Speaker
Description
Calcium aluminate cements (CACs) are often treated as specialty binders, but recent work suggests their performance merits broader consideration. Drawing on testing funded by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration and recently published in a comprehensive report (FHWA-HRT-24-012), we compare CACs to portland cement, calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA), magnesium phosphate cements, chemically activated binders and other alternative binders across key metrics: mechanical property development, chemical resistance, and long-term durability. CACs are known to offer clear advantages—especially where early strength, sulfate resistance, or performance under elevated temperatures is critical. This research also demonstrated that CACs can also offer excellent resistance to chloride ingress, potential to limit ASR expansion of reactive aggregate, low shrinkage and flexibility in set time when used with appropriate chemical admixtures. Still, the data reinforce that no single binder is universally superior, with the demands of the application necessitating weighing of different performance measures. This presentation outlines the performance envelope of CACs relative to other systems and identifies where their use may offer the greatest benefit in cast-in-place and other conventional concrete construction.
Affiliations
¹Georgia Institute of Technology, 790 Atlantic Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332, kkurtis@gatech.edu
²Furno Materials, South San Francisco, CA
³Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
⁴Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK
⁵ Oklahoma Department of Transportation, Oklahoma City, OK
⁶Ozinga, Chicago, IL
⁷Virginia Department of Transportation, Richmond, VA
⁸Temple University, Philadelphia, PA [
⁹Tourney Consulting Group, Kalamazoo, MI
¹⁰U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Vicksburg, MS 39180
| Keywords | alternative cements, durability, performance, shrinkage, strength |
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