Received: 17 December 2019 Revised: 3 June 2020 Accepted: 28 July 2020

DOI: 10.1002/suco.201900549

TECHNICAL PAPER

Influence of curing temperature on the mechanical

properties and microstructure of limestone
powder mass concrete

Weizhun Jin1 | Linhua Jiang1 | Lin Han1 | Lei Chen1 | Xiancui Yan2 |
1
Chen Chen

1
College of Mechanics and Materials,
Hohai University, Nanjing, China Abstract
2
College of Civil and Transportation This study investigates the influence of different percentages: 10, 30, and 50%
Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, of limestone powder (LS) and different curing temperatures: 50, 20, and 5
C
China
on mechanical properties and microstructure of mass concrete. The micro-
Correspondence structure is studied by X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric, and scanning elec-
Linhua Jiang, College of Mechanics and tron microscopy. The results show that the mechanical strength of concrete
Materials, Hohai University, Nanjing
210098, China.
gradually decreases with the increase of LS. Curing temperature 50
C
Email: hhulhjiang@163.com enhances mechanical strength of LS concrete at ages of 3 and 7 days, but
slightly reduces that at age of 28 days. While curing temperature 5
C signifi-
Funding information
National Key Research and Development
cantly reduces the mechanical strength at ages of 3, 7, and 28 days. The micro-
Program of China, Grant/Award structure results indicate that LS has weak chemical effect and can participate
Numbers: 2016YFC0401610, in cement hydration. Different curing temperatures can significantly influence
2018YFC1508704
the hydration products and microstructure of LS composite cement pastes.

KEYWORDS
cement hydration, limestone powder, mechanical properties, microstructure

1 | INTRODUCTION strength of concrete, the cracks are formed.1–3 The forma-

In recent years, with the widespread application of fly
ash, slag powder, silica fume, and other mineral admix-
tures in concrete, traditional mineral admixtures have
shown a trend of insufficient sources. In some areas there
are not enough mineral admixtures to replace cement for
concrete engineering. Furthermore, in mass concrete
engineering, such as reservoir dam, high-rise building
foundation, and so on, cement hydration produces a lot
of heat and increases the internal temperature. Due to
the low thermal conductivity of concrete, the increasing
temperature results in a thermal gap between the inside
and outside of the mass concrete structure. Because of
the restraint conditions of the inside and outside of the
mass concrete structure, the thermal gap leads to the ten-
sile stress. When the tensile stress reaches the tensile
tion of cracks leads to the deterioration of concrete
strength, durability, and other properties, especially in
harsh environments. Reducing the hydration heat is an
urgent problem for mass concrete. Therefore, it is urgent
to develop new concrete mineral admixtures to alleviate
the existing problems in mass concrete. Limestone pow-
der (LS) which is rich in resources, widely distributed,
easy to be grinded into powder, and reducing the hydra-
tion heat of mass concrete has received more and more
attention in recent years.4–9
At present, the study of LS in concrete has received
some achievements.10–15 Gyu et al.16 studies on the
effects of the fineness and replacement of LS on the
hydration and strength properties of concrete. The results
show that the addition of LS accelerates cement hydra-
tion by providing nucleation sites for the hydration

