) was fixed by an aluminum jig shown in Fig. 2a. The distance between the two feet of the jig was 500 mm. Then the
concrete beam was subject symmetrically to two loads of 2 kg. Each load is 200 mm away from the beam support. According to the
classical beam theory [25], there exists a unique relation between the instantaneous deflection and the elastic modulus of concrete,
which will be obtained by finite element simulation in this study (see Section 3.3). Then the measured deflection can be used to
determine the elastic modulus of concrete based on this relation. In order to reduce the influence of concrete creep on the measured
result, a loading protocol consisting of four cycles of loading/unloading shown in Fig. 3 was employed for the measurement of elastic
modulus and only the instantaneous deflection induced by the two loads of 2 kg was recorded at the last cycle of loading/unloading.
The modulus measurements were performed at the ages of 1, 7, and 28 days. Two parallel specimens were measured for each test.

2.3. Shrinkage measurement

The free shrinkage was measured on the specimen with dimensions of 400 mm × 100 mm× 100 mm by using the test set-up shown
in Fig. 2b. The free shrinkage deformation was measured by the same LVDT used in the elastic modulus test. The measurement of free
shrinkage deformation of the three types of concretes under sealed condition started simultaneously at the age of 1 day and lasted for
40 days. Two parallel specimens were used for each concrete mixture during the shrinkage test. The autogenous shrinkage strain
(εsh(t)) can be expressed as:
ΔL(t)
εsh (t) = (1)
L0

where, ΔL(t) is the length change of concrete specimen at time t; L0 is the initial length of the specimen and L0 = 400 mm in this study.

Fig. 2. Schematic illustration of the flexural creep test set-up and autogenous shrinkage test set-up.

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Fig. 3. Illustration of the loading protocol of the elastic modulus measurement by using flexural test.

2.4. Creep measurement by flexural test

The creep property of concrete under sealed condition was measured by flexural test using the set-up shown in Fig. 2a, which has
been employed successfully to investigate the creep property of concrete under different drying conditions in the previous studies [26,
27]. The creep specimen has a length of 1000 mm and a small cross-section of 50 × 50 mm, which is the same as the elastic modulus
specimen. The creep tests were conducted at the curing ages of 1, 7, and 28 days. The symmetrically-applied loads for these three ages
were 3 kg, 8 kg, and 10 kg, respectively, which can ensure that the maximum stress level of the concrete beam is no greater than 40%
and thus it is expected that no damage or nonlinear creep will be induced [28]. Two replicate specimens were used for each concrete
mixture during the flexural creep test.
Once the external loads are applied, the concrete beam will exhibit an instantaneous deflection caused by the external loads
(fm− e (t0 )) at time t0. However, it should be noted that the subsequent time-dependent beam deflection is caused by both the external
loads and the self-weight of concrete beam. The shrinkage of concrete would not affect the measured beam deflection due to the fact
that the shrinkage deformation of the sealed specimen is symmetric about the neutral plane [26]. Based on the measured beam
deflection (fm− t (t,t0 ), i.e., the total deflection measured at time t when the external load is applied at time t0) by LVDT, the measured
time-dependent deflection (fm− c (t, t0 )) of concrete beam resulting from the creep property caused by the external force and the
self-weight of the concrete beam can be obtained as:
fm− c (t, t0 ) = fm− t (t, t0 ) − fm− e (t0 ) (2)
Then the creep coefficient (φ(t,t0)), i.e., the ratio of creep strain (εc (t,t0 )) to elastic strain (εe (t0 )), can be expressed as Eq. (3) based
on linear viscoelasticity theory [26,29]:
εc (t, t0 ) fm− c (t, t0 )
φ(t, t0 ) = = (3)
εe (t0 ) fe (t0 )

Fig. 4. Measured compressive strength of concretes with different clay contents on coarse aggregate at different curing ages.

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where,fe (t0 )is the elastic deflection of concrete beam caused by both the external loads and the self-weight of concrete beam, which is
determined based on finite element analysis in this study.
Then the creep property of concretes with different mixture proportions can be assessed and compared by the specific creep (C(t,
t0)), which denotes the creep strain at time t induced per unit stress since loading age t0, can be expressed as [28]:
φ(t, t0 )
C(t, t0 ) = (4)
Ec (t0 )

where,Ec (t0 )is the elastic modulus of concrete at time t0.

