Abstract:

The aim of this study is the investigation of microstructural effects on cement mortars (CMs) of four different parameters as cement dosage, water/cement ratio, pozzolanic material and curing effect. To achieve the purpose of this study, SEM/EDX, XRD, FTIR and TGA/DTA analysis were performed. A total of 18 mixtures were produced and exposed to water curing (WC) and air curing (AC). In the design of these mixtures, three different cement dosages as 360, 400 and 450 kg/m3 and three different water/cement ratios as 0.40, 0.45 and 0.50 were used. Silica fume (SF) was preferred to observe the effect on microstructural properties clearly of pozzolanic material. In addition, super plasticizer (SP) was utilized in all mixtures and kept constant as 12 kg/m3. The compressive strength, flexural strength and ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) of these mixtures were determined at 28 and 90 days. Eight mixtures were chosen to observe the effect of four different parameters in a microstructural sense. XRD, SEM/EDX, FTIR and TGA/DTA analyses were applied to these mixtures. It can be said that microstructural analyses supported the findings obtained from mechanical tests.

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