Abstract
Even the finest cement as having a specific surface area of 6.000~8.500$\textrm{cm}^2$/g (Blaine) is to convert into low-porosity hardened cement paste by the use of appropriate plasticizer. In this study, tests were carried out on such a special cement mix(fineness of 6.000$\textrm{cm}^2$/g, Ca-lignosulfonate plus k2CO3 as plasticizer and W/C=0.25) in comparison with ordinary Portland cement. Owing mainly to the high fineness of the cement powder and the low water-to-cement ratio, the hardened low-porosity cement paste showed a very tight microstructure, the pore texture of which consisted of micropores and wide pores only of small radii. The consequence of such mix was hence that the low-porosity special cement had excellent properties of early-high and very high strengths as compared to ordinary Portland cement. Its volume change when dried in the air or re-wetted, exhibited superor behaviour as well.
