CEMENT and CONCRETE RESEARCH. Vol. 19, pp. 235-246, 1989. Printed in the USA.

0008-8846/89. $3.00+00. Copyright (c) 1989 Pergamon Press plc.

The Reaction of Fly Ash in Concrete.

A erltieal Examination

A.L.A. Fraay, J.M. Bijen, Y.M. de Haan

Technological University Delft, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Materials Science

Group. (J. Bi|en is also director of INTRON Institute for Material and
Environmental Research at Maastrieht, The Netherlands

(Con,nunicated by M. Moranville-Regourd)
(Received May 16, 1988; in final form Jan. 23, 1989)

ABSTRACT
It is a well known fact that the reaction of fly ash in concrete, only s t a r t s
significantly a f t e r one or more weeks. Until this period the fly ash behaves more
or less as an inert material, which only serves as a precipitation nucleus for
Ca(OH) 2 and C-S-H gel originating from the cement hydration. A f t e r the
initiation of the pozzolanie reaction of the fly ash, the c e m e n t paste will
beeome increasingly denser.
This paper gives a critical examination of the "why" of this "incubation period",
it presents a model for the formation of pozzolanie reaction products and
discusses the development of the pore structure.

Introduction

Fly ash from powdered coal combustion can be a pozzolanie material. This means that the
particles r e a c t with water and with lime to cementitious products. This feature is one of
the reasons why fly ash is used on a large scale in blended cements. It is well known that
the reaction of fly ash in concrete is only initiated a f t e r one or more weeks. In this
"incubination" period the fly ash behaves as a more or less inert material serving as a pre-
cipitation nuelens for Ca(OH) 2 and C-S-H gel originating from the c e m e n t hydration.
The subsequent pozzolanic reaction appears to be a slow process. Figures of 50% of
r e a c t e d fly ash a f t e r one year are not uncommon, (I). The result of this behaviour is that
concrete, of which a part of the cement has been replaced by fly ash and which is initially
more permeable than concrete without a cement replacement, slowly becomes more
dense.
This p a p e r deals with the "why" of the "incubation period" as well as with the differences
in gel formation and permeability compared to cement without fly ash.

The solubility of the glass of the fly ash particles

Fly ash from bituminous coal consists for a major part of a glass phase with crystalline
inclusions (so-called class F fly ashes aceordlng to ASTM C618). The glass is an alumina-,
silica-glass.
It is well known that this type of glass embedded in hydrated portland c e m e n t paste only
s t a r t s to r e a c t a f t e r one or more weeks. The products originating from the pozzolanic
reaction consist of C-S-H like structures. (2, 3, 19).

235
236 Vol. 19, No. 2
A.L.A. Fraay, et al.

The f o r m a t i o n of the C-S-H gel is only possible when the glass of the fly ash p a r t i c l e s has
gone into solution. This b r e a k i n g off of the glass n e t w o r k a p p e a r s to be s t r o n g l y d e p e n d e n t
on the a l k a l i n i t y of the pore water.

As an i l l u s t r a t i o n of this process some t e s t s were done in which the s o l u b i l i t y , in solutions

of NaOH and KOH with and without a b u f f e r of Ca(OH) 2, was i n v e s t i g a t e d . The t e s t were
p e r f o r m e d at t e m p e r a t u r e s of 2, 20, 40°C and in one case a t 65°C. One g r a m of fly ash
has been poured into the 100 mL solution. The c o m p o s i t i o n of the class F fly ash is shown
in t a b l e I.

TABLE I. Chemical composition of the fly ash used in eementpastes and of the cements (96)

Class F fly ash Portland Cement Portl. Blast Furn.

Slag C e m e n t

Na20 0.6 0.2 0.2

K20 2.4 0.6 0.6
SO 3 0.4 3.4 2.9
CaO 2.9 63.0 49.0
SiC 2 54°6 20.4 29.2
Al 203 27.0 5.5 7.5
Fe20 3 7.6 3.3 1.7
L.O.I. 2.1 0.6 0.3

TABLE 2. The concentrations of Si, AI and Ca in the 100 m L solutions of the samples with
class F fly ash with and without a lime buffer after one week at 40°C. (pH
calculated from the molar concentrations without the use of activities). (6)

Normality calcu- medium only fly ash fly ash+lime buffer

of the so- lated .................................................
lution at pHat Si Al Ca Si Al Ca
the start the start ppm
of the of the
test test

