Construction and Building Materials 64 (2014) 208–214

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Experimental study on the development of compressive strength of early

concrete age using calcium-based hardening accelerator and high early
strength cement
Tae-Beom Min a, In-Sung Cho b, Won-Jun Park c, Hyun-Kuk Choi d, Han-Seung Lee a,⇑
a
Department of Architecture, Hanyang University, Ansan, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea
b
Research Institute, Chemicon, Jincheon-gun, Chungbuk, Republic of Korea
c
Sustainable Building Research Center, Hanyang University, Ansan, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea
d
R & D Center, Sungshin Cement, Bugang-Myun, Sejong Special Self-Governing City, Republic of Korea

h i g h l i g h t s

 This paper focused on developing compressive strength without steam curing of precast concrete.
 Calcium-based hardening accelerator for C3S was used for early-stage strength.
 Compressive strength of concrete was more than 10 MPa after 9 h of curing at 20 °C experimentally.
 Hardening accelerator 1–3% of cement mass is proper for setting time and compressive strength.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Steam curing is necessary to be used in the manufacturing of precast concrete, thus, a large amount of
Received 26 January 2014 energy is consumed and the turnover of forms is low. This practice leads to reduction in productivity. This
Received in revised form 1 April 2014 paper focuses paper focuses on developing early stage strength for precast concrete of more than 10 MPa
Accepted 2 April 2014
after 6 h of curing at room temperature without steam curing. Various micro-analysis tools such as TG/
Available online 4 May 2014
DTA, Conduction Calorie Meter, XRD, SEM and MIP were conducted on concrete and cement paste with
the amount used of calcium-based hardening accelerator (CHA) for tricalcium silicate (C3S). Results show
Keywords:
that the reaction effect of the CHA was terminated before reaching 12 h, the initial setting of concrete was
Hardening accelerator
High-early-strength cement
in 80 min with 3% of CHA. The rate of heat evolution is increased in the mechanism of developing the
Tricalcium silicate compressive strength in early age and the yield of Ettringite, Ca(OH)2 and C–S–H is increased at early
Precast concrete age due to the fact that the CHA stimulates tricalcium aluminate (C3A) and C3S in high early strength
Compressive strength cement when using calcium-based hardening accelerator into high early strength cement. Additionally,
Microanalysis the pore volume of range of 20–100 nm decreased with the CHA content.
Ó 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction concrete, to improve the efficiency of lifting, and studies in mate-

Precast concrete being extended its application to construction
and civil structures has advantages of improving the quality of con-
crete, shortening of construction work, reducing the use of tempo-
rary materials and reducing waste. Until now, however, studies on
precast concrete have been mainly conducted in structural and
constructional aspects such as to improve the structural perfor-
mance in junction, to introduce prestress, to adopt half precast
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 31 400 5181; fax: +82 31 436 8169.
E-mail address: ercleehs@hanyang.ac.kr (H.-S. Lee).
rial aspects of concrete is very lacking relatively [1–5].
Meanwhile, steam curing is widely used in construction site and
this method in particular is mainly used to speed up the curing
process to achieve early strength of concrete in the production of
precast concrete and is done for 12 h per day, thus the problem
that a large amount of energy is consumed is raised. This practice
leads to reduce productivity in terms of low turnover of forms and
one day cycle [6–8]. Additionally, the production of precast con-
crete member needs expensive steel forms to use in an efficient
and fast procedure so as to reduce the initial cost of production
generally. Because of this, it is necessary to develop a technology
to increase the number of use of the forms if steam curing is

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2014.04.053
0950-0618/Ó 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
 T.-B. Min et al. / Construction and Building Materials 64 (2014) 208–214 209

performed [9–11]. It is urgently required to improve the use of Table 2

steam curing method. Existing studies using high early strength Characteristic of superplasticizer.