Structural Concrete. 2020;e201900549. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/suco © 2020 fib. International Federation for Structural Concrete 1 of 11
https://doi.org/10.1002/suco.201900549
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products, and the fineness of cement and LS strongly influ-
ence the hydration reaction and the strength development.
Ramezanianpour et al.17 investigates the influence of vari-
ous amounts of LS which are 0, 5, 10 15, and 20% on perfor-
mance of Portland limestone cement concretes. The results
indicate that the Portland limestone cement concretes hav-
ing up to 10% limestone provide competitive properties with
PC concretes. Bonavetti et al.18 investigates the effect of
limestone filler (up to 20%) on the degree of hydration and
the results show that an increase in the degree of hydration
in very low w/cm ratio paste when the limestone filler con-
tent is increased. Furthermore, temperature has a signifi-
cant effect on cement hydration. Curing temperature is
closely related to the development of hydration kinetics and
strength of cement. High curing temperature is accompa-
nied with the increase of hydration rate, while low curing
temperature will decrease the hydration rate, thereby affect-
ing the development of cement strength.19–21 Moreover,
when LS is mixed into concrete, LS concrete will show dif-
ferent properties under different temperature conditions.
Vratislav et al.22 studies on the early-stage hydration heat
characteristics of 80% Portland cement and 20% of lime-
stone under 20 and 35
C which indicates that temperature
has a great influence on Portland-limestone cement hydra-
tion. Weerdt et al.23 investigates the effect of curing temper-
atures (5, 20, and 40
C) on the development of mechanical
properties on pastes and mortars prepared with fly ash-
limestone Portland composite cements. The results show
that the replacement of 5% of the OPC or fly ash by LS did
not impair the strength at 5 and 20
C, but lowered strength
slightly at 40
C for the fly ash blended cements.
Mass concrete structure in different areas will face
different temperature conditions during the building
stage, thus temperature will have a significant impact on
the structural performance of mass concrete, especially
during the curing stage. Furthermore, due to the high
internal temperature caused by cement hydration, mass
concrete can often reach more than 50
C,24–26 hence it is
particularly important to reduce the internal temperature
and study the mechanical properties of concrete in the
environment above 50
C. In addition, mass concrete has
the characteristics of high water cement ratio and large
amount of concrete, thus it needs more mineral admix-
tures to save the cement. Therefore, the study on the
influence of LS on cement hydration under different tem-
peratures has great significance on the application of LS
in mass concrete. In this paper, the effect of different per-
centages: 10, 30, and 50% of LS on mechanical properties
and microstructure of mass concrete under different cur-
ing temperatures: 50, 20, and 5
C was studied. Mean-
while, the microstructure was characterized by X-ray
diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric (TG), and scanning
electron microscopy (SEM).
JIN ET AL.
2 | EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
2.1 | Materials
The cement used in this experiment is ordinary Portland
cement (OPC) obtained from Anhui Conch Cement Co.,
Ltd. LS supplied by Shanghai Yuanjiang chemical Co.,
Ltd. Fine aggregate is a continuous gradation for medium
sand. Coarse aggregate is continuous graded gravel with
particle size of 5–20 mm. Superplasticizer (SP) is subote
high performance polycarboxylic acid superplasticizer.
Tables 1 and 2 show the chemical compositions of
cement and LS respectively, determined by XRF.
2.2 | Specimens preparation
The mixture proportions are given in Table 3. The percent-
ages of LS in this study are 10, 30, and 50% by weight of
total binder. The water to binder ratio of mixtures is
set 0.45.
The LS concrete with different mix proportions was
poured into 100 × 100 × 100 mm cube molds to test the
compressive strength and splitting tensile strength at differ-
ent ages. Meanwhile, the LS concrete was poured into
100 × 100 × 300 mm prism molds to test the axial compres-
sive strength. Then, the concrete samples were cured under
different curing temperatures: 50, 20, and 5
C to test the
influence of curing temperatures on mechanical properties
of LS concrete.
The LS composite cement pastes with different mix
proportions were prepared as shown in Table 4. The LS
composite cement pastes used the same water to binder
ratio as concrete and cured under the same temperatures
and ages as concrete to conduct XRD, TG, and SEM tests.
2.3 | Test methods
XRD tests were conducted on the different mix propor-
tion samples under different temperatures and ages. The
collected small pieces of composite cement pastes were
first immersed in alcohol to stop the cement hydration.
Then the samples were dried in oven at 50
C for 24 hr
and broken up into powders. XRD measurements were
performed using a diffractometer (SmartLab 9 kW)
equipment and using Kb-filtered Cu Kα radiation and
operating at 40 kV and 40 mA. Step scanning was made
from 5
to 60
using a step interval of 0.02
and a scan
speed of 10
/min.
The TG analysis was performed on the sample pow-
ders which are the same as that used in the XRD tests by
using Mettler TGADSC3 + 1600HT. The samples were
JIN ET AL. 3 of 11

TABLE 1 Chemical compositions of cement

Chemical component CaO SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 SO3 MgO K2O L.O.I.
Content (wt%) 62.83 20.50 5.61 3.84 3.07 1.70 1.31 1.14

TABLE 2 Chemical compositions of LS

Chemical component CaO MgO SiO2 Al2O3 L.O.I.