1.0 13.99 NaOH 427 222 0 16 60 10

0.5 13.70 NaOH 239 161 0 5 21 25
0.25 13.37 NaOH 63 60 3 2 ii 51
0.1 13.01 NaOH 7 9 27 l 5 122
0.01 12.00 NaOH 3 7 55 0 8 492
0.001 II.00 NaOH 5 5 55 0 l0 568
0.0001 10.00 NaOH 5 5 54 0 8 512
--- 6.70 .... 5 5 59 0 8 504
0.0001 4.00 HCI 5 5 60 0 9 541
0.1 1.00 HCI 44 122 166 0 23 2791

Remark: For the series of fly ash plus a lime buffer at a pH=14 the O H -
concentration has also been measured after 1 week at 40°C.
Before the test the concentration of O H - was 16.777 g/L. After the
test: 16.657 glL. So the pH did not change).
Vol. 19, No. 2 237
FLY ASH, CONCRETE, INDUCTION PERIOD

In t h e ease of a lime buffer an amount of 6.6 gram of Ca(OH)2/L has been added. The
samples haven been stored during one week. After that period tSe amounts of Ca, St and
Al were measured in the clear solution at room temperature with the aid of a flame-
emission spectrometer. The pH of the alkaline solutions was determined by measuring the
OH- concentration by titration with HNO 3 solution. Some results are given in Tables 2, 3
and figures 1 to 3.
It appears only beyond a pH of about 13.2 or 13.3 the glass structures of the fly ash
investigated is broken down substantially. In the presence of a lime buffer the silicon ions
can only be found in considerable amounts (measured in ppm) at a pH which is even higher.
Presumably the difference between the measured values of Si and AI in the solutions with

TABLE 3. The concentrations of AI, Si and Ca measured in the N a O H solutions

of the samples with fly ash with and without a lime buffer after 1
week at 2°C en 20°C.

Normality pH Tempe- only fly ash fly ash+lime buffer

of the so- at rature ..............................................
lution at start Si Al Ca Si Al Ca
the start of the ppm
of the test
;est

1.0 13.99 20°C 39 30 9 10 7 25

0.5 13.70 21 17 14 3 2 36
0.25 13.37 8 7 20 1 1 55
0.1 13.01 5 5 28 0 2 105

1.0 13.99 2 °C 6 3 20 3 2 33
0.5 13.70 3 2 30 2 1 35
0.25 13.37 1 i 33 1 1 53
0.1 13.01 - 1 34 - 1 150

g fly ash plus a lime b u f f e r g fly ash plus a time buffer

13.0 13.4 13.7-,.pH talc.
6O aE 2 "C 60 L
~20 *C !
~40 r'~40 eC 40
mm6s *C (nd= not determined] "-
~20 20
o
nd--rid --r-rod - - ~ n d 0
.J 0
E 0.1 0.25 0. S 1.0"-~ N S 0.1 0.2S 0.5 1.0 "---N
o 9 fl;f ash vithout a lime buffer fly ash vithout alime b u f f e r
iN13.0 13 4 13 7J 12( p.~3.o 13.4 13.71 3z~
e.
o- • 239 " t+ZTe'~l
.,U .L-'I _ _,LIE. • ~.l.c:z_ z z..z.I1
~0

[,° o
4
0
, 0
0
0.1 0.25 O.S 1.0 0.1 0 5 10
P N o r m a l i t y of the NaOH sotutions

Figure 1. The Si and AI concentrations in the samples with and without a lime
buffer a f t e r 1 week as a funetion of the temperature and the
normality of the NaOH solutions. (6).
23g Vol. 19, No. 2
A.L.A. Fraay, et al.

ppm Ca in the 100 mL NaOH solution

11.e I~.! 1|,(I
O.G6 g Ca(OH) z
I100 B Ig class F fly ashl
111111111 g fly ash * lime I
buffer ]
600 I Figure 2. The Ca 2+
concentration in 100
m L solutions after one
400 week at 40°C as a
function of the
200 normality of the NaOH
solutions. (6)

0.001 0.01 0.1 0.25 0.5 1.0

Normality of the NaOH solution

(ppm Si in the solution)

x100 %
(ppm Siin the I N NaOH solution)
12.0 13.0 13.4 13.7 ~ p H calc.
100 Figure 3. The solubility
of Si from a class F fly
80 ash in K O H solutions
60 compared to the
40 results from NaOH
solutions after 1 week
20 at 40°C without a lime
0 buffer.
0.01 0.1 0.25 0.5 1.0
Normality of the solutions w.

and without the lime buffer can be attributed to the precipitation of calcium silicate- and
aluminate hytdrates on the fly ash particles. With a further increase of the pH, the
concentrations of Al and Si in the solutions increase rapidly while the lime concentrations
decrease (4, 5).
The temperature appears to be of great importance. (Table 3 and figure i).

