Effect of fly ash fineness on microstructure of blended cement paste

This research demonstrates the effect of fly ash fineness on pore size and microstructure of hardened blended cement pastes. Two sizes of fly ash, original fly ash and classified fly ash were used to replace Portland cement type I paste. Test results indicated that the pore sizes of hardened blended cement paste were significantly affected by the rate of replacement and the fineness of fly ash. The replacement of cement by original fly ash decreased the pore sizes of blended cement paste and the incorporation of classified fly ash resulted in a further decrease in the pore sizes of blended cement paste. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that the blended cement paste with classified fly ash was more effective at reducing the intensity of Ca(OH)2 than that with the original fly ash. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) results revealed that the hardened blended cement paste containing finer fly ash produced a denser structure than the one containing coarser fly ash.