The Effect of Temperature and SCMs on Alkali Metal Distribution in Cement Pastes

We investigated the effect of partial replacement of Portland cement with SCMs such as limestone, fly ash, or volcanic pozzolan on the alkali metal distribution in cement paste. This is important to understand the underlying mechanisms of how SCMs mitigate the alkali-silica reaction. Cement pastes were cured at 20, 38, and 60 ℃, and the pore solution was analyzed using ICP-OES/MS. Solid phases were analyzed using TGA, XRD and SEM-EDS. Concrete prisms with the same cement were monitored for expansion according to the Norwegian 38 ℃ CPT and the RILEM AAR 11 60 ℃ CPT. We discuss the implications of our findings for accelerated ASR testing.