Content (wt%) 37.06 13.97 0.52 0.15 48.3

Abbreviation: LS, limestone powder.

TABLE 3 Mix proportions of concrete with different percentages of LS

Specimens w/b ratio Binder Cement (kg) LS (kg) Sand (kg) Gravel (kg) Water (kg) SP (kg)
OPC 0.45 360 360 0 657 1,221 162 3.6
LS10 0.45 360 324 36 657 1,221 162 3.6
LS30 0.45 360 252 108 657 1,221 162 3.6
LS50 0.45 360 180 180 657 1,221 162 3.6

Abbreviations: LS, limestone powder; OPC, ordinary Portland cement; SP, superplasticizer.

T A B L E 4 Mix proportions of composite cement pastes with

gradually decreases with the increasing replacement of
different percentages of LS
LS. Take 7 days as an example, the compressive strength
Proportions (wt%) of OPC is 40.9 MPa. When the replacement of LS is
Samples w/b Cement LS
10, 30, and 50%, the compressive strength of concrete is
34.7, 27.6, and 20.2 MPa, which has reduced by 15.2,
P-OPC 0.45 100 0
32.5, and 50.6% compared with OPC. Furthermore, 10%
P-LS10 0.45 90 10 LS replacement has little influence on the compressive
P-LS30 0.45 70 30 strength which is close to that of OPC, especially at
P-LS50 0.45 50 50 28 days. The results above are similar to other research.
Alessandra et al.27 investigates the effect of LS substitu-
Abbreviations: LS, limestone powder; OPC, ordinary Portland
cement. tion on mechanical properties. The results show that
cement replacement by LS decreases the compressive
heated over a range of 30–900
C, at a constant rate of strength and compressive strength reduces by 33.71% on
10
C/min in a nitrogen atmosphere. 30% LS addition which is similar to 32.5% in this paper.
The microstructure morphology of composite cement Ramezanianpour et al.17 also studies the influence of var-
pastes cured for 28 days under different temperatures was ious amounts of LS on performance of Portland lime-
tested by SEM. The composite cement pastes were first bro- stone cement concretes and the research results show
ken up into small cubes and immersed in alcohol to stop that 10% LS replacement is not significant in compressive
the cement hydration. Then the samples were dried in oven strength reduction which is consistent with the results in
at 50
C for 24 hr. After coating with gold, the SEM images this paper.
of samples were obtained by using FEI quanta 250F. Figure 1b,c respectively show the splitting tensile
strength and axial compressive strength of concrete with
different percentages of LS under curing temperature
3 | R E SUL T S 20
C. The variation of splitting tensile strength and axial
compressive strength with the percentages of LS is simi-
3.1 | Influence of LS content on lar to that of compressive strength. With the increasing
mechanical strength of concrete replacement of LS, the splitting tensile strength and axial
compressive strength decreases gradually. Moreover, 10%
Figure 1a shows the compressive strength of concrete LS replacement has little influence on the splitting tensile
with different percentages of LS under curing tempera- strength and axial compressive strength which is close to
ture 20
C. The compressive strength of concrete that of OPC.
4 of 11 JIN ET AL.

