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Article

An Approach to Mixture Design and Cost Analysis for Cement Pastes Composed of Class C Fly Ashes for Better Sustainable Construction

by
Mehmedali Egemen
1,*,
Farhad Ali
2 and
Ertug Aydin
1
1
Department of Civil Engineering, European University of Lefke, Lefke, Northern Cyprus TR-10, Mersin 99010, Turkey
2
School of Management, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Liandaf Campus, Western Ave, Cardiff CF5 2YB, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Buildings 2024, 14(2), 373; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14020373
Submission received: 21 December 2023 / Revised: 24 January 2024 / Accepted: 28 January 2024 / Published: 31 January 2024
(This article belongs to the Section Building Materials, and Repair & Renovation)
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Abstract

:
The increase in population and need for shelter demand a huge amount of concrete production. These construction activities cause environmental problems and global warming continues to threaten the world. In this study, the properties of cement paste composites containing high proportions of fly ash are intended for use as sustainable ecological products in various civil engineering applications to minimize the worse effects of building construction. The physical, mechanical, and durability properties of pure cement paste composed of fly ash were investigated. New insight is presented in this study to show how to use fly ash in the paste for a wide range of workability with better optimization of physical and mechanical characterization with cost performance and to design the composites to achieve specific engineering properties. The proposed approach can help researchers model the pastes for various ranges of workability and strength. This modeling approach can potentially be used to construct mixture design criteria for such composites. The unconfined compressive strength (UCS) showed very good results with the porosity of the paste, UCS = a × (1 − porosity)b; thus, this equation can be used for the strength determination of pastes at various workability ranges.

