Analysis of Physical and Chemical Aspects of Using Calcium Aluminate Cement for the Preparation of Low-Cement Heat-Resistant Composites

Calcium aluminate cement (CAC) provides many advantageous properties, such as rapid strength development, great chemical resistance, and higher thermal resistance than Portland cement (PC). From the point of view of CO2 emission sources, CAC production is slightly less demanding in comparison with ordinary PC, but the need for specific pure raw materials makes CAC more expensive. In order to reduce the Portland clinker consumption in composites, PC is commonly used in blended cement containing many different supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). In the case of CAC, the choice of appropriate SCMs is more difficult as they can affect not only hydraulic processes and physical properties but also the thermal resistance of the matrix. In this paper, the effect of various SCMs on the physical and chemical processes in low-cement heat-resistant composites based on CAC is analysed. Ceramic powder and calcined clay are found to be the most prospective SCMs, while the application of sintered mullite provides a somewhat worse but still acceptable performance of the studied composites.