3.2 | Influence of curing temperature on

mechanical properties of LS concrete

Figure 2a presents the compressive strength of concrete with

30% LS under different curing temperatures. At ages of 3 and
7 days, the compressive strength of 50
C is higher than that of
20
C, while 5
C is much lower than that of 20
C. Take 3 days
as an example, the compressive strength is 24.6 and 13.7 MPa
under 50 and 5
C. Compared with 20
C which is 22.9 MPa,
the compressive strength under 50
C increases by 7.4%, while
under 5
C decreases by 40.2%. However, at age of 28 days, the
compressive strength under 50 and 5
C is 33.5 and 24.1 MPa.
Compared with 20
C which is 34 MPa, the compressive
strength under 50
C decreases by 1.5%, while under 5
C
decreases by 29.1%. Therefore, it can be seen that curing tem-
perature 50
C can increase compressive strength of LS concrete
at ages of 3 and 7 days but decrease that at age of 28 days.
While curing temperature 5
C decreases the compressive
strength of LS concrete at ages of 3, 7, and 28 days. The results
above are similar to other research. Barbar et al.21 studies the
effect of temperature on the properties of Portland cement pas-
tes. The results also show that strength development at 5
C is
initially very slow, while at temperatures above room tempera-
ture, strength development is faster. Escalante-García et al.28
investigates the effect of temperature on the hydration of the
Portland cement. The results show that the development of
compressive strength under 10
C at early age is lower than that
under 20 and 40
C. The compressive strength under 40
C is
higher than that under 20
C at early age, while the compres-
sive strength under 40
C is lower than that under 20
C at later
age which is consistent with the result in this paper.
Figure 2b,c, respectively, show the splitting tensile
strength and axial compressive strength of concrete with
30% LS under different curing temperatures: 50, 20, and
5
C. At ages of 3 and 7 days, the splitting tensile strength
and axial compressive strength under 50
C are higher than
that of 20
C, while 5
C is lower than that of 20
C. How-
ever, at age of 28 days, the splitting tensile strength, and
axial compressive strength of 50
C develop a slightly lower
than that of 20
C, while 5
C is still much lower than that of
20
C. Therefore, it can be seen that curing temperature
50
C can increase the splitting tensile strength and axial
compressive strength of LS concrete at ages of 3 and 7 days
but decrease those at age of 28 days. While curing tempera-
ture 5
C decreases the splitting tensile strength and axial
compressive strength at ages of 3, 7, and 28 days. This is
consistent with the compressive strength of LS concrete.
F I G U R E 1 The mechanical strength of concrete under curing
temperature 20
C with different percentages of LS: (a) Compressive
strength; (b) Splitting tensile strength; (c) Axial compressive
3.3 | X-ray diffraction analyses strength. LS, limestone powder