1. Introduction

Climate change is a global issue. Many approaches have been proposed to minimize greenhouse gas emissions [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. Cement is necessary for the mechanical performance of concrete. It is the only constituent in the paste volume that coats concrete [8,9,10,11]. There is now growing awareness in the construction sector that the use of traditional Portland cement concrete mixtures is unsustainable [12,13,14,15]: manufacturing of one ton of Portland cement is responsible for the release of about one ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere—the major greenhouse gas implicated in human-made climate changes [14,16,17,18]—and requires 1.6 tons of raw materials (mainly clay and limestone) [4,19,20]. Cement is also one of the most expensive components [4,18,20,21,22].
Concrete demands are exceeding 25 Gt per year [23,24]. Even small reductions in cement use in concrete construction are valuable to developing a sustainable building construction industry [25,26,27,28,29].
Over the years, the concrete industry has increased its use of cement-like mineral admixtures that are less expensive and that can greatly improve performance [26,30,31,32,33,34,35,36]. Fly ash has been effectively used in concrete compositions [37,38,39,40,41] and can have positive ecological and cost-effective benefits for developing countries [31,37,42,43,44,45,46,47,48]. It is usually utilized by partial replacement of Portland cement at small extents (0 to 15%), intermediate levels (25 to 40%), or at high levels (more than 50% by mass) [21,22,37,38,39,41,42,44,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56]. There are many types of research on the strength and durability performance of fly ash as a replacement for cement above 40% [2,14,17,21,23,33,42,53,54,55,57,58,59]. The Canada Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology (CANMET) has undertaken considerable development of a particular category of high-volume fly ash (HVFA) concrete that comprises a blend of a large amount of fly ash and high dosages of water reducers that allow remarkably low water-to-cementitious ratio (w/c) materials (typically w/c~0.32) to be attained [41,60,61].
Field applications and laboratory research have revealed that the workability, placement, lower permeability, and almost all other durability features of HVFA composites are better than those of conventional Portland cement composites [12,16,17,33,39,44,52,55].
Various measurement techniques have been introduced to differentiate fly ash with a view to developing its alternative applications. These comprise the determination of chemical, physical, and strength properties. Properties at elevated temperatures, different types of fly ash for applications containing self-compacting concrete, and microstructural analysis have been investigated in detail [35,43,59,62,63,64,65,66,67,68]. More recently, geopolymers, including fly ash, have been evaluated [11,18,68,69,70,71,72]. The fact that these tests do not always give consistent results concerning predicting the qualities of the final product may seem surprising, but this is mainly because of insufficient performance evaluation of fly ash in the field [15,35,40,53,54,69,73,74]. Mechanisms that have been proposed to explain the improved microstructures attained by using fly ash include the packing of its finer particles into interstices, and the pozzolanic reaction of calcium hydroxide and fly ash continuing over a period of weeks or months [55,63,68,69,75,76,77].
Using HVFA as a substitute for cement decreases the associated carbon dioxide emissions and affords sustainable concrete production [78,79,80,81,82]. The requirement for suitable mixture proportions is essential. The mixture proportions mainly depend on the properties of the material used, preparation, vibration, transportation, and curing as well as the conditions in fresh and hardened states [82,83,84,85,86,87,88,89]. The w/c value is the main factor in the design of a concrete mixture, with the usual range extending from 0.37 to 0.50 [88,90,91]. All techniques for concrete proportioning that have been proposed to date have not given appropriate attention to the amount of water in the mixture [75,92,93,94]. It is not surprising that it is necessary to use trial mixtures to obtain a satisfactory product [86,93,95,96].
Proportioning concrete using the absolute volume method requires calculating the volume of each ingredient. Volumes are converted to design masses, which then become the basis for actual industrial concrete production. Conversion to mass is accomplished by taking the known volume of the ingredient and multiplying it by its specific gravity and by the density of water [97,98,99,100]. Specific gravities must be precisely identified for each material component [25,86,92,93].
According to Abrams’s rule [85], paste quantity controls the overall strength behavior of concrete and quality is not very important. However, many contradictory kinds of research are found in the literature. In many articles, the mechanical performance of the composites is directly linked to w/c and they stated that more factors should be needed for a better understanding of the overall strength behavior. Such factors can include the cement, water, or paste contents, and measure of workability [85,97,101]. Abrams’s law only gives details of the true relationship with the strength of concrete and other materials [102]. Porosity is, however, just as complex to precisely estimate. The terms of the w/c are well known [85,97,101,102,103]; however, almost all engineering-related properties, such as strength and durability, are directly linked to porosity. Strength is the property most commonly considered by quality control experts. A basic inverse relationship exists between porosity and strength. In heterogeneous materials, such as concrete, the porosity of each component of the microstructure can therefore become strength limiting [88,102,104,105,106,107,108,109].
Links between the main constituents of the mixtures and the proposed models were first analyzed, with a view to (1) determine how to predict porosity based on the mixture design; (2) determine how to link the strength of the material to the strengths of the constituent ingredients; and (3) compare the proposed mechanical/physical property–porosity relationships with those reported in the existing literature. In previous work [110,111], the authors proposed an empirical model for porosity–apparent specific gravity–strength for such pastes to evaluate the above items. In this work, the authors tried to develop a basic mixture design model.
Several mixture design methods have been suggested for concrete and pastes containing high volumes of fly ash (>60%) [17,23,45,70,71,72,75,78,79,80,81,84,94,107,108,109,112,113,114,115,116,117]. However, the concrete industry has been under pressure to achieve a better sustainable approach [115,116]. In this study, basic engineering properties (i.e., compressive and flexural strength) were correlated with porosity and w/b, to propose an alternative approach to mixture design methodologies for very high-volume Class C fly ash cement paste composites. Modified models of Abrams [85,101,102] and Popovics [97] were employed to evaluate the materials. For HVFA pastes, the proposed methodology and equations were used as a starting point for mixture proportioning. It was necessary to define a minimum content of cementitious material, capable of providing the desired workability. Trial batches were initially prepared, using various material proportions; the workability was evaluated by determining the relationships of slump with flow and w/b. The use of waste fly ash has received considerable attention as a potentially sustainable component to replace Portland cement in concrete for low-strength applications; however, to date, there has been no suitable method proposed for the design of such concrete-paste compositions to ensure particular targeted engineering properties of the final product. The pure cement paste composites were evaluated. The composites were composed of a high amount of fly ash and included a wide range of different workability classes. The physical and mechanical properties were then evaluated at 7, 28, 56, and 90 days of curing for a wide range of workabilities (i.e., slumps ranging from 50 mm to 250 mm). The cost analysis for the cement pastes composed of HVFA was also evaluated in this study.

2. Materials and Methodology

2.1. Materials

The physical and chemical compositions of the used materials are presented in Table 1. OPC-42.5 was used [117]. High lime fly ash (high lime, class C) was used and obtained from Turkey. The particle size distribution (sieve analysis: % passing on standard sieve versus sieve size) of the materials used is shown in Figure 1.

