CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to research

Concrete is the most commonly used building material throughout the world. It is a mixture of different ingredients such as cement, coarse aggregate, fine aggregate and water. The individual properties of each ingredient have substantial influence on the properties of concrete. Out of these ingredients, cement acts as a bonding material for other ingredients. Manufacturing of cement consists of two main phases. First phase consists of intergrinding raw materials viz. lime, silica, alumina and iron oxide, mixing them directly in certain proportions and blazing in a large revolving kiln at a temperature up to about 1450 0C. The material melts and fuses into small balls having diameter 3 to 25 mm. These balls are called clinker. In second phase, clinker is cooled and grinding is done in large tube mills, which are kept cool by spraying water on them from outside. While grinding the clinker, three to four percent gypsum (calcium sulphate) is added so as to control the setting time of cement. Finely ground cement is temporarily kept in silos from where it is drawn for packing. Fineness of cement has great influence on the properties of plastic and set concrete. Various researchers conducted detailed investigations on the effect of blaine fineness of cement on properties of mortar and concrete. However, the trend of locally manufactured cements by using indigenous materials is still an area to be investigated. It is generally believed by cement manufacturers in Pakistan that fineness of cement increases its strength and workability. Hence in a competititive environment, they tend to increase the fineness of cement without empirical evidence, which leads to increase the manufacturing cost of cement and subsequent sale price. At the same time, it has also been proved that gain in compressive strength ceases at high fineness values. Therefore, due to increased grinding effort, manufacturing cost of cement increases without any significant gain in compressive strength. The main aim of this research is to optimize the relationships between grinding cost and compressive strength as well as workability with special reference to major brands/types of cement available in Pakistan. Keeping in view the Pakistani environment and practical importance, this work was concentrated on influence of blaine fineness of cement on the compressive strength of mortar and concrete. Opportunity was also taken to see this effect on workability of concrete and consistency as well 2

as setting time of cement. The optimum value of fineness recommended in this research will be very helpful for cement factories to have a balance between desirable properties of cement and its grinding cost. This will be helpful in economizing the construction cost and overall construction industry in Pakistan. The research results will also help the construction practitioners and researchers to select the appropriate level of fineness of cement for the required workability and compressive strength at different projects and climatic conditions in Pakistan. The comparative analysis of the fineness values of the cement proposed by various traditional building codes and its effect in cement/concrete properties will provide useful data for future research.

1.2 Pakistans cement industry

The cement industry in Pakistan has grown steadily over time. At the time of freedom in 1947, there were only 4 cement factories with a total output of nearly 0.5 million tons. By 1972, the number of cement factories increased to 14 and the total output also increased to 2.5 million ton but this pace could not be continued in parallel with the countrys financial growth. Both Government and private sectors worked on proposals to set up new factories. Following the new policy of the Government of Pakistan, cement industry was also nationalized along other industries in 1972 and the State Cement Corporation of Pakistan (SCCP) was constituted and given the responsibility of production of cement in the country. Taking into account the high cement demand as compared to supply, cement import was also allowed in financial year (FY) 76-77 and continued until FY 94-95. With a change in strategy of Government control over industrial units, the nationalized cement factories were put up for privatization along with other factories. The private sector was allowed to take over cement manufacturing. As a result, the role of SCCP as market leader went astray gradually and at present it owns only four factories, of which two have been closed down due to effectiveness and productivity issues. In view of the high demand during the period of free economic policy, a number of new plants were set up and many others introduced great extensions to increase their existing output. After FY 2002-03, most of the cement manufacturers extended their operations and increased output. This sector has invested about US$ 1.5 billion in scope development over the last six years. The past data of Pakistans cement production from 2000-2009 is given in Table 1.1. 3

Table 1.1: Historical data from 2000-2009: Pakistans cement industry (Munir 2009)
July to June 2000 2001 2001 2002 2002 2003 2003 2004 2004 2005 2005 2006 2006 2007 2007 2008 2008 2009 Productio n Capacity (Million ton) 15.534 Increase (%) Local Dispatches (Million ton) 9.993 Increase/ Decrease (%) -0.04 Exports (Million ton) Increase/ Decrease (%) 0.00 Total Dispatches (Million ton) 9.933 Increase/ Decrease (%) -0.04 Capacity Utilization (%) 63.95 Surplus Capacity (Million ton) 5.600

-5.16

15.723

1.22

9.833

-1.01

0.107

100.00

9.940

0.06

63.22

5.783

16.321 16.936 17.909 20.955 30.251 37.151 41.760

3.81 3.77 5.75 17.01 44.36 22.83 12.39

10.980 12.545 14.788 16.907 21.034 22.596 19.394

11.66 14.25 17.88 14.33 24.41 7.30 -14.07

0.430 1.160 1.565 1.505 3.188 7.717 11.381

303.60 169.52 34.95 -3.83 111.83 142.02 47.48

11.410 13.705 16.353 18.412 24.223 30.286 30.775

14.80 20.11 19.33 12.59 31.56 25.03 1.61

69.91 80.92 91.32 87.87 80.07 81.51 73.69

4.911 3.231 1.555 2.543 6.028 6.871 10.986

The cement industry in Pakistan is separated into two broad categories based on the northern and southern regions. There are 29 cement plants registered in the country having an installed production output of 44.07 million ton. Of these, 19 units are located in the north with an installed production output of 35.18 million ton (80%) while 10 units are located in the south with an installed production output of 8.89 million ton (20%). There are four foreign groups, three army based groups and 16 private groups listed in the stock exchanges. By the end of 2010, after extension and establishment of new units, the total annual output is expected to be around 51 million ton (Munir 2009) Due to unavailability of sufficient funds for Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) during 1990 to 2002 period, owing to political instability the average growth rate of cement industry declined. The period from 2003 to 2009 has been a golden age for the Pakistan 4