Figure 3 shows the XRD patterns of samples P-OPC, P- temperature 20
C. The principal hydration products of
LS10, P-LS30, and P-LS50 at age of 28 days under curing composite cement pastes are calcium hydroxide(Ca[OH]2),
JIN ET AL.
F I G U R E 2 The mechanical strength of concrete with 30% LS
under different curing temperatures: (a) Compressive strength;
(b) Splitting tensile strength; (c) Axial compressive strength. LS,
limestone powder
5 of 11
F I G U R E 3 XRD patterns of composite cement pastes with
different percentages of LS cured for 28 days under curing
temperature 20
C. (CH: calcium hydroxide; E: ettringite; C:
calcium carbonate; D: dolomite; Mc: calcium
monocarboaluminate). LS, limestone powder; XRD, X-ray
diffraction
ettringite(AFt), and calcium monocarboaluminate and so
on.6,7,21 It can be obviously seen that a large amount of
Ca(OH)2 is formed in all samples. With the increasing replace-
ment of LS, the content of Ca(OH)2 gradually decreases. More-
over, all the composite cement pastes contain calcium
carbonate (CaCO3), which is especially strong peak evident in
the P-LS30 and P-LS50. The amount of CaCO3 presenting in
the composite cement pastes is attributed to the unreacted
CaCO3. Furthermore, strong characteristic peak of dolomite
can be observed in the P-LS10, P-LS30, and P-LS50. It is attrib-
uted to the unreacted dolomite in the LS corresponding with
the chemical composition of LS.8 In addition, with the
increase of LS, the content of calcium monocarboaluminate
slightly increases indicating that LS has chemical effect and
can participate in cement hydration.
Figure 4 presents the XRD patterns of sample LS30 at
age of 28 days cured under different curing temperatures:
50, 20, and 5
C. It can be seen that XRD patterns of princi-
pal hydration products are essentially similar to each other
indicating that the principal hydration products are almost
the same under three curing temperatures. Moreover, the
peak of Ca(OH)2 is obviously lower under 5
C than that
under 20 and 50
C, while the peak of Ca(OH)2 is almost
the same under 20 and 50
C. This result indicates that 5
C
hinders the cement hydration reaction, while the cement
hydration under 50 and 20
C is almost the same.
Figure 5 shows the XRD patterns of samples LS30 under
curing temperature 20
C at different ages. With the increase
of ages, the amount of Ca(OH)2 gradually increases indicat-
ing the deepening of cement hydration. Moreover, the
6 of 11
FIGURE 4 XRD patterns of composite cement pastes
containing LS for 30% at age of 28 days under different curing
temperatures. (CH: calcium hydroxide; E: ettringite; C: calcium
carbonate; D, dolomite; Mc: calcium monocarboaluminate). LS,
limestone powder; XRD, X-ray diffraction
F I G U R E 5 XRD patterns of composite cement pastes
containing LS for 30% under curing temperature 20
C at different
ages. (CH: calcium hydroxide; E: ettringite; C: calcium carbonate;
D: dolomite; Mc: calcium monocarboaluminate). LS, limestone
powder; XRD, X-ray diffraction
growth of calcium monocarboaluminate with ages further
indicates that LS has chemical effect and participates in
cement hydration. However, the strong peak of CaCO3 and
the weak peak of calcium monocarboaluminate indicate that
only a small amount of LS can participate in cement
hydration.
3.4 | Thermogravimetry
The TG curves of the composite cement pastes with dif-
ferent percentages of LS at age of 28 days under curing
JIN ET AL.
F I G U R E 6 TG curves of composite cement pastes with
different percentages of LS at age of 28 days under curing
temperature 20
C. LS, limestone powder; TG, thermogravimetric
temperature 20
C are shown in Figure 6. The results show
that there are three major mass loss stages of composite
cement pastes. The first major mass loss can be observed at
the temperature range up to 200
C which mainly due to the
decomposition of hydrated calcium silicate(C-S-H) and
AFt.29 The second major mass loss stage can be detected at
400–500
C, corresponding to the dehydroxylation of
Ca(OH)2.30 Calculated from the TG results, with the increas-
ing percentages of LS, the mass loss of Ca(OH)2 decreases.
When the replacement of LS is respectively 0, 10, 30, and
50%, the mass loss of Ca(OH)2 is 3.78, 3.60, 2.94, and 2.61%.
This indicates that the increase of LS leads to the decrease of
cement resulting in the decrease of hydration products. The
third major mass loss can be observed at 600–820
C,
corresponding to the decarbonation of CaCO3.31 It can be
obviously found that the mass loss of CaCO3 increases with
the increasing percentages of LS. When the replacement of
LS is, respectively, 0, 10, 30, and 50%, the mass loss of CaCO3