2.2. Research Methodology

This study proposes a novel approach to mixture design methodologies for very high-volume Class C fly ash cement paste composites by correlating basic engineering properties (i.e., compressive and flexural strength) with porosity and water-to-binder ratio. Modified models of Abrams and Popovics were employed to evaluate the materials.
The mixtures have four different workability ranges (50 mm, 100 mm, 150 mm, and 250 mm), with six different fly ash percentages. The excel file provided as a Supplementary Material to help the researcher for the calculation of different mixture proportion. The proportions for the mixture groups are presented in Table 2. The dry mix from smaller size to larger sizes was blended within four and a half minutes and then vibrated until the removal of air bubbles (approx. 1 min). Molds were opened after one day and cured at a temperature of 23 °C and relative humidity of 90%. The samples were tested at the age of 7, 28, 56, or 90 days. The unconfined compressive strength (UCS) was evaluated by the ASTM standard [118]. The flexural strength (FS) was determined from specimens of 4 cm × 4 cm × 16 cm dimensions concerning the central point loading single-beam method according to ASTM C348-14 [119].
Each group had twelve samples and a total of 1152 samples were prepared (12 samples × 4 slump ranges × 4 curing ages × 6 compositions). The flow table and slump tests were used as workability measurements prescribed in ASTM standards [120,121]. Initially, several trial batches were prepared and variations in the material’s proportions were used, evaluating the workability by slump versus flow relations and w/b ratio versus slump relations for different fly ash replacement levels.
The physical tests such as dry unit mass (DUM) and apparent specific gravity (ASG) were determined according to ASTM C127-15 [122]. The porosity was calculated using the equations given by Othuman and Wang and available in RILEM and İN ASTM [123,124,125].

2.3. Proposed Equations

DataFit 9.1 (Oakdale Engineering, Oakdale, PA, USA) curve fitting (nonlinear regression) was used to evaluate the results. The experimental results are presented in Table A1, Table A2, Table A3, Table A4, Table A5 and Table A6. The regression analyses for the relationships between slump and w/b of the HVFA cement paste mixtures are presented in Table A7.