3. Results

3.1. Measured compressive strength of concrete with different clay contents

Montmorillonite clay attached to coarse aggregate has a deleterious effect on the compressive strength of concrete and the
reduction of compressive appears to be more significant as the clay content increases. Fig. 4 displays the measured compressive
strength of concrete with clay content of 0.0%, 1.5%, and 3.0% on coarse aggregate. Although the measured compressive strength
increases with increasing curing age for the three types of concretes, the compressive strength of concrete made with coarse aggregate
with a certain amount of montmorillonite clay is generally lower than that made with coarse aggregate with clean coarse aggregate,
which is in agreement with the previous findings by other researchers [1,6]. For example, when the clay content of coarse aggregate is
1.5% and 3.0%, the compressive strength will decrease by 12.8~16.8% and 35.2~38.3%, respectively.

3.2. Measured flexural strength of concrete with different clay contents

Similar to compressive strength, montmorillonite clay attached to coarse aggregate has a harmful effect on the flexural strength of
concrete. The measured flexural strengths of concrete with 0.0%, 1.5%, and 3.0% clay on coarse aggregate are Fig. 5. It can be seen
from Fig. 5 that the flexural strength decreases as the clay content of coarse aggregate increases for all curing ages. When the added
clay content increases from 0.0% to 1.5% (3.0%), the flexural strength decreases by 14.3~18.2% (36.9%~40.1%). In this study, the
measured flexural strength of the three types of concretes will be used to determine the applied load used in the flexural creep test.

3.3. Measured elastic modulus of concrete with different clay contents

According to the classical beam theory [25], there exists a unique relation between the elastic modulus and instantaneous beam
deflection for the test set-up shown in Fig. 2a, which can be used to determine the elastic modulus based on the measured beam
deflection caused by two symmetrically-applied loads. Fig. 6a shows the finite element model of the simply-supported beam that is
subject to two symmetrically-applied loads of 2 kg. By defining concrete with different elastic modulus, one can obtain the corre­
sponding instantaneous beam deflection. Fig. 6b displays the variation of the instantaneous beam deflection and elastic modulus of
concrete. It can be seen from Fig. 6b that the instantaneous beam deflection decreases with increasing elastic modulus of concrete, and
can be well fitted by the following equation:
237.85
fin = (5)
Ec

Fig. 5. Measured flexural strength of concretes with different clay contents on coarse aggregate at different curing ages.

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Fig. 6. (a) Finite element model of simply-supported beam used in the flexural test and (b) relationship between the instantaneous beam deflection
and elastic modulus of concrete that is subject to two loads of 2 kg symmetrically.

where, fin is the instantaneous beam deflection caused by two symmetrically-applied loads of 2 kg (Unit: μm); Ec is the elastic modulus
of concrete (Unit: GPa).
By substituting the instantaneous beam deflection obtained in the elastic modulus measurement into Eq.(5), one can obtain the
elastic moduli of the three types of concretes at the ages of 1, 7, and 28 days, which are shown in Fig. 7. It can be seen from Fig. 7 that
the elastic modulus will decrease with increasing clay content of coarse aggregate. For example, when the clay content is 1.5% and
3.0%, the elastic modulus will decrease by 11.6~15.8% and 29.2~38.0% as compared to the C0 concrete (0.0% clay content),
respectively.
Based on the measured elastic modulus of C0, C15, and C30 concretes shown in Fig. 7, one can obtain the calculated instantaneous
beam deflection (fe (t0 )) caused by the self-weight of concrete beam and two symmetrically-applied loads at different loading ages by
finite element analysis, which will be used to calculate the creep coefficient of concrete according to Eq.(3).

3.4. Measured shrinkage of concrete with different clay contents

The measured shrinkage strains of the three types of concretes under sealed condition from the curing age of 1 day are shown in
Fig. 8, in which the line symbol denotes the average of the measured shrinkage and the shadow area denotes the standard deviation of
the corresponding results. Unlike the influence of clay content of coarse aggregate on the mechanical properties, the montmorillonite

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Fig. 7. Measured elastic modulus of concretes with different clay contents on coarse aggregate at different curing ages.

