Influence of amorphous content in recycled fly ash on binder hydration characteristics

Abstract

Greening of the construction sector has witnessed the widespread practice of recycling fly ash into building materials for decades. The control of ash waste quality is an important aspect for its viability as a supplementary cementitious material, where the detailed physical and chemical characteristics play crucial roles. To better facilitate informed greener design, a novel method is leveraged to study particularly the influence of amorphous content in fly ash on binder hydration. In this study, a coupled kinetic-thermodynamic approach is implemented to realise comprehensive hydration assessment. The adopted kinetics-based model is developed following unified theory to quantify the hydration/reaction degrees for cement and fly ash. Such kinetic information is further utilised in thermodynamic analysis, powered by Gibbs energy minimisation method, to evaluate the time-dependent phase assemblage of cementitious system upon continuous hydration. The applied technique is carefully verified against a series of reported tests, before further exploited to conduct numerical explorations. Computational findings highlight the influence of amorphous content in fly ash on the chemo-physical–mechanical properties of concrete products, providing insights for future sustainable construction material design.