3. Analysis and Discussion

A trial batch was prepared and the effect of variations in the material’s proportions on workability was assessed by considering the relationships of slump with flow and w/b. (Figure 2 and Figure 3, respectively).
For modeling purposes, the HCP slump was presented as a function of the w/b and flow values (Figure 2 and Figure 3). The slump–flow relationship shown in Figure 2 includes different water-to-binder ratios, flow, and slump values. Figure 2 covers all mixture combinations. In Figure 1, the most suitable model was a second-order polynomial; a power model was applied in Figure 3. Details of the equation used in Figure 3 are presented in Table A7.
The workability of the final composites can be used as a common term for the fresh properties, which, more specifically, include fluidity, mobility, and compactibility. A good relationship between flow and slump was observed; the general behavior was expressed as a second-order polynomial function, as shown in Figure 2. This is similar to the general pattern given by the Portland Cement Association [126]. The linear relationship obtained by Ravina and Mehta proved inadequate for a range of slumps or flows [127,128]. Mechanical properties of paste and mortar are generally modeled by the behavior of the fresh materials, which deals with the deformation characteristics of a paste, and chemical reactions are not considered. The possibility of accumulation of water at the top surface of the cement and mortar due to fluid tension and mass of cement provides the development of shear strength. During vibration, the particles compact more efficiently at the bottom layers first, and, then, the top layers are affected. Research shows that surface tension has a significant effect on pastes especially in slump tests [77,128,129].
As the w/b increased, the slump increased as a consequence of the decrease in interparticle friction (Figure 3). The spherical shape of fly ash particles and the existence of a glassy phase on their surface considerably improved the paste structure. The paste was therefore successfully densified and the water content decreased. Conversely, the opposite can also occur, due to the lower specific gravity of fly ash compared with cement: higher fly ash contents, therefore, increase the water requirement of a paste. Some investigations showed that in the lack of water-reducing admixtures, the water-reducing effect of Class C fly ash is not as evident. In contrast to the spherical particles of fly ash, the particles of high-calcium fly ash have edges and corners and are not easy to separate. Nevertheless, when these are mixed with a water-reducing admixture, the electrical double layer increases the particle distance from each other. Surface area, free water content, and porosity remain essentially unchanged with the replacement, so this effect gradually decreases as the extent of replacement increases [130].
The replacement level of fly ash and the porosity have two governing factors in HVFA cement pastes as shown in Figure 4. The exponential function shows good agreement with the results.
The reactions between the cement and the fly ash particles are slow at room temperature but for finer and glassy fly ashes, the reactions become faster. The result is in agreement with that of Feldman [131,132,133,134,135,136].
The most significant factor that determines density is the porosity. The density of HCP is also used as a key parameter to classify the strength of the produced samples. In the initial stage of hydration, the space filler effect of fly ash but for later ages chemical reactions mostly silica and aluminate binders are predominant. The higher w/b ratio causes the reduction in strength for HVFA cement paste composites especially for fly ash replacement. Figure 5 and Figure 6 cover various w/b ratios for all the tested mixture groups. The porosity of the composites varies between 0.289 and 0.411, 0.301 and 0.412, 0.307 and 0.418 and 0.313 and 0.514 for 50 mm, 100 mm, 150 mm and 250 mm, respectively. The w/b ratio varies from 0.28 to 0.46 and the fly ash amount varies from 0% to 100%. The porosity increases by 30% for 100% fly ash replacement. However, this increase was reported as 14% for 20% fly ash amount at lower slump ranges. When the slump increases to 250 mm, the porosity increase reaches 39% for 100% fly ash mixture groups. The 100 mm slump range seems optimum and ideal for the fly ash amount of 20% and 40%. The density of HCP exhibits a power relationship with w/b, as shown in Figure 5. The higher the w/b, the lower the density and the higher the porosity of the composite (Figure 5 and Figure 6). At the longer aging time, fly ash has a double effect: it improves the pore system by decreasing the particle distance and they act as a micro-aggregate in HVFA composites [132,133,134,135,136,137].
Figure 7 and Figure 8, respectively, show the relationships of w/b and porosity to UCS and FS for the combination of all mixture groups. These Figures include the various levels of fly ash amounts and different w/b ratios. A 5–7.5% improvement was observed in all mixes at 40% fly ash replacement levels in all slump classes. A higher decrease was reported in lower slump classes when higher fly ash dosages were used. A 50% reduction in strength was reported. When a higher fly ash replacement level was chosen, the reduction in UCS and FS reached 100%. The relative decrease in UCS and FS with increasing w/b arises because the cement grains become more apart from each other and the hydration in the inner region is very slow. Not surprisingly, the binder composition affects the rate of strength gain. The high strength at later ages is the cause of enhanced pozzolanic reaction with time, causing an increase in the amount of calcium silicate hydrate (C–S–H) during the hydration process of calcium hydroxide (CH). The general behavior is illustrated in Figure 7.
HCP containing HVFA were weak at early aging times, but had enhanced strength at longer ages. Nevertheless, large replacement of cement with fly ash is usually not recommended for structural-grade cement, especially for use in flexural members, such as structural slabs. Lower early strength should, however, not be a problem in many other applications.
In HCP with a low w/b, the paste has a finer pore system. As the w/b increases, creating a coarser pore structure, the capillary resistance and strength of the paste reduce. The pore structure of a cement-based material is of great significance in considering its performance and is often used as a parameter to which the material properties are linked. Porosity has been used as a key factor to indicate the paste strength of a composite (Figure 8). In such porosity-based strength relationships, not much consideration is given to the pore structure, i.e., whether the porosity is composed of connected or disconnected voids. The w/c and hydration rate are responsible for the porosity of the matrix [66,93,97,101].
The best engineering properties are attained when most of the blended materials are closely packed. Adjusting the water content and w/b is an indirect method of fixing the volume, thus ensuring that better durability is attained. The density of HCP can be improved through the pozzolanic reaction and filler effect. This, in turn, can develop the strength of HCP composites. FS of HCP composites increases as its UCS increases. In general, the rate of increase in FS is lower than that of UCS [19,39,41,133].
For given HCP materials, the strength depends on a single factor: the ratio of water to binder (Figure 7). It was concluded that when the water content was low, it was difficult to ensure complete compaction of the mixture. Inadequate compaction of rigid HCP resulted in a large quantity of entrapped air, which caused a significant decrease in strength. Equations that have previously been suggested for the purpose of strength determination consider factors such as cement amount, proportions of aggregates, and pores in aggregates, but exclude the main term that is of any importance: i.e., the amount of water. In Figure 8, UCS is expressed as a function of porosity (UCS = a × (1 − porosity)b, where a = 61.9 and b = 3.52) [87,98,101]. Fly ash replacement increased both compressive and flexural strengths; however, cement with this extent of fly ash replacement cannot generally be used for structural-grade concrete: these higher replacement levels may instead be used for concretes where early-age strength is not needed. At a cement replacement level of 40%, the strength levels at early ages were within adequate limits and can be applicable for structural-grade concrete.