Solutions with K O H appear to be somewhat less aggressive than N a O H solutions. (Figure

3). This may be due to the lower activity coefficient for K + compared to Na +.

The composition of the pore water of content paste with

and without a class F f l y ash.

The above mentioned experiments demonstrate the sensitivity of fly ash reaction for the
composition of the surrounding solution. The composition of the pore water of cement
paste will therefore be extremely important with respect to fly ash reaction. To study
this, the pore water composition of cement pastes with and without fly ash has been
investigated by squeezing pastes at various hardening ages using an apparatus similar to
that used by Longuet, Diamond et at. (7, 8).
The pore fluid was collected and analysed for Na +, K +, Ca 2+, SO42- and OH-.

The cement pastes were made with ordinary portland cement and with portland granulated
blast furnace slag c e m e n t with and without 20% (m/m) replacement of the fly ash. The
water/(eement + fly ash) ratio applied was 0.45. The chemical composition of the cements
is given in Table 1.
Vol. 19, No. 2 239
FLY ASH, CONCRETE, INDUCTION PERIOD

To study the effects of the dilution due to the constant water binder ratio also
experiments were done using a fine quartz sand flour (smaLler than 250 ~rn).
To prevent segregation, the pastes were revolved during the first four hours a f t e r
mixing. The temperature was maintained at 20°C. For comparison some tests were done at
temperatures of 2°C and 40°C.

Figures 4 to 7 give some results of the tests. Details of the tests and results up to one year
of hardening will be published in a separate paper. (21).

In the beginning of the eement hydration the pH ~f the pore_water is lower than 13.
A f t e r about one week the pH increases. The C:nt+natrdatSioOn4~-:roenCeentrr;pii~lyS ~ : % ~ s e t t % ~
very low level while the OH-, K+ and Na + n
which a part of the cement is replaeed by the "alkaline free" quartz sand flour, shows as is
to be expected, a dilution effect due to the constant water/(eement+sand) ratio, as a
consequence of which the OH- concentration is lower than of the reference paste. The fly
ash investigated shows a higher pH than the paste with sand and contributes initially to the
pore water alkalinity. This is due to the desolving of the sodium and potassium ions from
the fly ash particles. When the reaction starts the difference in pore water alkalinity with
the inert quartz sand paste decreases. Most of the alkalines are a part of the glass phase
(13) and will only be released when the fly ash starts to dissolve.

The portland blast furnace slag cement pastes developed a lower OH- concentration than
portland cement hydrating at room temperature. (Figure 7).

mg OH/I.
11000
¢ Oay~ I 3 5 7 1#, 21 28
o ,.,. .(.,.o.,s) I llilpH
100 00 - i 20 % (m/m) class F fly ash
9000
o 20 ",. (ml~) ,,...,d l lll .~c.
.,(¢.,,o). o.4~ IIII 3.?2
!1000
7000 IIII _ . f - i~ll ,3.,, Figure 4. The develop-
llllLr" _~-~ill ment of the OH" con-
60O0 centration in the pore
5000
I II~L~--~-~I I[11 ~3'5s water of portland ce-
IIII 13.47 ment paste with fly
4000
IIII ,3.)? ash and fine quartz
3000
)1 sand. Temperature
2000 IIII ,3.2~ 20°C w/(pc+pfa)=0.45
1000
m • "" lllll IIII 13.o7
12.77
1 10 100 1000
• Hours

mg Ca'" / L
I 3 S 7 14 21 28
1000
c~ Ref. p.c.
A 20 "/. (m/m) pfa
800 o 20"/. {m/m) fine
"%
sand
600 Figure 5. The Ca 2+
Jill eoneentration as a
400 li[ll function of the time.
l[l!l Temperature 20°C.
200 -< II[]I
~ v
[lJJl
0 UJll
I 10 100 1000
• Hours
240 Vol. 19, No. 2
A.L.A. Fraay, et al.