Fig. 8. Measured shrinkage of concretes with different clay contents on coarse aggregate.

clay attached to coarse aggregate will provoke large increases in shrinkage strain. As shown in Fig. 8, the average shrinkage strain at
the age of 41 days for C0, C15, and C30 concretes is 124.4 × 10-6, 135.6 × 10-6, and 163.4 × 10-6. The shrinkage strain of concrete will
increase by 9.0% and 31.4% due to the attached 1.5% and 3.0% clay to coarse aggregate. This observation is also consistent with the
existing findings in the literature [1,2,19]. The reasons for this increased shrinkage caused by clay content will be discussed in Section
4.

3.5. Measured creep of concrete with different clay contents

Fig. 9 shows the measured time-dependent deflection (fm− c (t, t0 )) of C0, C15, and C30 concrete beams that are subject to two
symmetrically-applied loads at the ages of 1, 7, and 28 days, respectively. It can be seen from Fig. 9 that the time-dependent deflection
of concrete beams increases with increasing clay content of coarse aggregate at the same loading age, which indicates that the clay
content of coarse aggregate will enhance the creep development of concrete.
Since the external loads applied on concrete beam vary with the curing ages (3 kg at 1 day, 8 kg at 7 days, and 10 kg at 7 days), the
creep property of concrete obtained at different loading ages cannot be compared directly by the measured time-deflection. In order to
quantify the influence of loading age on the creep development of C0, C15, and C30 concretes, according to the measured time-
dependent deflection (fm− c (t, t0 )shown in Fig. 9) and the calculated instantaneous beam deflection (fe (t0 )) caused by the self-weight
of concrete beam and two symmetrically-applied loads, one can obtain the specific creep of the three types of concretes according
to Eq.(3) and Eq.(4). The average specific creep functions of C0, C15, and C30 concretes loaded at the ages of 1, 7, and 28 days are
plotted as the circle, triangle, and square symbols in Fig. 10, respectively.
As shown in Fig. 10, the specific creep of concrete will decrease with increasing the loading age for the same concrete mixture,
which is reasonable and consistent with the previous findings [30–32]. The main reason is related to the shorter-term chemical aging of

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Fig. 9. Measured time-dependent beam deflection of concretes with clay contents of 0.0%, 1.5%, and 3.0% on coarse aggregate at loading age of (a)
1 day, (b) 7 days, and (c) 28 days.

early-age concrete due to hydration of cement [33], i.e., the new hydrated products deposited on the wall of capillary pores in an
essentially stress-free state will decrease the porosity of concrete and thus slow down the creep rate.
In addition, it can be seen from Fig. 10 that the specific creep of concretes increases with increasing clay content of coarse aggregate
at the same loading age. As shown in Fig. 10, the specific creep of C15 concrete and C30 concrete after 20 days’ loading is 9.7~14.3%
and 42.2~49.5% greater than that of C0 concrete, respectively, which indicates that the clay on coarse aggregate will enhance the
creep development of concrete, which is similar to the influence of clay content of coarse aggregate on concrete shrinkage. This
phenomenon is mainly related to the deterioration of the bond between coarse aggregate and paste, which will be further discussed in
Section 4.2.

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Fig. 10. Measured and fitted basic specific creep of concretes with different clay contents on coarse aggregate at loading ages of 1, 7, and 28 days.

Up to now, many creep models including ACI 209R-08 model [28], CEB-FIP MC90 model [34], fib MC2010 model [35], and B3
model [36] have been developed to predict the creep development. However, several studies reveal that these models may not work
well for the creep prediction of early-age concrete [30,37–39]. Besides, whether these models can capture the influence of clay content
of coarse aggregate on creep is unknown. Therefore, in this study, the specific creep expressed in Eq. (6) is employed to characterize the
creep property of early-age concrete with different clay contents on coarse aggregate, which has been reported to capture the creep
development of early-age concrete [26,40].
( )
∑2
[ ] [ ]
C t, t0 = (ai + bi t−0 ci ) 1 − e− di (t− t0 ) + me− nt0 1 − e− n(t− t0 ) (6)
i=1