4. Cost Analysis

The major advantage of using fly ash in concrete is the reduction in cost since it is a waste product and only transportation costs apply. The current cement price in Turkey is 0.114 USD/kg and the water price is 0.0004 USD/kg. Table 3 shows the manufacturing cost of 1 m3 of cement paste mixtures used in this study (FA0C100, FA100C0, FA80C20, FA60C40, FA40C60, FA20C80) considering the current prices in Turkey. The cost for fly ash in each of the specified cement paste mixture groups is calculated in three separate distance categories: “Category A” is the distance up to 20 km, “Category B” is between 20 km and 100 km, and Category C includes the distance of more than 100 km.
The findings in Table 3 reveal the distinct difference among the costs of the cement paste mixtures including different percentages of fly ash. Since the engineering properties found for the FA60C40 and FA40C60 mixture groups are better, the cost and economic gain comparisons are carried out by using these two specific groups. Considering the cost values for FA0C100 and FA60C40, by including fly ash in the cement paste, the economic gain per meter cube of cement paste is more than USD 75 in all of the three distance categories. For the FA40C60 mixture group, the difference in cost is more than USD 50 per meter cube. The percentages of economic gain by using FA60C40 and FA40C60 instead of FA0C100 are 58% and 39%, respectively, which demonstrate the significant economic advantage of using fly ash. Considering the remarkable worldwide increase in both cement and concrete prices in recent years, the importance of using waste materials like fly ash increases even more.

5. Conclusions and Recommendations

The porosity of high-volume fly ash cement paste is greatly influenced by the replacement level and its properties. Fly ash addition or replacement improves the engineering properties of the composites by increasing the available fine particles in the system. Although a high amount of fly ash is utilized in many construction projects its use is still low. The reluctance depends on mainly due to its quality. However, there must be an action plan to overcome this for better sustainable work. The authors believe the current standards for evaluating novel binders do not adequately represent the performance of the produced materials. Their application in real-life projects may help to minimize all the worst effects of cement production. The binder and the method proposed for evaluation could be an alternative to better sustainable management of wastes for concrete mixture proportioning. Based on experimental results for 1152 samples, the following conclusions were drawn:
  • Based on strength and porosity results, a high amount of fly ash utilization in cement paste was possible when considering various workability and testing ages.
  • A 30% increase in porosity was reported for lower slump classes (i.e., 50 mm slump), while a 40% increase was obtained for higher slump classes. The porosity ranges from 17 to 22% and 27 to 32% for 40% and 60% fly ash levels, respectively.
  • When the w/b ratio changes from 28 to 38%, the porosity increases by 30%. On the other hand, this increase is 20% when the w/b ratio changes from 28% to 34%.
  • The water content and porosity are two main factors in the fresh and hardened state, respectively, which control the overall behavior of the HVFA cement paste composites. The high lime fly ash was more sensitive to the water-to-binder ratio in terms of variations in the slump and porosity.
  • A 50% decrease in compressive strength was reported for lower slump classes for higher fly ash replacement rates. However, this increase was reduced to 20% for lower replacement levels. A 20% decrease was reported in compressive strength when the fly ash level was 40%. The reduction becomes less after 56 days.
  • When the fly ash amount increases from 40% to 60%, the compressive strength reduces by 15%. On the other hand, this reduction is 10% for 20% fly ash replacement.
  • The same trend was also valid for the flexural strength. An average 10% reduction in both strengths was reported at later ages (i.e., beyond 56 days).
  • Compressive strength and durability properties of the final composites were increased by reductions in porosity; however, this improvement depended on the slump value.
  • Correlations between the workability (w/b, slump) and physical (porosity, fly ash content) and mechanical (UCS, FS) properties of cement paste composites were strongly linked, enabling novel mixtures to be designed with target slump and strength values.
  • The economic gain of using FA60C40 and FA40C60 instead of FA0C100 were 58% and 39%, respectively, which revealed the significant economic advantage of using fly ash in cement pastes.
In the present study, high lime fly ash was used, and mixture ratios are specific to this particular fly ash. The fineness of fly ash is an activating property to strengthen HVFA cement pastes; therefore, it is recommended to study fly ashes with different sizes to evaluate the microstructures of HVFA composites.

