Ultrafine portland cement performance

By mixing several binder materials and additions with different degrees of fineness, the packing density of the final product may be improved. In this work, ultrafine cement and silica fume mixes were studied to optimize the properties of cement-based materials. This research was performed in mortars made of two types of cement (ultrafine Portland cement and common Portland cement) and two types of silica fume with different particle-size distributions. Two Portland cement replacement ratios of 4% and 10% of silica fume were selected and added by means of a mechanical blending method. The results revealed that the effect of the finer silica fume mixed with the coarse cement enhances the mechanical properties and pore structure refinement at a later age. This improvement is somewhat lower in the case of ultrafine cement with silica fume.