Fire resistance of fired clay bricks–fly ash composite cement pastes

This work aims to study the effect of substitution of fly ash for homra on the hydration properties of composite cement pastes. The composite cements are composed of constant proportion of OPC (80%) with variable amounts of fly ash and homra. The addition of fly ash accelerates the initial and final sitting time, whereas the free lime and combined water contents decrease with fly ash content. The fly ash acts as nucleation sites which may accelerate the rate of formation of hydration products which fill some of the pores of the cement pastes. The fire resistance of composite cement pastes was evaluated after firing at 250, 450, 600, 800 °C with rate of firing 5 °C/min with soaking time for 2 h. The physico-mechanical properties such as bulk density and compressive strength were determined at each firing temperature. Moreover, the phase composition, free lime and microstructure for some selected samples were investigated. It can be concluded that the pozzolanic cement with 20 wt% fly ash can be used as fire resisting cement.