construction and cement industry. During this period, the industry has shown tremendous growth. The boost in the cement sector was initially due to increased construction activities in Pakistan, reconstruction and rehabilitation of earthquaked areas, rehabilitation activities in the neighboring Afghanistan and, later tremendous increase in exports of cement from Pakistan. In Pakistan the Cement Research Centre (CRC) was established at Lahore in 1984 under the supervision of Ministry of Production Pakistan. It was later on given the name as Cement Research and Development Institute (CR&DI). Latest equipments helpful in cement research were imported by the institute in this regard. Qualified engineers and scientists were employed to give latest inputs in this field to improve quality and economy in cement industry of Pakistan. However, this institute gradually ceased its research activities in the last decade of 20th century when cement industry was gradually switched from state control to private sector. Currently, this institute has practically no contribution in the research activities of cement industry. Most of the staff has left the institute and costly equipment purchased at that time has become out of order and thus obsolete. Due to lack of research and development activities in the cement manufacturing industry of Pakistan in one hand and shortage of qualified material scientists on the other hand, very little research has been carried out on the use of indigenous materials as cement substitutes. This research will help in filling this knowledge gap at local level.

1.3 Aims and objectives of the research

1. To investigate the variation in physical properties of cement from different factories in Pakistan; 2. To study the variation in chemical and compound composition of cement from different factories in Pakistan; and 3. To evaluate the influence of variation in chemical and compound composition of cement on workability and compressive strength of concrete. 4. To compare the fineness of cement from selected factories with the range specified by various building codes around the world and its relative merits and demerits. 5

5. To recommend the appropriate level of cement fineness for the desired workability and compressive strengths of concrete for various projects and climatic conditions. 6. The reduction in production cost of cement due to optimized study regarding clinker grinding. This study is limited to the investigation of the effects of variation on workability and compressive strength of concrete cast by cements from selected factories. However, it is important to study other physical properties namely, dimensional stability and transport properties of concrete. It also necessary to evaluate the durability properties of concrete containing cement from different sources. Nevertheless, findings from this research should provide a strategy to consider cement from different factories in concrete production, but it is not intended that the findings are applied to each factory without considering the variability of the cement.

1.4 Scope of the research work

The scope of work involves preparation of cement samples with different fineness values by laboratory grinding of clinkers collected from different cement factories and ultimately conduction of the following tests: (a) Cement Tests i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. Chemical composition determination by XRF-cement spectroscopy. TGA/DTA tests Heat of hydration Setting time Consistency Compressive strength of mortar cubes

(b) Concrete Tests i. ii. Sieve analysis of coarse aggregate Sieve analysis of fine aggregate 6

iii. iv.

Slump test Compressive strength of concrete cubes

1.5 Methodology/Program
Research work was conducted in two phases. In first phase, clinker was collected from selected batches of the following five factory: 1- Bestway Cement Factory Hattar, Haripur. 2- Fecto Cement Factory Sangjani Islamabad. 3- Pioneer Cement Factory Joherabad Khushab. 4- Askari Cement Factory Nizampur, Noushehra 5- DG Cement Factory Dera Ghazi Khan In order to avoid any impact on their business interests and fulfill the requisite research ethics, these factories have been randomly named as A, B, C, D, and E. Samples of different blaine/fineness values were prepared from clinkers collected from these factories and physical and chemical tests already mentioned in section 1.4 were performed. Methods of preparation of samples for different tests are explained in detail in Chapter 3 and results, thus, obtained are presented, analyzed and discussed in detail in Chapter 4. In second phase of research work, the trend of increase in compressive strength of mortar & concrete cubes with increasing blaine/fineness was further explored by collecting samples of five different practical blaine values, directly from sampling point of the grinding mill of an industrial plant. After performing routine physical tests, hydration studies were carried out with the help of DTA/TGA tests on the pastes prepared from plant collected samples. Heat of hydration for samples was also measured. Again method of preparation of samples for DTA/TGA tests is explained in detail in Chapter 3 and results, thus, obtained are presented, analyzed and discussed in detail in Chapter 4. The samples collected from industrial plant augmented our studies done on laboratory prepared samples in phase one.

1.6 Outline of the thesis

The second chapter of the thesis is on literature review. In this chapter, the manufacturing process of cement, chemical and compound composition of cement and hydration of cement reported in the literature are reviewed, in order to achieve a good understanding of the background information on cement. The properties of concrete (workability and compressive strength) are also reviewed in this chapter. The third chapter introduces various stages of the experimental program and describes the test methods/techniques used during the course of this research. Detailed description of the methods adopted in preparing the test samples including casting, curing and conditioning of samples are also described in this chapter. In the fourth chapter, the results have been discussed. This is done under three headings: (i) Variation in physical properties of cement, (ii) Variation in chemical and compound composition of cement and (iii) Effect of variation in cement on properties of concrete. The fifth chapter draws together the main conclusions from this research work and gives recommendations for future research.