Supplementary Materials

The following supporting information can be downloaded at: https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/buildings14020373/s1.

Author Contributions

Methodology, M.E.; Validation, E.A.; Data curation, F.A.; Writing—original draft, M.E.; Writing—review & editing, M.E. and E.A.; Project administration, M.E. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors on request.

Acknowledgments

The authors greatly appreciate the assistance of Tuğçe Mani, who provided some of the materials used. The assistance of Boğaz Endüstri ve Madencilik (BEM) Ltd. in providing the laboratory materials is also greatly appreciated.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Appendix A

Table A1. Physical properties of cement paste for 50 mm slump.
Table A1. Physical properties of cement paste for 50 mm slump.
Slump (mm)Age (Days)Property100 C100 FA80 FA-20 C60 FA-40 C40 FA-60 C20 FA-80 C
507DUW19.6815.4115.716.6318.5118.38
ASG2.572.192.22.532.212.59
% Abs.16.1440.3825.6332.7313.2622.54
Porosity0.330.460.430.450.370.35
28DUW19.7414.715.7315.9718.6818.22
ASG2.552.182.422.222.212.56
% Abs.15.7938.0227.7324.813.1521.63
Porosity0.290.440.400.390.360.34
56DUW19.7714.7415.6116.2918.3518.22
ASG2.552.182.182.542.322.51
% Abs.15.9833.0122.0628.812.5120.87
Porosity0.290.410.380.350.320.31
90DUW20.0414.415.4916.46 18.618.29
ASG2.582.152.082.462.242.61
% Abs.15.7725.8621.6928.69.5119.58
Porosity0.250.360.310.300.280.26
Table A2. Physical properties of cement paste for 100 mm slump.
Table A2. Physical properties of cement paste for 100 mm slump.
Slump (mm)Age (Days)Property100 C100 FA80 FA-20 C60 FA-40 C40 FA-60 C20 FA-80 C
1007DUW20.3115.5616.0317.1417.9919.02
ASG2.632.57 2.422.422.562.62
% Abs.15.2946.3738.5729.7227.3522.86
Porosity0.290.540.490.420.410.37
28DUW20.2615.2815.516.5617.5818.79
ASG2.642.542.392.42.562.61
% Abs.12.0442.4534.8826.8825.3222.74
Porosity0.280.52 0.450.390.380.37
56DUW20.9415.0615.2616.2517.7118.92
ASG2.642.392.382.332.562.48
% Abs.14.8838.0833.3426.8822.7818.35
Porosity0.280.480.440.390.370.31
90DUW20.7414.0815.1916.7317.8918.94
ASG2.662.342.392.192.482.46
% Abs.15.0335.9320.4622.6915.0917.13
Porosity0.270.460.380.350.340.3
Table A3. Physical properties of cement paste for 150 mm slump.
Table A3. Physical properties of cement paste for 150 mm slump.
Slump (mm)Age (Days)Property100 C100 FA80 FA-20 C60 FA-40 C40 FA-60 C20 FA-80 C
1507DUW19.715.931616.7117.618.63
ASG2.692.69 2.462.572.482.54
% Abs.22.4245.6936.5735.926.1623.72
Porosity0.360.550.470.450.390.38
28DUW19.6414.9115.2516.1717.2618.27
ASG2.562.652.412.662.442.56
% Abs.1844.9433.0227.0823.0822.28
Porosity0.320.520.440.420.360.36
56DUW19.614.7215.4316.1617.5718.31
ASG2.592.472.42.362.442.56
% Abs.17.1743.2932.4928.5119.6422.55
Porosity0.310.510.440.40.340.33
90DUW19.413.8115.2616.2517.7318.63
