PHYSICO – CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF SOME LOCALLY AVAILABLE CEMENT IN NIGERIA
Alhassan, Y. A., Ekere, J. T. & Apeh, S.
Department of Civil Engineering
Federal Polytechnic, Idah, Nigeria
Email: alhassanay@gmail.com
Corresponding author: Alhassan, Y. A
ABSTRACT
Incidences of building collapse in Nigeria are posing serious challenges to all the stakeholders in the building industry. Several causes of building collapse had been attributed to either natural or man-made phenomena. Quality of building materials being among the numerous man-made phenomena and cement, the binding agents in concrete production is very keys in this regards. The aim of this study was to evaluate some physico-chemical properties of four major general purpose cement (AAR, BAR, CAR, DAR) sold in Nigeria market and used on construction sites using standard methods. The results showed that CAR cement recorded the highest CaO content (65%) while the other cement type had the lowest CaO content (64%) however CaO contents are with the specified limits. All the samples have Al2O3, SiO2 and Fe2O3 contents within the acceptable limits. The MgO and SO3 compositions for all cement type were generally below the recommended limit; C3S content in BAR and CAR cements were above the recommended limit while it was below the standard in AAR Cement. The C3A, C4AF contents are above the recommended standards for general purpose cement for AAR and BAR cement respectfully, with the exception of C3A in CAR cement that is below. The longest setting time for the cement samples were recorded in CAR Cement while; LOI and IR were significantly high in all the cement type. AAR and CAR cements had the highest compressive strength of 46.8 and 48.3 N/mm2 respectively after 28 days. The results indicate that the properties of the four brands of cement are comparable and are all of good quality. Although the cements tested showed variabilities in properties, these variabilities are not enough to cause the collapse of buildings and civil engineering structures.
Keywords: Cement properties, Good quality, setting time, Physico-chemical, Building collapse.