is 3.24, 6.08, 13.89, and 21.53%. This indicates that most LS
cannot participate in the cement hydration.
The TG curves of composite cement pastes contain LS
for 30% at age of 28 days under different curing tempera-
tures: 50, 20, and 5
C are shown in Figure 7. The TG cur-
ves are different when the composite cement pastes are
cured under different curing temperatures. At first mass
loss stage, compared with the composite cement pastes
cured under 20
C, the mass loss is almost the same as
50
C, while the mass loss is very small at 5
C. This indi-
cates that 50
C has the same effect as 20
C on cement
hydration, while 5
C hinders the cement hydration. In
addition, the mass loss of CaCO3 under 5, 20, and 50
C is
14.63, 14.09, and 14.15% respectively indicating that 5
C
hinders the reaction between CaCO3 and calcium alumi-
nate, while 50
C has almost the same effect as 20
C on
this reaction.
JIN ET AL.
F I G U R E 7 TG curves of composite cement pastes containing
LS for 30% at age of 28 days under different curing temperatures.
LS, limestone powder; TG, thermogravimetric
F I G U R E 8 TG curves of composite cement pastes containing
LS for 30% under curing temperature 20
C at different ages. LS,
limestone powder; TG, thermogravimetric
The TG curves of the composite cement pastes con-
taining LS for 30% under curing temperature 20
C at dif-
ferent ages are shown in Figure 8. With the increase of
ages, the mass loss of the composite cement pastes in the
first and second stages increases corresponding to the
increase of hydration products. Moreover, the mass loss
of CaCO3 at ages of 3, 7, and 28 days is 14.17, 14.03, and
13.89% indicating that a small amount of LS participates
in the cement hydration resulting in the reduction of LS.
3.5 | SEM images and analysis
Figure 9 presents the SEM images of composite cement
pastes with different percentages of LS at age of 28 days
7 of 11
under different temperatures. Figure 9a–d shows the
morphology of composite cement pastes with different
percentages of LS at age of 28 days under curing tem-
perature 20
C. Figure 9a is the SEM image of P-OPC.
The cement hydration produces more needle bar AFt
and network-like C-S-H crossing and bonding with
each other to strengthen the structure of cement stone
and increase the compressive strength.5 When the
replacement of LS is 10%, as shown in Figure 9b, C-S-H
gels and Ca(OH)2 generated around CaCO3 indicating
that LS plays a nucleation role. As can be observed in
the composite cement paste P-LS30 (As shown in
Figure 9c), cement hydration produces a small amount
of C-S-H, and the gels are surrounded by a large
amount of CaCO3. When the replacement of LS is 50%
(As shown in Figure 9d), C-S-H is rare and a large
amount of CaCO3 can be found. From above, it can be
seen that, the C-S-H gradually decreases with the
increasing replacement of LS. However, when the
replacement of LS is 10%, the cement hydration cannot
be greatly affected. This result is also consistent with
the mechanical strength tests.
Figure 9c,e,f show the SEM images of composite
cement pastes P-LS30 at age of 28 days under differ-
ent curing temperatures: 20, 50, and 5
C. Comparing
Figure 9c with 9e, it can be seen that the hydration
products are very similar. A small amount of C-S-H
is observed in the gap among CaCO 3 . Hence, 50
C
has almost the same impact on cement hydration as
20
C. Comparing Figure 9c with 9f, it can be seen
that under 5
C, C-S-H is rare and just a small amount
of AFt can be found. Therefore, 5
C decreases the
hydration rate and has a great impact on cement
hydration.
4 | DISCUSSION
LS content has the significant influence on the cement
hydration. Replacing part of cement with LS can play sev-
eral physical effects such as filler effect, dilution effect, and
heterogeneous nucleation.18,32 LS can act as nucleation sites
of calcium hydroxide crystals in cement hydration,33 accel-
erating the hydration of clinker particles and resulting in
the acceleration of strength.18,34,35 Furthermore, LS has
chemical effect which can participate in cement
hydration.36–38 CaCO3 from LS can react with the mono-
sulfate ((CaO)3(Al2O3)CaSO412H2O) or calcium aluminate
hydrate (CaO)3(Al2O3)6H2O) to form calcium mon-
ocarboaluminate (3CaOAl2O3CaCO311H2O).21,36,37,39 This
is consistent with the results in Sections 3.3 and 3.4. The
chemical reaction equations are as follows40–42:
8 of 11
F I G U R E 9 The SEM images of composite cement pastes: (a) P-LS0-20
C; (b) P-LS10-20
C; (c) P-LS30-20
C; (d) P-LS50-20
C; (e) P-
LS30-50
C; (f) P-LS30-5
C. SEM, scanning electron microscopy
3ðCaOÞ3 ðAl2 O3 Þ  CaSO4  12H2 O + 2CaCO3 + 18H2 O
! 2ðCaOÞ3 ðAl2 O3 Þ  CaCO3  11H2 O + ðCaOÞ3 ðAl2 O3 Þ
 3CaSO4  32H2 O
