The purpose of this international conference is to present the latest scientific and technical information in the field of supplementary cementitious materials and novel binders for use in concrete. The new aspect of this conference is to highlight advances in the field of alternative and sustainable binders and supplementary cementitious materials, which are receiving increasing attention from the research community. The conference was held in Montréal, Canada from October 2 to 4, 2017. The conference proceedings, containing 50 refereed papers from more than 33 countries, were published as ACI SP-320.

Cement pastes exhibit virtually all the rheological features of complex fluids. Thus, several rheological methods and setups have been used in the literature to characterize these materials. In the present investigation Large Amplitude Oscillatory Shear (LAOS) is for the first time exploited for cement pastes. LAOS can be used to characterize all the rheological properties within a single procedure. This technique is tested in the case of three different cement mixes: a Portland cement paste, nanoclay blended cement paste and a cement paste containing a hydro-soluble polymer. These mixes were selected in order to get rheological properties that are different both quantitatively and qualitatively. Indeed, addition of a low amount of nanoclay increased significantly the yield stress and the shear-thinning/thixotropic aspects of the cement paste, whereas addition of cellulose ether led to the decrease of yield stress and thixotropy. These non-linear rheological properties are discussed within the framework of LAOS.

Maintenance dredging works in the port of Antwerp generate each year about 450,000 tons [408,240 metric tons] of dry matter of dredging sediments, for which suitable disposal solutions or applications are required. Mechanical dewatering of the sediments results in dewatered filter cakes, rich in clay minerals. When flash calcination is applied to activate the clay minerals, the sediments show pozzolanic properties superior to siliceous fly ash. Replacing 30 wt.% of cement by dredging sediments leads to a strength development equivalent to that of a reference mixture with normal portland cement at 28 and 90 days, as a result of pozzolanic reactions. Therefore, calcined dredging sediments have a great potential to be used as a novel supplementary cementitious material (SCM) for the production of sustainable cement and concrete. This paper presents concrete mixture proportions, compatibility of the dredging sediments with different types of superplasticizers and examines both fresh and hardened concrete properties.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the autogenous shrinkage of alkali-activated slag/fly ash (AASF) mortar blends. A series of tests was performed to determine the effect of type and dosage of activators on autogenous shrinkage deformation. Heat progression in AASF systems was characterized by means of isothermal calorimetry. The reaction products of alkali-activated slag/fly ash (Class F) blends was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD). From those results, two main phases (C-A-S-H and N-A-S-H gels) are detected in slag/fly ash blended systems and with increase in fly ash content, the amount of the C-A-S-H gel decreases and the amount of N-A-S-H gel increases. Test results show that the slag/fly ash mass ratio, type and dosage of activator are the significant factors influencing the autogenous shrinkage and rate of reaction in AASF system. With increasing fly ash content and decrease in activator-to-cementitious materials ratio, the autogenous shrinkage (up to 7 days) of the AASF system decreases.

Alkali-activated cements are now reaching commercial uptake in the UK and elsewhere, providing the opportunity to produce concretes of good performance and with reduced environmental footprint compared to established technologies. The development of performance-based specifications for alkali-activated cements and concretes is ongoing in many parts of the world, including in the UK where the world-first British Standards Institute (BSI) Publicly Available Specification PAS 8820:2016 has been published to describe these materials and their utilization. However, the technical rigor, and thus practical value, of a performance-based approach to specification of novel cements and concretes will always depend on the availability of appropriate and reliable performance tests. This paper will outline the requirements of PAS8820, and briefly discuss the activities of RILEM Technical Committee 247-DTA in working to validate durability testing standards for alkali-activated materials, to feed scientific insight into the standardization process.