Setting and hardening
Cement sets when mixed with water by way of a complex series of chemical reactions still only
partly understood. The different constituents slowly crystallise and the interlocking of their
crystals gives cement its strength. Carbon dioxide is slowly absorbed to convert the portlandite
(Ca(OH)2) into insoluble calcium carbonate. After the initial setting, immersion in warm water
will speed up setting. In Portland cement, gypsum is added as a compound preventing cement
flash setting.
Cement Types
Some of the different cement types are listed below,
Ordinary Portland Cement
Rapid Hardening Cement
Extra Rapid Hardening Cement
Sulphate Resisting Cement
Quick Setting Cement
Super Sulphated Cement
Low Heat Cement
Portland Pozzolana Cement
Air-Entraining Cement
Coloured Cement
Hydrophobic cement
Masonry Cement
Expansive Cement
IRS-T 40 Special Grade Cement
Oil-Well Cement
Rediset Cement
High Alumina Cement
High Early Strength Cement
CEMENT & CONCRETE
How is cement made?
The basic characteristic of cement is that after it has been mixed with water, it
will set hard as rock, and will bind together any rock or mineral fragments mixed
into it. Mortar is made from a mixture of sand and cement, and bonds together
bricks in a wall. Most cement is mixed with both sand and aggregate to make
concrete.
It seems that the Romans knew about cement, but the technique was lost until
Smeaton built the Eddystone Lighthouse in 1756, using a mixture of fired ground
limestone and clay. Cement was patented by John Aspdin in 1824 as Portland
cement because he though it looked rather like limestone from Portland, which
was used a lot in buildings. This type of cement is used a lot today, and is still
known as OPC (ordinary Portland cement).
What are the ingredients?
Calcite (CaCO3) from limestone
Silica (SiO2)
Alumina (Al2O3)
+ minor amounts of iron.
All of these ingredients can be assembled by mixing limestone and shale. After
grinding them together, they are fired in a kiln to about 1400°C. Water is given
off first, showing that the shale is decomposing, and then CO 2, when the
limestone starts to decompose. The other materials react to produce cement
clinker.
The four most important anhydrous components of Portland Cement are, in
decreasing order of abundance: tricalcium silicate, dicalcium silicate, tricalcium
aluminate, and tetracalcium aluminoferrite.
The cement clinker is obviously anhydrous and decarbonated. It is ground up into
a powder to form ordinary OPC. When this is mixed with water, new hydrated
minerals form. These grow as long crystals, locking the cement and any inert
particles into a hard mass.
These new hydrated minerals form slowly, and the cement needs to be kept
moist while this is occurring. Portland cement starts to harden a few hours after
mixing, because the hydrated tricalcium aluminate grows rapidly. Cement doesn’t
start to become strong until some days later when the hydrated tricalcium silicate
forms. It reaches 70% of full strength after about a month, and doesn’t reach full
strength until several years later because the dicalcium silicate hydrates so
slowly. This reaction is non-reversible.
Geology and raw materials for making cement
Occasionally, sediments already have roughly the correct proportions of minerals
present to make cement. Cementstones are impure limestones that contain
quartz and clay minerals and some iron. Sometimes they are interbedded thin
limestones and shales that will together give the right composition for making
cement. Usually, a cement works will be built where limestone and clay crop out
next to each other. The raw material is then ground up in the right proportions
for making the cement. It is common in southern England for a cement works
quarry to have chalk at one end, and clay at the other. The mixing becomes more
tricky where the composition of the limestone or shale is variable.
Case Study
There is an interesting example of land restoration at a limestone quarry in
Dunbar, where land is restored behind the excavation as the working face
advances. There is a very expensive bridge conveyor that moves the waste from
one end of the quarry to the back, but the quarry life is about 50 years, which is
a long time, and it allows the quarry waste to fill up the old workings
continuously, so that only a narrow strip of the quarry is exposed at any one
time.
Uses of cement
Mortar for bonding bricks is made up of 1 part by volume of cement powder with
3 to 6 parts of sand, and the minimum of water to make the mix workable.
Cement and sand can also be used to produce a thin skin or render, to protect
the outside of the buildings. The most important use of cement is in making
concrete, where it is used to stick together a mixture of sand and rock fragments,
i.e. aggregate.
