Processing of Optimized Cements and Concretes Via Particle Packing

Abstract

It has been well-recognized for many years that the particle-size distributions of the cement and the grading of the aggregates play an important role in determining the properties and characteristics of cement and concrete products. DSP (densified with small particles) type cements and concretes, to a certain extent, MDF (macro-defect-free) cements, and optimized concretes are recently recognized outstanding examples of the application of this principle. The preset characteristics of the cementitious slurry are also strongly influenced by these factors. Both the workability of the fresh material, and the microstructure development are controlled to a considerable extent by these geometric parameters.Two seminal works in the areas of continuous particle size distributions and particle packing are those of Andreason and Furnas, respectively. Furnas deals mainly with discrete systems and Andreason with continuous distributions. As early as 1907, the concept of idealized particle packing was being used to optimize cements and concretes. Figure 1a shows an idealized cross section of a simple cubic packing of monodispersed spheres. This system has a maximum packing density of 0.65%. In an ideally packed system of discrete size ranges, the size of the next smallest particles would be such that they just fit in the gaps between the largest size particles, and so on for subsequent particle sizes; this system is represented schematically in Figure 1b. Not only the sizes but also the relative numbers of particles are important; Figures 1c and 1d show systems where some fraction of the smaller and larger particle sizes, respectively, are missing. Figure 1e shows a system where the size of the second largest particles is too large to fit into the gaps between the largest particles, resulting in a lower packing efficiency. Thus, both the particle size and fractions are important when considering packing efficiency.