Investigate the Characteristics of Different Types of Cement used to produce the Concrete Mixtures in Iraq
Abstract
Cement is the main ingredients of constructions and one of the basic element in the concrete mixtures as plain and reinforced concrete applications. It is also used for different finishing applications. Moreover, the quality of the used cement is the main key for the safety and durability of the concrete facilities. However, in industry applications, there are many local and imported types of cements which do not have associated manufactured certificates and do not subjected to Iraqi specifications of Central Organization for Standardization and quality control. Therefore, it is so essential to carry out some study involving comparison test for the imported cements that have been used in many applications in Iraq and compare them with local types of cements. Cement mixtures which have cement content of 300 kg/m3 and 0.5 water cement ratio and mix proportion of (1:1.5:3) have been prepared. Slump, initial and final setting time for fresh concrete and compressive strength for harden state have been investigated. The results indicate that the local produced cement (Almuthana) is considered the best among the available types in the industry based on its compressive strength. The results also indicate that the local produced cement (Almuthana) is performing better than the other types in term of slump and fineness which led to the less consumption of water.