mg SIL Oa's I 3 5 7 14 21 ZII

3000
2700 tlll o Ref. p.o. ( w / c , 0 . / , S )

l
& Z0 "/. ( m / m ) c l a s s F
2~,O0 fly ash
2100 x 20'/. (m/m) fine
q u a r t z sand Figure 6. The SO42-
1800
1500 .4 It \ iltll! ! IIIII concentration (given as
t m g S/L) as a function
1200
} Iiii] of the time.
900 Ilil ' lllt I illlIJ Temperature 20°C.
600 t111 \ lll IIII11
300 III1 "k t lilllJ
0 I}11 ILJlll
l lO 100 I0
• Hours

mg OH-IL
) Oa),s I 3 S 7 14 Zl Z8
I I1000 a Ref. p.o. 20 *C pH
I0000 - , Ref. p.o. 2eC caL,:..
9000- o Ref. p.c, 40°C 13.72 Figure 7. The O H - con-
centration as a
8000- ~ Ref. pbfc 20=C 13.67 function of the type of
...... 80 % pbfc * 20 % pla 20 °C ~-- ;
7000 l~. 61 cement and the
13.ss temperature. (p.c. =
6000 I I ~'~" portland cement, pbfc
ooo 11111 t
13.47 = portl, blast furnace
13.37 slag cement, pfa =
3000 IIIII i~.z 5 class F fly ash,
20oo IIIII 1~.ov w/(pe+pfa)=0.45).
Ioo o " 12.77
Io 100 1ooo
m. Hours

At a low temperature (2°C) the OH- concentration was much lower than at a temperature
of 20°C, while at 40°C the pH reaches a high value within I day of hydration. (Figure 7).

The results of the solubility tests, combined with the development of the pore water
c o m p o s i t i o n suggest that:
- The pozzolanic reaction of the f l y ash i n the portland cement paste investigated at 20°C
can only s t a r t a f t e r one or more weeks, because only then the a l k a l i n i t y of the pore
w a t e r is high enough to dissolve the f l y ash.
- The f l y ash reaction is e x t r e m e l y sensitive to the pH of the pore water. This means that
a high alkaline cement will force the fly ash to react at a greater rate and to a higher
stage than a low Na20 equivalent cement can do. Results from (20) confirm this opinion.
The w a t e r binder r a t i o can play a role because the pH is dependent on the w a t e r
content.
- The rate of the f l y ash reaction is strongly temperature dependent since both the
s o l u b i l i t y of the f l y ash at a constant pH as well as the a l k a l i n i t y of the pore w a t e r are
t e m p e r a t u r e dependent.
As a consequence the c l i m a t e and temperature development during the hardening of the
concrete w i l l be of importance.

Concerning the l a t e r stage of the hardening process, Canham a.o. (9) showed that a f t e r
some months of hardening the pore water of cements w i t h f l y ash gives a gradual decrease
in pH (this besides the ordinary dilution effects due to the constant w a t e r / ( c e m e n t + f l y ash)
Vol. 19, No. 2 241
FLY ASH, CONCRETE, INDUCTION PERIOD

ratio). This could mean that the rate of reaction of the f l y ash can decrease in the course
of the time. T h i s l a t t e r w i l l be augmented by the decrease in p e r m e a b i l i t y of the concrete
which causes a decrease of the rate of ion diffusion through the pore water.

Morphology of the reaction products

After the treatment of the fly ash with alkaline solutions with a lime buffer various
phenomena can be seen. The next photographs give some examples=
The breaking off of the glass network. (Photographs 1 to 3).
Photograph 1 shows a T.E.M. photograph with two small particles. One particle has
degraded to a considerable amount. According to the E D A X analysis only mullite has
been left with a little Ca, K and Fe. The particle in the left corner is not attacked by
the solution.
Photographs 2 and 3 show the surface of two particles at a higher magnification. The
particle of photograph 2 shows a precipitation of lime, while the surface of the particle
in photograph 3 shows a remainder of the crystalline mullite phase.
Surface precipitation and cluster formation. Photograph 4.
- Formation of needle-like products. Photograph 5.
No sign of degration at all. Photographs i and 6. Photograph 6 shows a quartz particle.
Apparently no precipitation has taken place.
Precipitation of lime by the action of a fly ash particle as a nucleus. Photographs 7.
Here an iron rich particle is involved. Although the particle did not show any sign of
reaction, it did serve as a precipitation nucleus.

The precipitation of Ca(OH) 2 and C-S-H gel upon the fly ash particles in hydrating cement
paste in the first week indicates that the fly ash surfaces act as thermodynamically based
favourable areas of nucleus formation. Photograph 8.

The consumption of the free lime in hydrated cementpaste by the fly ash.