cement and early-strength type agents are conducted to reduce Main component Type Density Usage (cement
production energy and to increase the number of use of the molds (g/cm3)  %, mass ratio)
[12–15]. Besides, a curing method using CO2 instead of steam cur- PC (polycarboxilic ether) Liquid 1.05 1–4
ing is developing to solve this problem, however, it does not reach
commercialization stage yet due to the fact that it is still being in
the initial stage [16,17].
However, the previous studies are limited in the sense that they Table 3
were mainly focused on mechanical material properties like com- Characteristic of hardening accelerator.
pressive strength of concrete but the microanalysis for the mecha- Main Type Density Usage (cement
nism of compressive strength was not well covered [18,19]. This component (g/cm3)  %, mass ratio)
study focused on the development of compressive strength of con- Calcium formate Powder 2.15 1–5
crete without steam curing. Various experiments were conducted Amine-type Liquid additive 1.24 1–5
to produce more than 10 MPa as early-stage strength at age of
6 h curing at room temperature without steam curing using hard-
ening accelerator and high early strength cement. Therefore, con-
crete tests using the combination of tricalcium silicate (C3S) rich Table 4
high early strength cement and calcium-based hardening accelera- Physical properties of aggregates.
tor at room temperature without steam curing were conducted. Type Density Absorption Fineness Ratio of absolute
Also, microanalysis of the cement paste using developed materials (t/m3) (%) modulus volume (%)
to determine the mechanism of compressive strength development Fine aggregate 2.60 1.45 2.16 63.72
at early age was conducted. Coarse aggregate 2.68 1.03 7.05 58.13

2. Overview
3. Experimental results
Two types of concrete and cement paste tests were conducted in this study. For
concrete tests, condensation and expression appearance of concrete depending on 3.1. Concrete tests
the amount used of hardening accelerator were evaluated. For cement paste tests,
the mechanism of compressive strength development at early age by hardening 3.1.1. Slump flow of concrete
accelerator through microanalysis for hydration of cement paste depending on Slump flow of concrete is shown in Fig. 1. The slump flow of C-A3 (accelerator
the amount used of hardening accelerator was determined. 3%) slightly increased while the slump of C-A5 (accelerator 5%) sharply decreased.
This is caused by quick-setting of concrete with a large amount used of hardening
2.1. Materials accelerator.

Three types of C3S rich high early strength cements were used in this study, and
their compositions are shown in Table 1. Table 2 shows the characteristic of poly-
carboxilic ether (PC)-based superplasticizer used in this study. Table 3 shows the
characteristic of conventional accelerator and calcium-based hardening accelerator
used in this experiment [20]. Using accelerator make the degree of Ca2+ saturation
surrounding cement particle to be oversaturated and accelerates the generation of
Ca(OH)2. Oversaturated Ca2+ ion has a characteristic of inducing generation and
growth of C–S–H rapidly as bonding with gel generating around C3S particles. Most
conventional accelerators are amine-type. It accelerates cement hydration by accel-
erating Ettringite to monosulfate reaction in cement hydration product. But, con-
tents of Ettringite and monosulfate are under 10% in cement hydration product.
So, it has limitation in strength development [20]. Therefore, calcium-based hard-
ening accelerator is used in this experiment. For experiments, natural aggregates
were used and Table 4 shows the characteristic of used aggregates.
2.2. Specimens and measured items
Table 5 shows mix design of concrete and Table 6 shows mix design of cement
paste. In concrete test, water cement ratio (W/C) was 32% and the amount used of
hardening accelerator was added to 4 levels of cement weight ratio of 0%, 1%, 3%
and 5%. Air dry curing was performed as a curing method under the condition of
temperature 20 °C and humidity 60% and the testing age was set to 6, 9, 12, 18
and 24 h. In cement paste test, the amount used of hardening accelerator was added
to 3 levels of cement weight ratio of 0%, 1% and 3%. And water cement ratio was
20%, curing method was same with concrete test and the age was set to 2, 4, 6,
12 h. Table 7 shows measurement items in concrete test and cement paste test.
For cement paste, setting time, Ca(OH)2 generation, compressive strength,
hydration and porosity were measured. To conduct these items, various microanal-
ysis (TG/DTA, Conduction Calorie Meter, XRD, SEM, MIP) were carried out.
Table 1
Chemical compound composition of cement.
3.1.2. Setting-time of concrete
Fig. 2 illustrated the initial setting time and final setting time of concrete
depending on the amount used of hardening accelerator. As the amount used of
hardening accelerator increased, initial and final setting time are rapidly shortened.
It is considered that this is because the production of hydrates of tricalcium alumi-
nate (C3A) and C3S were rapidly started by hardening accelerator. The initial setting
time became faster as about 180 min at 1%, 80 min at 3% and 50 min at 5% with
increase of accelerator contents.
3.1.3. Compressive strength expression of concrete
Fig. 3 shows the relationship between compressive strength and time with dif-
ferent amount used of hardening accelerator. The more the amount used of harden-
ing accelerator, the stronger the compressive strength. Compressive strength
increases as the amount used of hardening accelerator increases up to 9 h. However,
there is no change in compressive strength though the amount used of hardening
accelerator increases after 12 h and compressive strength of specimen without
hardening accelerator is almost similar to that of specimen using hardening accel-
erator after 18 h. Thus, it is considered that the reaction effect of hardening accel-
erator is almost taken before 12 h and hardening accelerator is very effective on
improving compressive strength in early age before 12 h.
3.2. Cement paste test
3.2.1. Setting-time of cement paste
The setting-time of cement paste is shown in Fig. 4. As the amount used of hard-
ening accelerator increases, both the initial and the final setting time shortened. In
the case of P-A3, by using 3% hardening accelerator compared with P-A0 without
hardening accelerator, initial and final setting times are 50 min and 125 min,
respectively. Thus, it is considered that hardening accelerator shorten setting time
by reacting with high early strength cement rapidly.