where, ai, bi, ci, di, m, and n are constant parameters of the specific creep, which can be determined by fitting the specific creep to the
measured one.
In order to verify whether the specific creep expressed as Eq.(6) can be used to capture the creep development of early-age con­
cretes with different clay contents on coarse aggregate, the measured specific creep of C0, C15, and C30 concretes at the loading age of
1 day was used to determine the constant parameters in Eq.(6) by the least square method [41]. The fitted parameters of Eq.(6) for the
three types of concretes are summarized in Table 4. Based on the fitted parameters shown in Table 4, one can easily obtain the specific
creep functions of the three types of concretes at loading ages of 7 and 28 days, which are also displayed as line symbols in Fig. 10. It
can be seen from Fig. 10 that the fitted specific creep can match the measured result well, which indicates that the specific creep shown
in Eq.(6) can capture well the creep development of early-age concretes with different clay content attached to coarse aggregate.

Table 4
Fitted parameters of the specific creep of concrete (Eq.(6)) with different clay contents on coarse aggregate.
Parameter Concrete No.

C0 C15 C30
-6
a1 (×10 /MPa) 1.47 2.67 6.58
b1 (×10-6/MPa) 11.52 15.52 30.91
c1 0.81 0.61 0.63
d1 2.42 2.83 2.45
a1 (×10-6/MPa) 27.35 29.68 32.65
b1 (×10-6/MPa) 25.52 29.77 30.26
c1 1.14 1.21 0.98
d1 0.37 0.47 0.27
m (×10-6/MPa) 15.79 19.34 24.83
n 0.04 0.03 0.04

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4. Discussions

4.1. Discussion on different influences of clay content of aggregate on mechanical properties, shrinkage, and creep

As shown in the above sections, the montmorillonite clay attached to coarse aggregate has a non-negligible influence on the
mechanical properties, shrinkage, and creep of concrete. In general, the montmorillonite clay attached to coarse aggregate will weaken
the mechanical properties including compressive strength, flexural strength, and elastic modulus, while enhance both the shrinkage
and creep of concrete under sealed condition. The more amount of clay attached to coarse aggregate, the more significant the influence
of clay content on mechanical properties, shrinkage, and creep is.
Table 5 summarizes the change of mechanical properties, shrinkage, and creep of C0, C15, and C30 concretes due to the added
montmorillonite clay on coarse aggregate. As shown in Table 5, when the clay content increases from 0.0% to 3.0%, the mechanical
properties such as compressive strength, flexural strength, and elastic modulus will gradually decrease, while the shrinkage and creep
of concrete will exhibit an opposite trend.
In order to further compare the influence of clay content of coarse aggregate on the properties of concrete, Fig. 11 shows the change
of properties of concrete resulting from the amounts of clay attached to coarse aggregate. It is noted that the change of mechanical
properties and creep of concretes with specific clay content on coarse aggregate shown in Fig. 11 is the average of all the corresponding
results obtained at different ages. As shown in Fig. 11, flexural strength seems to be affected more by the clay content of coarse
aggregate among all the mechanical properties. For example, when the clay content of coarse aggregate reaches 3.0%, the flexural
strength will decrease by 38.3%, while the compressive strength and elastic modulus will decrease by 36.8% and 32.9%, respectively.
The reason may lie in that flexural strength is more sensitive to the development of micro defects in concrete specimen that is subject to
external loadings [42].
In terms of the deformations of concrete, it can be seen from Fig. 11 that the increase of concrete creep resulting from the added clay
on coarse aggregate is more significant than the increase of concrete shrinkage. As shown in Fig. 11, when the clay content increases
from 0.0% to 3.0%, concrete creep increases by 45.5%, while concrete shrinkage only increases by 31.4%. This result may be related to
the different constraints of coarse aggregate on the creep and shrinkage of concrete. It is well known that the shrinkage or creep of
concrete originates from the cement paste phase, while the aggregate is commonly assumed to be inert with no shrinkage and creep
[43,44]. Since the shrinkage of concrete occurs isotropically while the creep of concrete develops in the direction of the applied stress,
the coarse aggregate will have a different restraint on the shrinkage and creep development of concrete. When the cement paste within
the concrete specimen shrinks, both the normal restraint and tangential restraint provided by coarse aggregate will be triggered at the
interface between the coarse aggregate and paste. Furthermore, the normal restraint, which is less affected by the interface property,
will play a dominant role in restricting the shrinkage of cement paste. However, when concrete is subject to creep load, the effect of
tangential restraint of coarse aggregate on the creep of paste will be dominant. Since the tangential restraint depends more highly on
the interface property that is affected by the attached clay, concrete creep will decrease more than concrete shrinkage for the same clay
content.

