Effect of calcium sulfate type and dosage on early

strength and porosity of self-leveling underlayments

Nguyen Ngoc Lam1, Elodie Prud’homme2 and Jean-François Georgin2

1
National University of Civil Engineering, Hanoi, Vietnam
2
Lyon University, Insa Lyon, France
lamnn@nuce.edu.vn

Abstract. In recent years, self-leveling underlayments (SLUs) are often used due to
high flow ability and self-smoothing properties. Besides the strength, other characteris-
tics of SLUs such as workability, rapid drying, rapid hardening, shrinkage compensa-
tion, etc...are required. This paper presents the effect of calcium sulfate type and dosage
on early-age strength and porosity of SLUs based on ettringite binders. The raw materi-
als used for making SLUs binders are calcium aluminate cement (CAC), Portland ce-
ment (PC) and calcium sulfate (C$Hx). Two types of calcium sulfates (hemihydrate and
anhydrite) were used in this research. The ettringite formation is the reaction that con-
trols the mechanical properties at early age of SLUs such as rapid hardening, early
strength gain, etc. It was found that using hemihydrate in SLUs gives higher compres-
sive strength than using anhydrite at the same content of calcium sulfate. On the other
hand, the pore size of SLUs will decrease with increasing the amount of calcium sulfate
in SLUs thanks to the higher amount of ettringite.

Keywords: Self-leveling Underlayments, Ettringite Binder, Calcium Sulfate,

Early-age

1 Introduction

In recent years, self-leveling underlayments (SLUs) are often used for a concrete floor
in various fields, i.e. office buildings, apartments, stores, schools, hospitals, factories,
parking lots, vessels and repairing work due to high flow ability and self-smoothing
properties [1-3]. Besides the strength, other characteristics of SLUs such as workabil-
ity, rapid drying, rapid hardening, shrinkage compensation, etc., are required. There-
fore, it is necessary to meet the increasing demand for SLUs that is becoming diversi-
fied. One of the innovative binders for SLUs is ettringite binder. This type of binder
includes calcium aluminate cement (CAC), different sources of calcium sulfate
(C$Hx) and Portland cement (PC). This combination influences on rapid setting and
hardening and self – desiccation shrinkage compensation [4,5]. There are three types
of C$Hx – anhydrite, dihydrate and two modifications as alpha-hemihydrate and beta-
hemihydrate – which were used with the mixed binders for different SLU composi-
tions. After contacting water, anhydrite and dihydrate will harden very slowly. How-
ever, if alpha-hemihydrate and beta-hemihydrate are mixed with water, they react

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 543

C. Ha-Minh et al. (eds.), CIGOS 2019, Innovation for Sustainable Infrastructure,
Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering 54,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0802-8_85
544 N. N. Lam et al.
more quickly and harden. Furthermore, the rate of dissolution and hydration speed of
beta-hemihydrate is quicker than alpha-hemihydrate [1,6]. Thus, performances of
SLUs themselves differ largely depending on the sulfate calcium used for SLUs. In
general, the kinetics of hydration, mechanical properties development and volume
variations of ettringite mixture depend essentially on the CAC/C$Hx ratio and on the
type of calcium sulfate (anhydrite, hemihydrate or gypsum) [7-9].
The aim of this work is to investigate the development of strength and porosity of
SLUs at early-age with different ratio of CAC/C$Hx and different source of C$Hx.

2 Materials and Methods

2.1 Materials

The binder of SLUs in this research consists of the calcium aluminate cement (CAC),
Portland cement (CEM I 42.5) and two types of calcium sulfate: anhydrite (A) or -
hemihydrate (P). The skeleton of SLUs composes of silica sand, slag and limestone
fillers. The formulation of SLUs is presented in Table 1:

Table 1. Formulation of self-leveling underlayments.

Raw materials Percentage composition of raw materials, %

75CAC/25C$Hx 90CAC/10C$Hx
CAC 24.26 29.11
C$Hx 8.09 3.23
CEM I - 42,5 3.97 3.97
Silica sand
Carbonate powder 33.41 33.41
Slag
Superplasticizer
Viscosity agent 5.46 5.46
Anti-shrinkage agent
Retarder + Accelerator 0.238 0.238
Water 24.57 24.57

2.2 Experimental methods

Strength: The fresh mixture of SLUs is poured into the mold and placed at 20°C in
endogenous condition. In order to determine the mechanical properties from 2h to 24h
after mixing such as compressive strength, 3-point flexural strength, the SLU is un-
molded just before mechanical tests.
Mercury intrusion porosimetry test: Porosity was measured on fragments of spec-
imens (40 x 40 x 160 mm), which were first stopped hydration by grinding the sam-
ples of self leveling underlayment at the required times and putting the pieces ob-