Temperature Rise of Mass

Concrete Using Current

Cements and Supplementary
Cementitious Materials
Katie Bartojay, PE, FACI
Concrete, Geotechnical, and Structural Laboratory
 Introduction

• Specifications for mass concrete often

include limits and require a temperature
control plan
– Maximum concrete temperature (i.e. 155 °F)
– Maximum temperature differential (i.e. 35 °F)

• Designers need a quick method to

predict temperature rise

• Heat generation and temperature rise

are discussed in ACI 207.2R

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 ACI 207: “any volume of concrete
with dimensions large enough to
require that measures be taken to
cope with generation of heat from
hydration of the cement and at-
tendant volume change, to
minimize cracking.”

First approach to determine

temperature rise – Use Figure 4.1
from ACI 207.2R-07

Figure 4.1, ACI 207.2R-07

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 Historical Background

• Where did Figure 4.1 come from?

– Special Cements for Mass Concrete, 1936
– Bureau of Reclamation Boulder Canyon Studies

Standard – Type I
Modified – Type II
Low Heat – Type IV

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 • Cannot use Figure 4.2 at face value. Need to
correct for:
1. Cement Content
2. Fineness
3. Heat of Hydration

Old Curves Straight Cement with Fly Ash

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 Current Guidance

• From Section 4.1.4

“Because the cement is the active heat producer in a
concrete mixture, the temperature rise of concrete with
cement contents differing from 376 lb/yd3 (223 kg/m3) can be
estimated closely by multiplying the values shown on the
curves by a factor representing the proportion of cement.”

“a rule of thumb that has worked fairly well on preliminary

computations has been to assume that pozzolan produces
only about 50% as much heat as the cement that it
replaces”

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 Current Guidance - Example

• Consider RMSC with 670

lb/yd3 of Type I/II cement.
• According to Section 4.1.4

Ta = 63.5 °F (Avg. of Type I/II)

670/376 = 1.78
Ta-670 = 1.78*63.5 = 113 °F

Figure 4.1, ACI 207.2R-07 • Many use this value as a

basis of the temperature
control plan

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 Current Guidance

• Current explanation is weak at best, no full

examples
• Based on old cements – base curves inaccurate
• Correction for Fineness
• This is NOT trivial
• Need to understand different fineness tests
• Need to get HOH at 28 day (not always
available on a mill cert)

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 Fineness – Wagner vs Blaine
ASTM
C115 vs C204

• Only the test method is shown and many people are not
familiar enough with fineness to know that we could be
talking about two different tests

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 Current Guidance - Example
Same mixture. Heat of hydration
on mill cert is 86 cal/g. Blaine
Fineness is 3900 cm2/g. Correct
From Figure 4.1, ACI 207.2R-07, Blaine Fineness is calculated
for fineness.

Conversion
Fineness ≈ 2200 cm2/g (Wagner Fineness) Factor = 0.56

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 Current Guidance - Example
Same mixture. Heat of hydration
on mill cert is 86 cal/g. Blaine
Fineness is 3900 cm2/g. Correct
From Figure 4.1, ACI 207.2R-07, Blaine Fineness is calculated
for fineness.

Fineness ≈ 2200 cm2/g (Wagner Fineness)

Eq. 4-2 from ACI
Ha = 0.76hg 207.2R

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 Current Guidance - Example
Same mixture. Heat of hydration
on mill cert is 86 cal/g. Blaine
Fineness is 3900 cm2/g. Correct
From Figure 4.1, ACI 207.2R-07, Blaine Fineness is calculated
for fineness.

Fineness ≈ 2200 cm2/g (Wagner Fineness)

Ha = 0.76hg
Temp increase due to
Ha = 0.76(86-81.5) = 3.4°F difference in HoH

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 Current Guidance - Example
Same mixture. Heat of hydration
on mill cert is 86 cal/g. Blaine
Fineness is 3900 cm2/g. Correct
From Figure 4.1, ACI 207.2R-07, Blaine Fineness is calculated
for fineness.

Fineness ≈ 2200 cm2/g (Wagner Fineness)

Ha = 0.76hg
Ha = 0.76(86-81.5) = 3.4°F

Ta-28 = 63.5 + 3.4 = 66.9°F Increase in temp due to

increased HoH (4-sak)

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 Current Guidance - Example
Same mixture. Heat of hydration
on mill cert is 86 cal/g. Blaine
Fineness is 3900 cm2/g. Correct
From Figure 4.1, ACI 207.2R-07, Blaine Fineness is calculated
for fineness.