It is well known that the presence of class F f l y ash in concrete w i l l decrease the amount
of free lime as a function of time (i, 2, 3, 6, i0 to 13).
Figure 8 shows the amount of free lime in cement pastes with fly ash as a function of the

Photograph 1. T.E.M.
photograph of fly ash
particles in a N a O H
solution w i t h a lime
b u f f e r a f t e r 1 week at
40°C. 17,000x. (6).
242 Vol. 19, No. 2
A.L.A. Fraay, et al.

!
area r}ch
of C a - ~ mutli~ e -

Photographs 2 and 3. T.E.M.-photographs of two particles in a NaOH solution with a

lime buffer after i week at 40°C. 36,000x. (6)

i0 um

Photographs 4 and 5. Fly ash after 28 days at 40°C in demi water with a lime buffer
(surface precipitation: left and needles, right). (6)

Photograph 6. A quartz
particle in fly ash in a
NaOH solution after 1
week with a lime buf-
fer at 40°C, (6).

i0 ~m
Vol. 19, No. 2 243
FLY ASH, CONCRETE, INDUCTION PERIOD

L.

L.

2
<
244 Vol. 19, No. 2
A.L.A, Fraay, et al.

a m o u n t of bound w a t e r . The p a s t e s were made with 100 g r a m s of p o r t l a n d c e m e n t , 30

g r a m s of d i f f e r e n t c l a s s F fly ashes and 60 g r a m s o[ w a t e r .
It is c l e a r t h a t up to one week the fly ash does not show a d i s t i n c t a m o u n t of p o z z o l a n i c
r e a c t i v i t y . A f t e r 90 days this r e a c t i v i t y on the o t h e r hand is v e r y c l e a r .
Bound water in ql100 g ~..c.
F i g u r e 8. Bound w a t e r
3 da~ and f r e e l i m e d e t e r -
21 * ?
28 ., regr. ~in~ ref. mined according to
~9 o 90 .. o oo~ oo J ASTM C l 1 4 - 1 9 8 2 , p a r t
17 100 g p,c. o ./. u
22 in c e m e n t p a s t e s
with c l a s s F fly ashes.
t5 (6)
60 g w a l c r ~'~* *.J"
13 4" -J'" r3 quartz

9
.,/
7
.,,f" { I I I I I I
7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25

~ F r c c Ca(OH) 2 in g/~00 g p c .

The formation of the reaction products

As a c o n s e q u e n c e of the b r e a k i n g down of the glass s t r u c t u r e the s i l i c a and a l u m i n a

s e g m e n t s will be dissolved into the pore w a t e r . This p r o c e s s m a y be h i n d e r e d by the
p r e c i p i t a t i o n l a y e r s of lime and C-S-H gel d e v e l o p e d by the c e m e n t h y d r a t i o n (4).
P h o t o g r a p h 8 shows an e x a m p l e of the e a r l y p r e c i p i t a t i o n on a fly ash p a r t i c l e . In t h e
b e g i n n i n g t h e fly ash a t t a c k is a slow process. Figures 4 to 7 explain this. Due to t h e high
c a l c i u m c o n t e n t in the pore w a t e r in the e a r l y s t a g e of the c e m e n t h y d r a t i o n , the c a l c i u m -
s i l i c a t e - h y d r a t e s and e a l c i u m - a l u m i n a t e - h y d r a t e s will p r e c i p i t a t e v e r y q u i c k l y upon the
fly ash p a r t i c l e s .

P h o t o g r a p h 8. Fly ash
in portland cement
p a s t e , t h r e e days old.
1000 x ( 6 ) .

As a c o n s e q u e n c e , t h e r e a c t i o n p r o d u c t s from the fly ash will also p r e c i p i t a t e in t h e n e a r

v i c i n i t y of t h e fly ash p a r t i c l e s . This p r o c e s s can slow down the f u r t h e r b r e a k i n g down of
t h e g l a s s n e t w o r k (19).
L a t e r , when t h e pH of the pore w a t e r is i n c r e a s i n g (due to t h e c o n t i n u i n g c e m e n t
h y d r a t i o n with the d e g r e a s e in f r e e w a t e r and the i n c r e a s e in Na +, K + and OH-
c o n c e n t r a t i o n ) and the c a l c i u m c o n c e n t r a t i o n is d e g r e a s i n g (due to the low s o l u b i l i t y at
high pH levels), the r a t e of d e g r a t i o n of the fly ash p a r t i c l e s will increase, while the
p r e c i p i t a t i o n of C - S - H like s t r u c t u r e s o r i g i n a t i n g from the glass n e t w o r k which has gone
into solution, can t a k e p l a c e much f a r t h e r a w a y f r o m the fly ash p a r t i c l e .
Vol. 19, No. 2 245
FLY ASH, CONCRETE, INDUCTION PERIOD