ASG2.622.432.462.572.332.54
% Abs.11.8439.0925.4720.2818.7626.63
Porosity0.240.480.390.340.330.32
Table A4. Physical properties of cement paste for 250 mm slump.
Table A4. Physical properties of cement paste for 250 mm slump.
Slump (mm)Age (Days)Property100 C100 FA80 FA-20 C60 FA-40 C40 FA-60 C20 FA-80 C
2507DUW19.92N/A16.4516.4518.3619.04
ASG2.62N/A2.552.462.422.55
% Abs.20.79N/A34.7927.0721.2722.92
Porosity0.37N/A0.470.40.350.37
28DUW20.314.9216.0415.8818.1718.65
ASG2.532.432.462.442.462.57
% Abs.20.8642.4333.7226.6420.6922.43
Porosity0.300.510.450.380.340.33
56DUW20.3213.9316.4916.9918.3218.67
ASG2.622.482.472.332.212.6
% Abs.18.3735.332.3725.7218.1221.85
Porosity0.270.460.440.370.300.29
90DUW20.2613.4915.7416.6918.4819.03
ASG2.552.462.472.192.42.6
% Abs.20.2137.7132.9223.4519.5521.65
Porosity0.230.450.430.340.250.24
Table A5. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS) test results of cement paste.
Table A5. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS) test results of cement paste.
Slump (mm)Age (Days)100 C100 FA80 FA-20 C60 FA-40 C40 FA-60 C20 FA-80 C
250 mm UCS (MPa)715.4N/A4.29.89.011.0
2817.51.010.610.518.113.4
5618.61.114.111.119.614.8
9022.81.914.81321.115.9
150 mm UCS (MPa)77.80.11.32.37.614.2
2813.71.510.39.111.416.7
5614.92.511.59.617.622.4
9016.63.312.314.719.924.4
100 mm UCS (MPa)711.20.13.17.011.06.8
2814.61.07.116.015.013.2
5615.21.88.716.316.814.8
9016.72.315.621.217.729.8
50 mm UCS (MPa)711.43.84.37.28.17.0
2816.48.29.513.710.514.1
5616.88.512.218.717.626.0
9018.114.713.719.721.326.9
Table A6. Flexural strength (FS) test results of cement paste.
Table A6. Flexural strength (FS) test results of cement paste.
Slump (mm)Age (Days)100 C100 FA80 FA-20 C60 FA-40 C40 FA-60 C20 FA-80 C
250 mm FS (MPa)74.689N/A1.6664.0685.6415.879
287.4520.4242.1335.5067.4317.783
569.1080.7663.5196.9149.3258.001
9012.5230.9524.9787.8459.8958.632
150 mm FS (MPa)73.1890.290.7871.1703.7886.490
284.3370.9212.9814.0266.4488.518
565.5061.1283.8814.9996.8528.880
905.7441.5734.1505.6628.6019.822
100 mm FS (MPa)77.4210.341.5115.0305.3614.119
2810.6710.5283.1988.1047.0487.597
5610.9091.1183.9748.3017.4317.876
9011.1261.3874.15010.2778.6638.146
50 mm FS (MPa)76.396N/A2.6912.9505.3204.078
287.2760.4244.6064.6585.3926.386
567.8040.7665.2485.2796.1486.862
908.2080.9525.6825.3726.5008.032
Table A7. Relationship between slump and water-to-binder ratio of HVFA cement paste mixture.
Table A7. Relationship between slump and water-to-binder ratio of HVFA cement paste mixture.
GroupEquationR2Figure
100 CSlump = 4−29(w/b)20.8670.95Figure 3
80 C + 20 FASlump = 2−14(w/b)10.1570.99Figure 3
60 C + 40 FASlump = 2−16(w/b)11.560.89Figure 3
40 C + 60 FASlump = 5−14(w/b)9.730.71Figure 3
20 C + 80 FASlump = 5.02 (w/b)2 − 343.99 (w/b) + 5893.30.94Figure 3
100 FASlump = 3.89 (w/b)2 − 296.69 (w/b) + 5677.70.94Figure 3

