The acceleration of cement hydration by seeding: influence of the cement mineralogy
A new seeding technology, successfully applied in the concrete sector, is allowing concrete producers to accelerate their production or to replace cement by more cementitious materials.
1 Introduction
The development of the mechanical properties in ordinary Portland cement is closely linked to the hydration of tricalcium and dicalcium silicates. Accelerating the hydration of these phases, and therefore the setting and hardening of concrete, is highly desired in many applications, mainly for speeding up the production or to reduce the cement portion in the concrete mix design. The addition of seeds, namely the “seeding”, is a common practice to accelerate and control the crystallization and in this case to accelerate the cement hydration. Despite the fact that this idea is not...