Type Compound composition (%) 3.2.2. Compressive strength expression of cement paste
The relationship between compressive strength and time of cement paste with
C3S C2S C3A C4AF the amount used of hardening accelerator is shown in Fig. 5. The higher the amount
Ordinary Portland cement 51 26 12 11 used of hardening accelerator, the higher the compressive strength. In particular,
High-early-strength cement 58 21 11 10 compressive strength increases sharply after 6 h of curing. Meanwhile, compressive
strength of P-A3 is over 10 MPa at 6 h when 3% hardening accelerator is used.
210 T.-B. Min et al. / Construction and Building Materials 64 (2014) 208–214

Table 5
Mix proportion of concrete.

Specimen W/C (%) Cement Accelerator W (kg/m3) S (kg/m3) G (kg/m3) PC (kg/m3)

(kg/m3) (kg/m3)
C-0 32 500 0 160 796 923 5
C-A1 32 500 5 160 794 923 5
C-A3 32 500 15 160 790 923 5
C-A5 32 500 25 160 786 923 5

W: water, S: sand, G: coarse aggregate, PC: superplasticizer.

Table 6
Mix proportion of cement paste.

Specimen W/C (%) Cement (kg) Accelerator (kg) PC (kg) Curing condition
Relative Temperature
humidity (%) (°C)
P-A0 20 1000 0 12 60 20
P-A1 20 1000 10 12 60 20
P-A3 20 1000 30 12 60 20

Table 7 60
Measured items [21–24]. Penetration resistance (MPa)
C-A0 C-A1 C-A3 C-A5
Experiments Measurement items Standards 50

Concrete Setting time ASTM C403

Compressive strength ASTM C39 40
Slump flow ASTM C1611
30 Final set
Cement paste Setting time ASTM C191
Ca(OH)2 amount by TG/DTA –
Compressive strength ASTM C109 20
Hydrates by XRD analysis –
Hydrates by SEM analysis – 10
Hydration heat by Conduction Calorie Meter – Initialset
Porosity by MIP –
0
0 100 200 300 400 500
Elapsed time (min)

700 Fig. 2. Setting-time of concrete depending on the amount used of hardening

accelerator.
600

500 50
Slump flow (mm)

C-A0 C-A1 C-A3 C-A5

Compressive strength (MPa)

400 40

300
30
200
20
100

10
0
C-A0 C-A1 C-A3 C-A5

Fig. 1. Slump flow depending on the amount used of hardening acc accelerator. 0
6 9 12 18 24
Time (hours)

