Performance-Based Hydraulic Cements of the New Millennium

This paper provides a brief historical perspective on the development of cement, a look at common problems and solutions, and a statement of the current status of cement production and applications, particularly in USA. The authors further give their assessment of the need for performance-based standards and offer a look forward to characteristics that the cements of the future will need to incorporate. As we step into the new millennium and portland cement crosses 175 years of age, global cement consumption is stretching towards the 1.5-billion-ton mark. Although cement strength has increased significantly since the Aspdin era, new challenges for the cement industry loom as we enter the new millennium. One of these is to abide by the Kyoto agreement to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions. Binary-, ternary-, and quaternary-component blended cements appear to offer viable solutions for achieving this environmental target. Since there is an imminent need to move away from prescriptive to performance-based cement specifications, provisions will have to be made for performance-oriented blended cements to deal with the key issue of the low-clinker-factor cement.