Abstract This study examines the influence of different grain size fractions of coal fly ash on the properties of clay-cement mortars used in flood levee construction. Dry aerodynamic separation and mesh sieving were employed to obtain ultra-fine, fine, and medium fractions of high-calcium and silicious fly ash. The experimental results reveal that the rheological properties of fresh mortars are significantly influenced by these fractions. High-calcium fly ash mortars exhibit high reactivity and rapid viscosity increase, with finer fractions showing the highest reactivity. Silica ashes show increased reactivity in the later stages of suspension hardening. Their spherical shape contributes to reducing internal friction during flow in initial technological operations. Furthermore, the compressive strength of hardened mortars improves as the particle size decreases for both ashes resulting in dense and uniform microstructure. The separation and fractionation of fly ashes contribute to obtaining fractions that influence clay-cement suspension application parameters at different scales. Results show the potential benefits of the separation of ash which can bring advantages in terms of economic viability, engineering performance, and ecological sustainability.
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Delihowski et al. (2024) studied this question.
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