Institute for Transportation

About the research

This analysis performed focused activities under the Concrete Pavement Road Map (CP Road map) Track 1, Mix Design and Analysis. These activities included verification tests for materials and mixtures, relationships and models that predict mixture performance, guides and specifications that can help users make good decisions, and communication and education tools that help practitioners stay abreast of innovations being developed.

About the research

Supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) have become common parts of modern concrete practice. The blending of two or three cementitious materials to optimize durability, strength, or economics provides owners, engineers, materials suppliers, and contractors with substantial advantages over mixtures containing only portland cement. However, these advances in concrete technology and engineering have not always been adequately captured in specifications for concrete.

Users need specific guidance to assist them in defining the performance requirements for a concrete application and the selection of optimal proportions of the cementitious materials needed to produce the required durable concrete. The fact that blended cements are currently available in many regions increases options for mixtures and thus can complicate the selection process. Both portland and blended cements have already been optimized by the manufacturer to provide specific properties (such as setting time, shrinkage, and strength gain). The addition of SCMs (as binary, ternary, or even more complex mixtures) can alter these properties, and therefore has the potential to impact the overall performance and applications of concrete.

This report is the final of a series of publications describing a project aimed at addressing effective use of ternary systems. The work was conducted in several stages and individual reports have been published at the end of each stage.

About the research

This research project is a comprehensive study of how supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) can be used to improve the performance of concrete mixtures. This report summarizes the findings of the Laboratory Study on Concrete phase of this work.

The earlier “paste and mortar phase” of this work considered several sources of each type of SCM (fly ash, slag, and silica fume) so that the material variability issues could be addressed. Several different sources of portland cement and blended cement were also used in the experimental program. This phase of the research used an experimental matrix of 48 different mortar and concrete mixtures, which were identified in the earlier work as potential ternary mixtures that could benefit department of transportation (DOT) goals for long-lasting transportation bridges and pavements.

This report contains test results from durability testing on mortar and concrete containing ternary cementitious materials and standard coarse and fine aggregates. Limited testing was also conducted on select mixtures for performance in hot and cold climates, to determine the potential to design ternary mixtures in adverse conditions.