3.2.3. Yield of Ca(OH)2 of cement paste
Fig. 6 shows the relationship between yield of Ca(OH)2 and time by thermo
gravimetric differential temperature analysis (TG/DTA) by time. The yield of
Ca(OH)2 increases as age increases. Hardening accelerator stimulates components
of high early strength cement because the yield of Ca(OH)2 increases in same time
as the amount used hardening accelerator increases. In the case of 3% hardening
accelerator, it was found that a large amount used of hardening accelerator was sig-
nificantly effective on production of Ca(OH)2 by stimulating components of high
early strength cement from the result which the yield of Ca(OH)2 greatly increased
after age 6 h.
Fig. 3. Relationship between compressive strength and time with different amount
of hardening accelerator.
3.2.4. Rate of hydration heat of cement paste
Fig. 7 shows rate of heat evolution depending on the amount used of hardening
accelerator by dominant period (2 h after mixing). The rate of heat evolution
reaches primary maximum peak at 10 min after mixing. The larger the amount used
of hardening accelerator, the higher the peak. Fig. 8 shows rate of heat evolution
depending on the amount used of hardening accelerator at age of 72 h. Rate of heat
 T.-B. Min et al. / Construction and Building Materials 64 (2014) 208–214 211

350 8
Initial setting time Final setting time P-A0 P-A1 P-A3
300 7

Rate of hydration heat (J/g/h)

6
Setting time (min)

250

200 5

150 4

100 3

50 2

0 1
P-A0 P-A1 P-A3
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Fig. 4. Setting time depending on the amount used of hardening accelerator.
Time (hours)

Fig. 7. Rate of heat evolution depending on the amount used of hardening

50
accelerator with time (age 2 h).
P-A0 P-A1 P-A3
Compressive strength (MPa)

40
7
P-A0 P-A1 P-A3
6

Rate of hydrationheat (J/g/h)

30

5
20
4

10 3

2
0
2 4 6 12
1
Time (hours)
0
Fig. 5. Relationship between compressive strength and time of cement paste with 0 6 12 18 24 30 36 42 48 54 60 66 72
the amount used of hardening accelerator.
Time (hours)

Fig. 8. Rate of heat evolution depending on the amount used of hardening

accelerator with time (age 72 h).
1.2
P-A0 P-A1 P-A3
1
80
P-A0 P-A1 P-A3
Relative rate of hydrationheat (%)

0.8 70
Ca(OH)2 (%)

60
0.6
50

0.4 40

30
0.2
20
0
2 4 6 12 10
0
Fig. 6. Relationship between yield of Ca(OH)2 and time in accordance with the
amount used of hardening accelerator. -10
0 12 24 36 48 72
Time (hours)
evolution is high even at dominant period depending on use of hardening acceler- Fig. 9. Relationship between relative rate of heat evolution and time of cement
ator. Acceleratory period is expressed after 6 h and second peak point is expressed paste depending on use of hardening accelerator with time (reference: 0%, P-A0).
at about 10 h. Thus, hardening accelerator accelerates hydration by stimulating C3A
and C3S at early age, that’s why compressive strength was increased depending on
use of hardening accelerator. with P-A0 when analyzing at age of 6 h. This phenomenon continues up to age of
Meanwhile, Fig. 9 shows the relative rate of heat evolution with time of P-A1 12 h and there is almost no increase of rate of heat evolution by hardening acceler-
mixed with 1% hardening accelerator and P-A3 mixed with 3% hardening accelera- ator from after age 24 h. Accordingly, it was found that the hardening accelerator
tor compared with P-A0 which is not mixed with any hardening accelerator. Rela- used in this study reacted with maximum response at about age of 6 h, and then,
tive rate of heat evolution is high as about 40% in P-A1 and 70% in P-A3 compared the reaction rate decreased with time and it was almost terminated at age of 24 h.
212 T.-B. Min et al. / Construction and Building Materials 64 (2014) 208–214

Ettringite Age: 4hours Ettringite

Age: 2hours
300 Ca(OH)2 300 Ca(OH)2

200 P-A3 200 P-A3

P-A1 100 P-A1

100

P-A0 P-A0
0 0

0 10 15 20 25 0 10 15 20 25

(a) 2 hours (b) 4 hours

Age: 6hours Ettringite Ettringite

Age: 12hours
300 Ca(OH)2 300 Ca(OH)2

P-A3 P-A3
200 200

P-A1 P-A1
100 100

P-A0 P-A0
0 0

0 10 15 20 25 0 10 15 20 25

(c) 6 hours (d) 12 hours

Fig. 10. Result of XRD analysis of cement paste at different age.