4.2. Possible mechanisms of influence of montmorillonite clay on coarse aggregate

In this section, the possible mechanisms behind the influence of montmorillonite clay of coarse aggregate on mechanical properties,
shrinkage, and creep of concrete will be discussed. The existing findings reveal that the influence of clay attached to coarse aggregate
on the properties of concrete is very complex and depends on the mineralogy of clays [1,2,6].
Due to the large specific surface area of montmorillonite clay, most clay particles will be held tightly on the surface of coarse
aggregate during the mixing process of concrete mixture, while a fraction of clay particles will inevitably be released into the cement
paste. It has been reported that the mechanisms of influence of clay particles on the properties of concrete can be classified into four
categories [2,5,6]: (1) The clay particles attached to coarse aggregate absorb water from fresh cement paste into its microstructure due
to its good water absorption, which will result in a lower effective w/c ratio of the cement paste; (2) the clay particles attached to coarse
aggregate become parts of the interfacial transition zone, which will weaken the bond between coarse aggregate and cement paste; (3)
the released clay particles fill in the pores of cement paste, which will densify the paste phase; (4) some reactive clay particles may
react with the hydrating cement or its hydration products to form further insoluble hydrates, which will modify microstructures of the
cement pastes.
As for the montmorillonite clay used in this study, the deterioration of the interfacial transition zone due to montmorillonite clay
attached to coarse aggregate may play a dominant role in the variation of mechanical properties, shrinkage, and creep of concrete. Due
to the attached montmorillonite clay and the absorbed water, the interface transition zone around the coarse aggregate will be more
porous and result in a weaker bond between the coarse aggregate and the cement paste. Therefore, a reduction in mechanical
properties and an increase in shrinkage and creep are observed. This is in agreement with the our previous findings [45,46], i.e., the
imperfect interface with weak bond between different phases in cementitious materials is found to have a significant influence on the
elastic and creep properties by a combination of microindentation test and micromechanics-based homogenization. Furthermore, it
can be inferred that the higher the clay content attached to the coarse aggregate is, the weaker the aggregate-paste bond is.
It has been reported that by Fernandez et al. [47] that montmorillonite clay would act as a filler in cementitious materials and
exhibit little pozzolanic activity. The reduction of effective w/c ratio of cement paste, and the pore-filling and reaction of montmo­
rillonite clay particles may occur during the cement hydration process in this study. If these three mechanisms play the main roles, the
cement paste will become stronger and denser, which will enhance the mechanical properties, but reduce the shrinkage and creep

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Y. Zhou et al. Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e01135

Table 5
Summary of the change of compressive strength, flexural strength, elastic modulus, basic creep, and autogenous shrinkage of concretes due to the
added clay on coarse aggregate.
Property Clay content (%) Curing age (d)

1 3 7 28

Compresssive strength 0.0 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%

1.5 14.2%↓ 16.8%↓ 13.5%↓ 12.8%↓
3.0 38.3%↓ 35.2%↓ 36.7%↓ 37.1%↓
Flexural strength 0.0 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
1.5 15.4%↓ 14.3%↓ 18.2%↓ 14.9%↓
3.0 37.7%↓ 40.1%↓ 38.5%↓ 36.9%↓
Elastic modulus 0.0 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
1.5 11.6%↓ / 15.8%↓ 11.8%↓
3.0 38.0%↓ / 31.6%↓ 29.2%↓
Autogenous shrinkage 0.0 0.0% / / /
1.5 9.0%↑ / / /
3.0 31.4%↑ / / /
Basic creep 0.0 0.0% / 0.0% 0.0%
1.5 13.7%↑ / 9.7%↑ 14.3%↑
3.0 49.5%↑ / 44.7%↑ 42.2%↑

Note: ↑ denotes reduction, ↓ denotes the increment (creep after 20 days’ loading, and shrinkage at the age of 41 days).

