Influence of fly ash fineness on strength, drying shrinkage and sulfate resistance of blended cement mortar

In this paper, the influence of fineness of fly ash on water demand and some of the properties of hardened mortar are examined. In addition to the original fly ash (OFA), five different fineness values of fly ash were obtained by sieving and by using an air separator. Two sieves, Nos. 200 and 325, were used to obtain two lots of graded fine fly ash. For the classification using air separator, the OFA was separated into fine, medium and coarse portions. The fly ash dosage of 40% by weight of binder was used throughout the experiment. From the tests, it was found that the compressive strength of mortar depended on the fineness of fly ash. The strength of mortar containing fine fly ash was better than that of OFA mortar at all ages with the very fine fly ash giving the highest strength. The use of all fly ashes resulted in significant improvement in drying shrinkage with the coarse fly ash showing the least improvement owing primarily to the high water to binder ratio (W/B) of the mix. Significant improvement of resistance to sulfate expansion was obtained for all fineness values except for the coarse fly ash where greater expansion was observed. The resistance to sulfuric acid attack was also improved with the incorporation of all fly ashes. In this case the coarse fly ash gave the best performance with the lowest rate of the weight loss owing probably to the better bonding of the coarse fly ash particles to the cement matrix and less hydration products. It is suggested that the fine fly ash is more reactive and its use resulted in a denser cement matrix and better mechanical properties of mortar.