Behavior of ternary blended cements containing limestone filler and fly ash in magnesium sulfate solution at low temperature

• Studied the behavior of some ternary blended cements into 5% MgSO4 solution, at 5 °C.
• The presence of both limestone and fly ash does not decrease the vulnerability of cements.
• After 90 days of exposure, compressive strengths decrease for all samples.
• The deterioration products were gypsum, ettringite and thaumasite–ettringite solid solution.

The behavior of ternary blended cements with limestone filler and fly ash additions into 5% magnesium sulfate solution was evaluated. The presence of both limestone and fly ash in cement does not seem to decrease the vulnerability of cements to magnesium sulfate attack at 5 °C in comparison with limestone filler or fly ash cements. After 90 days, the compressive strengths decrease for all specimens (from 33.5 MPa to 16.4 MPa for Portland cement mortar and from 35 MPa to 13.8 MPa for 10% fly ash cement mortar) as a consequence of higher amount of deterioration products which exerts pressure in the capillare pores.