ESTIMATION OF SLAG CONTENT AND WATER-TO-CEMENTITIOUS

MATERIAL RATIO OF HARDENED CONCRETE

K. Sisomphon*, National University of Singapore, Singapore
M. H. Zhang, National University of Singapore, Singapore
S. Q. Zhang, W.R. Grace Pte Ltd, Singapore
F. Qi, National University of Singapore, Singapore
H. K. Kor, National University of Singapore, Singapore

31st Conference on OUR WORLD IN CONCRETE & STRUCTURES: 16 - 17 August 2006,

Singapore

Article Online Id: 100031045

The online version of this article can be found at:
http://cipremier.com/100031045

Thisarticleisbroughttoyouwiththesupportof
SingaporeConcreteInstitute
www.scinst.org.sg

AllRightsreservedforCIPremierPTELTD
YouarenotAllowedtoredistributeorresalethearticleinanyformatwithoutwrittenapprovalof
CIPremierPTELTD
VisitOurWebsiteformoreinformation
www.cipremier.com

31st Conference on OUR WORLD IN CONCRETE & STRUCTURES: 16 17 August 2006, Singapore

ESTIMATION OF SLAG CONTENT AND WATER-TO-CEMENTITIOUS

MATERIAL RATIO OF HARDENED CONCRETE
K. Sisomphon*, National University of Singapore, Singapore
M. H. Zhang, National University of Singapore, Singapore
S. Q. Zhang, W.R. Grace Pte Ltd, Singapore
F. Qi, National University of Singapore, Singapore
H. K. Kor, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Abstract
This paper presents preliminary results of a research on the determination of
slag content using chemical analysis method and w/cm of hardened concrete using
petrographic method. The determination of the slag content was based on cement
pastes with w/cm of 0.40 and different slag contents, and the determination of w/cm
was based on concrete with a fixed slag content and different w/cm ratios. Results
obtained indicate that the methods have potential for estimation of blast-furnace slag
content and w/cm ratio of hardened concrete.
Keywords: ground granulated blast-furnace slag, chemical composition,
petrography, porosity, selective dissolution, w/cm

1. Introduction
Ground granulated blast-furnace slag (referred to as slag from this point on) has been used
increasingly in construction for improving the long-term durability of concrete. However, the use of
the slag to replace cement may result in lower strength at early ages depending on percentage and
quality of the slag used in concrete. If the batching of the slag relative to cement is not accurate, longterm behaviors of concrete may be affected as well, e.g. resistance of concrete to de-icing salt
scaling. In situations where there are disputes, determining the quality of concrete, water-tocementitious ratio (w/cm), and quantity of the slag used in already hardened concrete is necessary.
Analytical methods were proposed by various researchers for determining mix proportion of hardened
concrete. In work of Hooton and Rogers [1], the X-ray diffraction technique of ignited mixture to
determine the slag content in hardened concrete was studied. The method involves ignition of the
mortar fraction of concrete at 950oC to 1050oC to devitrify unreacted slag. Thereafter, the resulting
crystalline melilite component is compared to that in an ignited sample of blast-furnace slag from the
same source. This method is applicable to slag with very fine particle size distribution. More
importantly, this technique can be applied only to slag which converts mainly to melilite after the high
temperature devitrification. Hooton and Rogers [1] also proposed a method to determine slag
content by optical microscopy on thin sections made from the hardened concrete. This method
involves the preparation of thin sections of the concrete and determination of the content of residue
slag particles by point counting.

