ABSTRACT
The use of mineral admixtures in the cement manufacture has many environmental benefits, like the reduction of CO2 emissions and the use of an industrial waste. The particular cases of ground granulated blast-furnace slag and fly ash, and their effect on the properties of the cementitious materials is a topic of study. Many studies show that in laboratory conditions this kind of materials has good service properties, even better than Portland cement. Real structures are usually hardened in different environmental conditions depending on their geographical location. The different temperature and especially the different relative humidity present in the environment may influence the development of microstructure of concretes and mortars with slag and fly ash. This influence may cause different service properties of these materials, such as the diffusion coefficient of chlorides. In this work, mortars made with three different commercial cement types were tested. The development of their microstructure and their changes in durability-related properties were studied at different hardening ages, as a function of the hardening environment.