ðCaOÞ3 ðAl2 O3 Þ  6H2 O + CaCO3 + 5H2 O
! ðCaOÞ3 ðAl2 O3 Þ  CaCO3  11H2 O
Meanwhile, ettringite will be prevented from conver-
ting to single sulfur hydrated calcium sulphoaluminate
which can enhance the compactness of hydration prod-
ucts resulting in an increase in mechanical strength.38,43–45
However, due to the limited aluminate content in OPC,
just a small amount of calcium monocarboaluminate can
be found. Hence, the LS participating in cement hydration
is very small and most LS is remained. Moreover, due to
the decrease of cement, the main hydration products, such
as C-S-H and calcium hydroxide, have a certain amount
reduction resulting in mechanical strength reduction.
Therefore, when the LS replacement is 10%, the mechani-
cal strength is just a little lower than that of OPC, while a
large amount of LS replacement can significantly decrease
the mechanical strength.
Curing temperature has a great influence on the per-
formance of concrete. Under curing temperature 50
C,
the initial hydration products formed rapidly and
unevenly distributed which results in coarse porosity
and lower mechanical strength at age of 28 days. Under
curing temperature 20
C, the hydration rate decreases,
JIN ET AL.
giving dissolved ions more time to diffuse before the
hydrate precipitates. This leads to the formation of
cement pastes with more even distribution of hydrate
ð1Þ phase reducing the coarse porosity and improving the
mechanical strength.28,46,47 But curing temperature 5
C
significantly hinders the formation of cement hydration
products, resulting in a decrease in mechanical strength.
ð2Þ
Meanwhile, the XRD and TG results also indicate that
higher curing temperature can accelerate the reaction
between CaCO3 and calcium aluminate and 50
C has
almost the same effect as 20
C on this reaction. How-
ever, 5
C hinders the reaction between CaCO3 and cal-
cium aluminate.
5 | CONCLUSIONS
This paper investigated the effect of LS and curing tem-
peratures on the mechanical properties and microstruc-
ture of mass concrete. Following conclusions have been
drawn:
1. With the increasing replacement of LS, the mechani-
cal strength of concrete decreases gradually under cur-
ing temperature 20
C. When the replacement of LS is
50%, the compressive strength of concrete reduces by
50.6% compared with 0% replacement at age of 7 days.
However, when the replacement of LS is 10%, the LS
has little influence on the compressive strength at age
of 28 days.
JIN ET AL.
2. High curing temperature 50
C can effectively increase
the mechanical strength of LS concrete at ages of 3 and
7 days, but slightly damages it at age of 28 days. Low
curing temperature 5
C seriously reduces the mechani-
cal strength in 28 days. The compressive strength
under 50
C increases by 7.4%, while under 5
C
decreases by 40.2% compared with that under 20
C at
3 days. However, the compressive strength under 50
C
decreases by 1.5%, while under 5
C decreases by 29.1%
compared with that under 20
C at 28 days.
3. The XRD, TG, and SEM results indicate that with the
increase of LS, the hydration products C-S-H and
Ca(OH)2 gradually decrease. LS has weak chemical
effect and can participate in cement hydration to form
a small amount of calcium monocarboaluminate. Fur-
thermore, high curing temperature 50
C has almost
the same effect as curing temperature 20
C on the
cement hydration products, microstructure of LS com-
posite cement pastes, and the reaction between CaCO3
and calcium aluminate. While low curing temperature
5
C dramatically reduces the hydration products C-
S-H and Ca(OH)2 and hinders the reaction between
CaCO3 and calcium aluminate.
A C K N O WL E D G M E N T S
This research work is supported by the National Key Research
and Development Program of China (2018YFC1508704 and
2016YFC0401610).
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
The data that support the findings of this study are avail-
able from the corresponding author upon reasonable
request.
ORCID
Linhua Jiang https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1485-8177
R EF E RE N C E S
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JIN ET AL. 11 of 11

Lei Chen, College of Mechanics Chen Chen, College of Mechanics

and Materials, Hohai University, and Materials, Hohai University,
Nanjing 210098, China. Nanjing 210098, China.

Xiancui Yan, College of Civil and

Transportation Engineering, Hohai
University, Nanjing 210098, China.
How to cite this article: Jin W, Jiang L, Han L,
Chen L, Yan X, Chen C. Influence of curing
temperature on the mechanical properties and
microstructure of limestone powder mass concrete.
Structural Concrete. 2020;e201900549. https://doi.
org/10.1002/suco.201900549