Grantham [2] examined results of quantitative X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis of concrete, and
applied a mathematical approach to obtain the content of the individual components. The method has
been successfully employed by a number of UK laboratories and provides another possible way of
resolving the composition of concrete in which it is suspected that mis-batching may have occurred.
However, this method can only be used in situations where the chemical composition of original
ingredient materials of concrete is known.
Petrographic methods have been used to determine w/c of hardened concrete for many years [3-8].
In this method, thin sections with fluorescent dye were prepared from concrete to be examined.
Intensity of green tone of the concrete thin sections under optical microscope is compared with that of
standard thin sections with known w/c ratios. From the comparison, the w/c of the concrete to be
examined may be estimated. Most of the works published so far are concentrated on Portland cement
concrete.
This paper presents preliminary results of a research on the determination of slag content using
chemical analysis method and water-to-cementitious material ratio (w/cm) of hardened concrete
incorporating slag using petrographic method. For the preliminary study, the determination of the slag
content was based on cement pastes with w/cm of 0.40 and different slag contents, and the
determination of w/cm was based on concrete with a fixed slag content and different w/cm ratios.
2. Experimental Investigation
2.1 Materials, mix proportions, and curing of cement pastes and concretes
For the determination of slag content in cement pastes, a normal Portland cement (NPC1) and slag
were used. For the determination of w/cm of concrete, another Portland cement (NPC2) and a
Portland blast-furnace slag cement (PBFSC-B) were used. According to manufacturer, the slag
content in the PBFSC-B was 65% by mass. Chemical compositions of these materials are shown in
Table 1.
Table 1 - Chemical composition of cements and slag used
Oxide Content
(% by mass)
CaO
SiO2
Al2O3
Fe2O3
Na2O
K2O
MgO
SO3

NPC1

Slag

NPC2

PBFSC-B

65.3
20.8
4.9
3.2
0.17
0.30
3.4
2.0

42.4
30.4
16.0
0.4
0.15
0.24
7.9
2.6

63.4
20.8
5.4
3.3
0.08
0.48
1.9
2.0

50.5
29.2
11.6
1.3
0.17
0.46
4.6
2.2

For the determination of slag content, four cement paste mixtures were prepared with a controlled
w/cm ratio of 0.40 and slag contents of 0, 30, 50 and 70% by mass of total cementitious materials.
The pastes were cured in a sealed condition in the first 24 hrs followed by curing in a fog room with a
relative humidity of 100% and temperature of 30oC until 28 and 91 days. At these ages, the pastes
were broken into small pieces, and dried in a vacuum oven at 40oC until constant weight was
reached. The samples were then ground into fine powders passing through 75 m sieve. The powder
samples were kept in glass bottles and stored in a desiccator for analyses.
For the determination of w/cm ratio, ten concrete mixtures with w/cm ratios of 0.30 to 0.70 with an
increment of 0.10 were prepared. Five of the concretes were made from Portland cement NPC2 and
another five were made from the blast-furnace slag cement. The mix proportions of the concretes are
summarized in Table 2. After 24 hours curing in moulds (100x100x100-mm) covered with plastic
sheet at ambient temperature (about 28-30 oC), the specimens were demoulded and cured in water
until 28 and 56 days. For preparation of thin sections of concrete, small samples (60x40x20mm) were
cut from the cubes and dried in a vacuum oven at 40 oC for about 15 hrs and at 50 oC for another 3
hrs followed by drying in a regular oven at 105 oC for about 3-4 hrs. Thin sections of the concrete
were prepared and analyzed in accordance with Nordtest Method NT BUILD 361, 1991 [9].

Table 2 - Mix proportion of concrete

3

Materials (kg/m )
Mixture
NPC 0.30
NPC 0.40
NPC 0.50
NPC 0.60
NPC 0.70
PBFSC
0.30
PBFSC
0.40
PBFSC
0.50
PBFSC
0.60
PBFSC
0.70

NPC2

PBFSC-B

Water

Sand

Gravel

475
421
376
324
276

142
169
188
195
194

610
674
749
825
917

1185
1100
1034
967
917

Superplasticizer
(ml/100kg cement)
1100
900
800
950
1800

475

142

630

1145

1100

421

169

691

1066

900

376

188

764

1003

800

324

195

838

940

950

276

194

928

894

1800

2.2 Determination of slag content in hardened cement paste

The slag content was determined based on chemical analysis. The total cementitious materials in
cement paste mixtures consisted of two components, NPC and slag. The relationship among the
oxide content in NPC, slag, and mixed cementitious materials can be written as follows.

