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Properties of Fly Ash Blended Magnesium Potassium Phosphate Mortars: Effect of the Ratio between Fly Ash and Magnesia
Cement and Concrete Composites
  • Biwan Xu
  • Barbara Lothenbach
  • Hongyan Ma, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Abstract

The ratio between fly ash (FA) and magnesia is an important factor for the optimum design of FA blended magnesium potassium phosphate cements (MKPCs). In this study, a high CaO content FA (CaO = 12.5 wt%) was used to partially replace magnesia at 0 wt%, 30 wt%, 50 wt%, 70 wt%, and 90 wt%, respectively. The experimental results showed that a FA replacement of 50 wt% led to the highest compressive strengths. A FA replacement of 70 wt% is considered as upper limit, as the presence of more FA caused significantly lower strength. In the plain and the FA blended MKPCs, K-struvite (MgKPO4∙6H2O) was the main hydrate. At very high FA contents, additional calcium potassium hydrogen phosphate (CaK3H(PO4)2) was observed as well as the destabilization of K-struvite to cattiite (Mg3(PO4)2∙22H2O), which could be one of the main factors responsible for the lower strength of high FA blended MKPC mortars stored under water.

Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Comments
Financial supports from the China Ministry of Science and Technology under 2015CB655100 and from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council under 615810 are gratefully acknowledged.
Keywords and Phrases
  • Compressive strength,
  • Fly ash (FA),
  • Magnesium potassium phosphate cement (MKPC),
  • Microstructure,
  • Water resistance
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2018 Elsevier, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
7-1-2018
Publication Date
01 Jul 2018
Citation Information
Biwan Xu, Barbara Lothenbach and Hongyan Ma. "Properties of Fly Ash Blended Magnesium Potassium Phosphate Mortars: Effect of the Ratio between Fly Ash and Magnesia" Cement and Concrete Composites Vol. 90 (2018) p. 169 - 177 ISSN: 0958-9465
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/hongyan-ma/51/