Fineness ≈ 2200 cm2/g (Wagner Fineness)

Ha = 0.76hg
Ha = 0.76(86-81.5) = 3.4°F

Ta-28 = 63.5 + 3.4 = 66.9°F

Ta-28 = 66.9°F (670/376) = 119 °F Adjusted for increased

cement content

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 Other Available Guidance

• From Design and Control of Concrete Mixtures

(PCA, 15th ed)
– 16 °F increase for every 100 lb of cement per cubic yard
– Normal conditions (not adiabatic) with the least dimension
of 6 ft
– Mixtures containing 500 to 1000 lb/yd3 of Type I/II cement
• From Mass Concrete for Buildings and Bridges
(Gajda, 2007)
– Convert weight of pozzolan to “cement equivalent”
• 0.5 – Class F Ash
• 0.9 – 50% Slag Replacement
• 0.8 – 70% Slag Replacement

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 ACI Method

hg cal/g 28-day Heat of Hydration Note: Using γ =150 lb/yd3,

wc lb/yd3 Weight of cement C = 0.22 cal/g°C, and hg of
γ lb/yd3 Unit weight of concrete 81.5 cal/g, Ta = 0.164wc for
C cal/g°C Specific heat (~0.22) Type I/II cement

PCA Method

wc lb/yd3 Weight of cement

wFA,F lb/yd3 Weight of Class F fly ash
wFA,C lb/yd3 Weight of Class C fly ash
wSF/MK lb/yd3 Weight of silica fume or metakaolin
wSLAG lb/yd3 Weight of slag
f [-] Factor from 1 to 0.8 depending on slag content

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 Issues with Current Guidance

• Data is outdated
– Many people use Figure 4.1 at face value and do not make
the appropriate corrections for fineness (Section 4.1.2
and Figure 4.2)
• Even when corrections are made, the calculation is
not accurate for all cement contents
• Extremely limited guidance for mixtures
containing SCMs which are very common in mass
concrete

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 USBR Recent Lab Study
• Type I/II Cement
• Class F Fly Ash
• Grade 100 Slag

• 4-sack mix with same proportions as Figure 4.1

– Highlighted above
– 4” crushed aggregate
• All other mixtures contained ¾” aggregate
• Proportioned similar to typical RSMC (~670 lb of
cementitious materials per cubic yard)

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 USBR Recent Lab Study
• Adiabatic Temperature Rise – USBR 4911
– 700 lb concrete specimen sealed in a 21.5” by 21.5”
cylindrical metal container
– Placed in a heavily insulated chamber
– Temperature of chamber is maintained at the same
temperature as the specimen, resulting in truly adiabatic
conditions

• Other Thermal Properties

– Diffusivity
– Specific Heat
– Thermal Expansion
– Conductivity

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 Results - OPC

• Good fit at 376 lb/yd3 of cement, overestimated for

higher cement content (15%)
– Not a linear correlation between temperature rise and cement
content

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 Results – Class F Fly Ash

• Non-linear relationship between percent replacement

and reduction in temperature
• Higher replacement common in mass concrete will
yield lower temperatures than predicted

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 Analysis
ACI Method

• Fits reasonably well for OPC mixtures

and low FA contents.
• Greatly underestimates slag mixtures
• Greatly overestimates for high FA
contents

PCA Method

• Fits reasonably well for OPC mixtures, slag mixtures, and low/med FA mixtures
• Overestimates for high FA volume

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 Analysis – Wide Range of Cement Contents

Overestimated

Underestimated

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 Proposed Method for Temperature
Rise Prediction - Example

% Decrease in Temp
0.18
°F/lbcement

0.15 53

30

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376 671 25 50 75
Cement Content (lb/yd3) % FA Replaced

Based on measured adiabatic temperature rise for a certain cement type and
type of SCM
Step 1 – Determine the temperature rise (°F) per lb of total cementitious.
Step 2 – Decrease the temperature based on the percent of FA added

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 Application to Previous Reclamation Mass
Concrete Projects

Within 10% of measured temperature

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 Ongoing Research
• Measuring adiabatic temperature rise for mixtures
containing natural pozzolans
– Historically used by USBR (before 1970s) to mitigate temperature
rise in mass concrete

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 Conclusions
• Figures provided for guidance in ACI 207.2R-07 are
outdated. Data is from the 1930’s and fineness is from
ASTM C115 rather than the industry standard C204
– Temperature rise curves can be updated with modern cement
mixtures to eliminate the need for major corrections based on heat
of hydration and fineness
• This study has shown that there is not a linear correlation
between temperature rise and cement content.
– More research to verify this relationship
• There is a non-linear relationship between FA or GGBFS
replacement and temperature decrease

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