ABSTRACT
The most important constituent material for concrete production is the Portland cement. This chapter talks about this material. First, the Portland cement is introduced and then the history of this material is described.
Cement raw materials and the production process of the Portland cement are mentioned in this chapter. After that, you should know about the cement compositions and the effect of each composition on the properties of the Portland cement. According to this subject, different types of Portland cement in ASTM standard and also the other types of cement other than the five ASTM ones that you can use for the production of mortar or any other purpose are mentioned.
The hydration reaction is the reason for concrete hardening and special properties in the next subject are mentioned in this chapter. After that, the supplementary cementitious materials and their effect on the properties of concrete are described. You can read about this subject more in Chapter 3. You can produce blended cement by mixing the Portland cement and the supplementary cementitious materials with different percentages.
Like any other materials that we use in the industrial production process, you should control the quality of cement before using it in concrete production. So, this chapter describes the most important issues for the quality control of the Portland cement. You can read about the fineness of cement, particle size distribution, cement health, setting time of cement, cement compressive strength, specific gravity of cement, cement heat of hydration, and analysis of cement.
In the last part of the chapter, you can read about cement transportation and storage.
