Influence of Bottom Ashes with Different Water Retainabilities on Properties of Expansive Mortars and Expansive Concretes

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of bottom ashes with different water retainabilities as an internal curing material on the performances of mixtures containing an expansive additive and fly ash. Two series of experiments were conducted: mortar containing expansive agent (expansive mortar) with a controlled w/b ratio and concrete containing expansive agent (expansive concrete) with a controlled initial slump. Test results indicate that workability of expansive mortar is improved due to retained water of bottom ash. Compressive strength of expansive mortar with bottom ash decreases. Total shrinkage of the expansive mortars, with a constant w/b, increases with the use of bottom ashes that have high water retainability in the condition of 7 days of water curing and then air curing. However, by using bottom ashes, compressive strength increases when the slump of the expansive concrete is controlled due to decrease of w/b ratio. The internal curing ability of bottom ashes leads to enhanced expansion of expansive mortars with sealed curing and expansive concretes with moist curing, reducing total shrinkage of expansive mortars with air curing. It was found by DTG analysis that expansive concretes with higher expansion containing bottom ash with higher water retainability had a higher amount of ettringite.