Monosulphate
Ca(OH)2

Particles of Ca(OH)2
cement

C-S-H

P-A0 (2 hours) P-A0 (4 hours) P-A0 (6 hours) P-A0 (12 hours)

C-S-H Fully hydrated cement

C-S-H consists of C-S-H gel
Ca(OH)2

Ca(OH)2

P-A1 (2 hours) P-A1 (4 hours) P-A1 (6 hours) P-A1 (12 hours)

Mainly consist Fully hydrated cement
of C-S-H gel consists of C-S-H gel
C-S-H
C-S-H

P-A3 (2 hour s) P-A3 (4 hours) P-A3 (6 hours) P-A3 (12 hours)

Fig. 11. Results of SEM of cement paste depending on use of hardening accelerator at different age.

3.2.5. X-ray diffractometer (XRD) analysis of cement paste because hardening accelerator promotes the production of Ettringite produced by
Fig. 10 shows superimposed result of XRD analysis of cement paste depending reaction of hardening accelerator with C3A. Also it is found that the yield of Ca(OH)2
on the use of hardening accelerator with time. The yield of Ettingite is increased as is increased as the amount used of hardening accelerator is increased at each age.
the amount used of hardening accelerator is increased at each age. This is probably This is probably because hardening accelerator promotes the hydration of C3S. Thus,
 T.-B. Min et al. / Construction and Building Materials 64 (2014) 208–214 213

50 50 the apparent compressive strength strong dependence on the use of hardening

P-A0 P-A1 P-A3 accelerator at each age is because the hardening accelerator promotes the hydration
P-A0 Porosity P-A1 Porosity P-A3 Porosity by stimulating C3A and C3S.
Compressive strength (MPa)

40 40
3.2.6. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis of cement paste
Fig. 11 shows the results of SEM of cement paste depending on the amount used

Porosity (%)
of hardening accelerator at each age. In specimen P-A0 with no use of hardening
30 30
accelerator, Ca(OH)2 is observed at age of 4 h and monosulphate and C–S–H are also
observed at age of 6 h. Ca(OH)2 which is plate type crystal of hexahedron and C–S–H
that affects compressive strength and Ettringite are also observed at age of 12 h. In
20 20 specimen P-A1 that contains 1% hardening accelerator, Ca(OH)2 is observed at age
of 2 h, C–S–H was extended after age of 4 h and C–S–H accounted for almost hydra-
tion products at age of 12 h. Meanwhile, in specimen P-A3 that contains 3% harden-
10 10 ing accelerator, C–S–H is observed at age of 2 h. Thus, it is clear that hardening
accelerator promotes the production of C–S–H by C3S hydration and compressive
strength becomes higher by producing a large amount of C–S–H at early age as
0 0 the amount used of hardening accelerator increases.
2 4 6 12
Time (hours) 3.2.7. Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry (MIP) analysis of cement paste
Fig. 12 shows the relationship between compressive strength and porosity with
Fig. 12. Relationship between compressive strength, porosity and time. time depending on the amount used of hardening accelerator. It describes that
porosity decreases and compressive strength increases when age increases. In par-
0.04 ticular, compressive strength increases and porosity decreases when the amount
P-A0 P-A1 P-A3 used of hardening accelerator increases at the same age. Thus, it is clear that hard-
Incremental pore volume (mL/g)

0.035 ening accelerator decreases porosity of hydration products.

