The Prehydration of Cement and Its Mitigation

Published

December 6, 2014

Author(s)

Julyan Stoian, Tandre Oey, Jeffrey W. Bullard, Jian Huang, Aditya Kumar, Magdalena Balonis, Narayanan Neithalath, Gaurav Sant

Abstract

Ordinary portland cement (OPC) prehydrates during storage or handling in moist environments, forming hydration products on or near its particles' surfaces. Prehydration is known to reduce OPC reactivity, but the extent of prehydration has not yet been quantitatively linked to reaction rate and mechanical property changes. A series of experiments are performed to develop a better understanding of prehydration by intentionally exposing an OPC powder to either water vapor or liquid water. The experiments aim to investigate the extent to which premature contact of OPC with water and other potential reactants in the liquid and/or vapor state(s) can induce differing surface modifications on the OPC grains. Original results obtained using isothermal calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis and strength measurements are correlated to a prehydration index, which is defined for the first time. Experimental results are used to evaluate hypotheses of mechanisms which control the process. The addition of fine limestone particles to a mixture formed using prehydrated cement is shown to mitigate the detrimental effects of cement prehydration.

Proceedings Title

Proceedings of the 2nd International Congress on Durability of Concrete

Conference Dates

December 4-6, 2014

Conference Location

New Delhi, IN

Conference Title

Second International Congress on Durability of Concrete

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

physisorption, prehydration, nucleation, limestone

Citation

Stoian, J. , Oey, T. , Bullard, J. , Huang, J. , Kumar, A. , Balonis, M. , Neithalath, N. and Sant, G. (2014), The Prehydration of Cement and Its Mitigation, Proceedings of the 2nd International Congress on Durability of Concrete, New Delhi, IN, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=917059 (Accessed October 6, 2025)