Fig. 11. Change of compressive strength, flexural strength, elastic modulus, creep, and shrinkage of concretes due to the added clay on
coarse aggregate.

development of concrete, which is in contradiction with the experimental results. Therefore, it can be concluded that the montmo­
rillonite clay attached to the coarse aggregate mainly affects the aggregate-paste bond, which provokes large decreases in mechanical
properties and increases in shrinkage and creep.
The quality of coarse aggregate has a non-negligible influence on the performance of concrete, and the deleterious substances (e.g.,
montmorillonite clay particles) on coarse aggregate are harmful to concrete because of the deterioration of the interfacial transition
zone. Therefore, the content of harmful montmorillonite clay attached to coarse aggregate must be limited in practical engineering
applications. This study quantified the influence of montmorillonite clay on the mechanical properties and deformations of early-age
concrete by a series of experimental tests, which can contribute to a better assessment of the early-age cracks risk of the concrete
structures. However, the influence of montmorillonite clay on concrete properties is far from being well understood. For example, the
link between the microstructures and properties of the interfacial transition zone and the content of montmorillonite clay still needs to
be established, which can be performed by using advanced experimental methods (e.g., scanning electron microscopy and instru­
mented indentation) and theoretical modelings (e.g., finite element modeling and micromechanics-based homogenization). Further
investigations on this issue will be conducted in the future.

5. Conclusions

A series of tests were designed in this study to measure the mechanical properties (e.g., compressive strength, flexural strength, and
elastic modulus), shrinkage, and creep of three types of concretes with 0.0%, 1.5%, and 3.0% montmorillonite clay on coarse
aggregate. The influence of clay content of coarse aggregate on the performances of concrete and the possible mechanisms were
discussed based on the measured results. The major conclusions are drawn as follows:

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Y. Zhou et al. Case Studies in Construction Materials 16 (2022) e01135

1. The montmorillonite clay attached to coarse aggregate has a significant influence on the mechanical properties of concrete. Me­
chanical properties including compressive strength, flexural strength, and elastic modulus decrease with increasing clay content of
coarse aggregate. As the content of montmorillonite clay attached to coarse aggregate reaches 3.0%, the compressive strength,
flexural strength, and elastic modulus of concrete will decrease by 36.8%, 32.9%, and 38.3%, respectively. Flexural strength ap­
pears to be affected more by the clay content of coarse aggregate than compressive strength and elastic modulus.
2. Both shrinkage and creep of concrete increase with increasing content of montmorillonite clay attached to coarse aggregate. When
the clay content is up to 3.0%, the shrinkage and creep of concrete will increase by 31.4% and 45.5%, respectively. Concrete creep
is more sensitive to the content of montmorillonite clay attached to coarse aggregate than concrete shrinkage. The specific creep
expressed in Eq. (6) of this study can capture well the creep development of early-age concretes with different clay contents
attached to coarse aggregate.
3. The influence of clay particles attached to coarse aggregate on the properties of concrete is complex. The deterioration of the
interfacial transition zone due to montmorillonite clay attached to coarse aggregate can account for the decrease in mechanical
properties and increase in shrinkage and creep. A greater amount of montmorillonite clay attached to coarse aggregate contributes
to a weaker aggregate-paste bond, which provokes larger decreases in mechanical properties and larger increases in shrinkage and
creep.
4. The experimental results obtained in this study can provide a guide to control the clay content of coarse aggregate. However, the
link between the microstructures and properties of the interfacial transition zone and the content of montmorillonite clay still needs
to be established in order to optimize the mixture proportion of concrete, which will be further investigated in our future work.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 52108263, Guangdong Basic and Applied
Basic Research Foundation under Grant Nos. 2020B1515120083 and 2022A1515010847, and the funding support from Sun Yat-Sen
University under Grant No. 2021qntd15 for the supports.

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