Fig. 13 describes distribution of pore volume of the amount used of hardening
0.03 accelerator at age of 6 h. It is clear that capillary pores are very much part of pores
because the size of pore is generally 20–100 nm. Meanwhile, maximum pore distri-
0.025 bution of P-A0 with 0% accelerator is about 80 nm, the distribution of P-A1 which
uses 1% is 50 nm and the distribution of P-A3 which use 3% is 20 nm. Thus, it is con-
0.02 sidered that pore volume is decreased by use of hardening accelerator, and com-
pressive strength is increased. Fig. 14 shows relationship of pore volume and
0.015 pore diameter depending on the amount used of hardening accelerator at age of
6 h. As a reason of increase of compressive strength, pore volume of 20–100 nm
0.01 is small by use of hardening accelerator.

0.005 3.3. Economic evaluation

0 In this study, economic evaluation is carried out for materials used in precast
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 concrete except of shipping, non-operation expenses and labor expenses. In view
Pore diameter (nm) of the results of the economic evaluation, the oil cost is waived in developing pre-
cast concrete as steam curing is omitted. But, developed precast concrete is eco-
Fig. 13. Distribution of pore diameter depending on the amount used of hardening nomically infeasible than existing precast concrete because of increase in cement
accelerator. usage. Table 8 shows the economic evaluation results of using materials for existing
precast concrete [25] and developed precast concrete.
18

16 4. Conclusions
14
This paper focused on developing more than 10 MPa as early-
Pore volume (Vol.%)

12 stage strength after 6 h of curing at room temperature without

10 steam curing for precast concrete. Various analysis using TG/DTA,
Conduction Calorie Meter, XRD, SEM and MIP) were conducted
8
on concrete and cement paste with the amount used of calcium-
6 based hardening accelerator for tri calcium silicate. The following
P-A0
4 P-A1 conclusions can be drawn:
P-A3
2
(1) For concrete specimens, compressive strength increases
0 as the amount used of hardening accelerator increases.
0 10 100 1000 10000 100000 Compressive strength of concrete was more than
Pore diameter (nm) 10 MPa after 9 h of curing at 20 °C with 3% hardening
accelerator. For cement paste specimens, yield of
Fig. 14. Relationship of pore volume and pore diameter depending on the amount
used of hardening accelerator.

Table 8
Economic evaluation of precast concrete.

Specimen Cement (kg/m3) S (kg/m3) G (kg/m3) PC (kg/m3) Accelerator (kg/m3) Rebar (kg/m3) Diesel (‘) Price of precast
concrete ($)
3 3
Unit price 0.07 ($/kg) 12.18 ($/m ) 12.65 ($/m ) 0.94 ($/kg) 1.41 ($/kg) 0.71 ($/kg) 1.58 ($/‘) –
Existing precast concrete [25] 400 842 957 4 – 193.19 8.8 191.34
C-0 500 796 923 5 – 193.19 – 185.00
C-A1 500 794 923 5 5 193.19 – 192.04
C-A3 500 790 923 5 15 193.19 – 206.12
C-A5 500 786 923 5 25 193.19 – 220.20
214 T.-B. Min et al. / Construction and Building Materials 64 (2014) 208–214
Ca(OH)2 increases as the amount used of hardening
accelerator increases. Ca(OH)2 is rapidly increased after
age 6 h with 3% hardening accelerator.
(2) Rate of heat evolution of cement paste increases as the
amount used of hardening accelerator increases and
specimen which uses hardening accelerator has very
high relative rate of heat evolution compared with
specimen with no hardening accelerator at age of 12 h.
(3) According to the results of XRD and SEM analysis, yields
of Ettringite and Ca(OH)2 increased as the amount used
of hardening accelerator increased. In particular, the
increase of compressive strength by the use of harden-
ing accelerator was because the hardening accelerator
promoted hydration as stimulating C3A and C3S at early
age and from that the production of Ettringite, Ca(OH)2
and C–S–H were quicker as the amount used of harden-
ing accelerator increased.
(4) MIP results shows that pore volume was decreased by
the promotion of hydration of high early strength
cement and the amount used of hardening accelerator.
The yields of Ettringite, Ca(OH)2, and C–S–H increases
at early age with the increase of the rate of heat evolu-
tion as it stimulates C3A and C3S when using calcium-
based hardening accelerator with high early strength
cement.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by a grant (12, Advanced-City C19)
from Architecture & Urban Development Research Program funded
by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Korean
Government.
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