The above mentioned can be included in the model of Bakker (15) with reg~u'd to ground
blast furnace slag in concrete. The model is developed on with reference to the chaoge of
the permeability as a function of the time. Bakker explains the differences in the
permeability of portland cement and of mortars with portland ground blast furnace slag
c e m e n t or fly ash via the differences in the way of the precipitation of the hydration
products and pozzolanie reaction products. This is especially noticeable with a hydration
at elevated temperatures. The hydration products of pure portland c e m e n t paste
p r e c i p i t a t e much closer to the cement particles and cannot block the small pores. On the
contrary, with ground blast furnace slags and fly ash the reaction products precipitate
much more in the small space between the pores.

The influence of the precipitation of the reactionproduets on the pore structure

The possibility of the diffusion of parts of the glass network through the pores and the
precipitation of C-S-H like structures on areas farther away from the degrading fly ash
particles (due to the high pH and the low calcium concentration of the pore water) gives
ultimately, a f t e r some months of hardening, a finer pore structure with a smaller amount
of capillary pores for the fly ash paste than for the reference paste. See figure 9 which ts
in a g r e e m e n t with results of Mehta (16).
The blocking proeass of the pores can also be concluded from the time dependeneyof the
electrical resistance. Van der Wegen (17, 18) showed that for a concrete with portland
c e m e n t and 2596 (m/m) class F fly ash, a f t e r three week of hardening the electrical
resistance became higher than for the reference concrete.
V o l u me Hg (mm)Ig) Figure 9. The pore size
~°°1 I II IIIIli III IIw'C~'~'"'°°.45'~ distribution of c e m e n t paste
with portland c e m e n t with
[.[ ~ 30 "I. ( m / m l class g fly ash and without fly ash a f t e r one
240 " II~1 w e e k old year of hardening at 20°C.
Ir''.~..':-~,I"I-I~I2~ I Ill lilt I III w/(c+pfa)=0.45 (6)
,~o I I IJIIIIII"\J'~ I IIIIII I I I I IIIl
,20
I fe':~W r_~.~kIIIIII
I I I IIITTI'~'%I'.'I'i,.I~IIIIII II III
I I If IIII

~o
t 30 "l. class
,,,.~..nt~]',L I~1~ ......
,,y . , ~ /
1 II111
- d I ~KI~I~II~ I I II IIll
o , , ,,,,,L, , ,..,,,,, ~.-~,II Ill
0.00! 0,01 0.1 1.0
i Pore diameter (JJmJ

Conclusions

In this paper the authors have presented a model for the pozzolanic reaction of fly ash in
c o n c r e t e as well as some consequences. The model explains the slow s t a r t of the
pozzolanic activity and the change of the pore structure with time. It emphasizes the
influence of the type of cement, water content and temperature.
- The "incubation" period before the s t a r t of the pozzolanic reaction can be explained by
the strong dependency of the breaking down of the glass phase on the alkalinity of the
pore water. The pore water in the cement paste will increase in alkalinity only strongly
a f t e r some days. Together with the early precipitation of reaction products of c e m e n t
on the fly ash particles, this will prevent the early breaking down of the glass network.
This proeass of glass a t t a c t increases dramatically if the pH becomes higher than
(approximately) 13.2. This means that the pozzolanic reaction is strongly influenced by
the pH development of the pore water. Cements with a lower pH development such as
blends with silica fume and ground blast furnace slags will cause the fly ash to be less
reactive. Even for portland cements with differences Na20 equivalency, distinguished
r e a c t i v i t y of fly ash can be expected. Further the water cement ratio will a f f e c t the
246 Vol. 19, No. 2
A.L.A Fraay, et al.

pozzolanic reaction.
- The solubility of the glass network is dependent on the temperature and so is the rate of
p H development during the hydration. The temperature thus influences the rate of the
pozzolanic reaction.
During the "incubation period" a precipitation of Ca(OH) 2 and of C-S-H gel on the fly
ash particles will take place while shortly after the approaching of the "initiating" pH,
an extra precipitation of the reaction products of the fly ash upon or in the near vicinity
of the particles can occur. At a further increase of the pH, a precipitation farther away
from the fly ash will take place with, as a consequence, a change in the pore size
distribution and permeability. On the other hand the gradual decrease of the pH in the
time and the blocking of the pores will retard the reaction.

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