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Figure 1. Particle size distribution of cement and Soma fly ash.
Figure 1. Particle size distribution of cement and Soma fly ash.
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Figure 2. Flow–slump relationship for a combination of all mixture groups.
Figure 2. Flow–slump relationship for a combination of all mixture groups.
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Figure 3. Slump–water-to-binder ratio (w/b) relationship.
Figure 3. Slump–water-to-binder ratio (w/b) relationship.
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Figure 4. Porosity versus fly ash (FA) percentage.
Figure 4. Porosity versus fly ash (FA) percentage.
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Figure 5. Relationship between water-to-binder ratio and porosity for the combination of all mixture groups.
Figure 5. Relationship between water-to-binder ratio and porosity for the combination of all mixture groups.
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Figure 6. Relationship between water-to-binder ratio and dry unit mass (DUM) for the combination of all mixture groups.
Figure 6. Relationship between water-to-binder ratio and dry unit mass (DUM) for the combination of all mixture groups.
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Figure 7. Relationships between water-to-binder ratio and unconfined compressive (UCS) and flexural (FS) strengths for the combination of all mixture groups.
Figure 7. Relationships between water-to-binder ratio and unconfined compressive (UCS) and flexural (FS) strengths for the combination of all mixture groups.
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Figure 8. Comparison of relationships of porosity with unconfined compressive strength (USC) and flexural strength (FS) for high-volume fly ash cement pastes.
Figure 8. Comparison of relationships of porosity with unconfined compressive strength (USC) and flexural strength (FS) for high-volume fly ash cement pastes.
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Table 1. Chemical compositions and physical properties of fly ash and cement.
Table 1. Chemical compositions and physical properties of fly ash and cement.
Characteristic and Composition (%)Soma Fly Ash (Type C)Cement
Specific gravity2.073.09
Blaine fineness (cm2/g)20623050
       SiO243.7219.24
       SiO2 (insoluble)–0.71
       Al2O320.114.12
       Fe2O35.453.49
       CaO20.7663.70
       MgO2.091.91
       SO31.822.52
       LOI *2.423.52
* loss on ignition.
Table 2. Water-to-binder ratio (w/b) of high-volume fly ash composites a.
Table 2. Water-to-binder ratio (w/b) of high-volume fly ash composites a.
GroupSlumpw/b
100% FA *500.38
1000.42
1500.44
2500.46
80% FA—20% Cement500.37
1000.39
1500.40
2500.42
60% FA—40% Cement500.35
1000.38
1500.39
2500.41
40% FA—60% Cement500.33
1000.34
1500.35
2500.37
20% FA—80% Cement500.32
1000.34
1500.36
2500.385
100% Cement500.28
1000.29
1500.295
2500.30
a All percentage values refer to % by mass, * FA: Fly ash.
Table 3. Costs for high-volume fly ash composites by the percentage of fly ash.
Table 3. Costs for high-volume fly ash composites by the percentage of fly ash.
MaterialMass Required (kg/m3)Unit Cost (USD/kg)
FA0C100FA100C0FA80C20FA60C40FA40C60FA20C80
Cement112002244486728960.114
Fly Ash (A: Up to 20 km)09807845883921960.00071
Fly Ash (B: 20–100 km)09807845883921960.00143
Fly Ash (C: 100+ km)09807845883921960.00255
Water5285285285285285280.0004
Total Cost (USD/m3)Category A127.890.9126.3051.7077.10102.49
Category B127.891.6126.8752.1277.38102.64
Category C127.892.7127.7552.7877.82102.86
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Egemen, M.; Ali, F.; Aydin, E. An Approach to Mixture Design and Cost Analysis for Cement Pastes Composed of Class C Fly Ashes for Better Sustainable Construction. Buildings 2024, 14, 373. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14020373

AMA Style

Egemen M, Ali F, Aydin E. An Approach to Mixture Design and Cost Analysis for Cement Pastes Composed of Class C Fly Ashes for Better Sustainable Construction. Buildings. 2024; 14(2):373. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14020373

Chicago/Turabian Style

Egemen, Mehmedali, Farhad Ali, and Ertug Aydin. 2024. "An Approach to Mixture Design and Cost Analysis for Cement Pastes Composed of Class C Fly Ashes for Better Sustainable Construction" Buildings 14, no. 2: 373. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14020373

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