CM NPC (1 R ) slag R
where R

Eq. (1)

% of slag by mass of total cementitious materials [% by mass]

CM

oxide content in cementitious materials (cement and slag) [% by mass]

NPC

oxide content in cement [% by mass]

slag

oxide content in slag [% by mass]

Calcium oxide, SiO2, Al2O3 and Fe2O3 are the major components in cementing materials. Among
those, CaO is easily dissolved in most chemical treatments, whereas Fe2O3 has relatively low content.
Hence, the ratio of silicon dioxide-to-aluminum oxide content SiO2 was chosen for calculation and

Al2O3
determination of slag content according to the relationship in Equation (2).

SiNPC 1 R Sislag R
Si

Al CM AlNPC 1 R Alslag R
where R

Eq. (2)

% of slag by mass of total cementitious materials [% by mass]

Si SiO2 to Al2O3 content in the cementitious materials [% by mass / % by

Al CM

mass]
SiNPC
AlNPC
Sislag
Alslag

SiO2 content in NPC [% by mass]

Al2O3 content in NPC [% by mass]
SiO2 content in slag [% by mass]
Al2O3 content in slag [% by mass]

To calculate the slag content R, Equation (2) can be rearranged as demonstrated in the equation
shown below.

R
SiNPC

Si
SiNPC AlNPC
Al CM
Si
Sislag Alslag AlNPC
Al CM

Eq. (3)

If the raw materials are available or if the composition of the cement and slag used in the concrete are
known, the slag content R can be calculated from Equation (3) after determining the composition of
the cement paste in concrete which has a strong relationship to that of the original cementitious
materials. In this study, X-ray fluorescence (XRF) technique was used to determine the chemical
composition of the cement, slag, and the dried samples of the cement pastes. A Thermo Electron
ARL 9800 XRF spectroscopy system was used for the chemical analyses.
If the original cement used for the concrete is not available and the composition of the cement is
unknown, estimation may be made since the cement is an industrial product and has to meet
standards.
If the original slag used for the concrete is not available and the composition of the slag is unknown,
selective dissolution techniques on cement paste samples can be applied to obtain residue slag
samples. The principle of the methods is to dissolve a cement paste sample in specific solvents
which attack unhydrated cement components and hydration products except for unreacted slag which
is retained as residue. A selective dissolution process originally proposed by Luke and Glasser [10]
was used in the current study to obtain residue slag sample from the hardened cement pastes.
Details of the process can be found in Reference [10]. The process was originally proposed to
determine the reaction degree of the slag. Among the major oxides, only CaO is significantly
dissolved by the dissolution. If it is assumed that the content of SiO2 and Al2O3 of the residue slag is
similar to that of the original slag, the content of SiO2 and Al2O3 of the original slag may be estimated
and used for the calculation of slag content in cement pastes.

2.3 Determination of w/cm of hardened concrete

Fluorescence microscopy was used to determine the w/cm of concrete [3-8]. The principle of the
method is that the green tone (GT) intensity of a thin section of the concrete under fluorescence
microscope is related to capillary porosity of the concrete. The higher capillary porosity, the higher GT
intensity. The capillary porosity is further related to the w/cm of the concrete. If standard thin sections
of concrete cured for 28 days with known w/cm ratios, slag quality, and slag content are available, the
w/cm of a concrete can be estimated by comparing the GT intensity of the thin section of the concrete
being investigated to that of the standard thin sections of the concrete with similar slag quality and
content and similar curing.
In this study, thin sections of the concretes with w/cm of 0.30 to 0.70 were prepared. The GT intensity
of the thin sections was determined at a magnification of 100 times by using a standard polarizing
microscope LEICA DMLP with 100-watt tungsten-halogen light source and a blue excitation filter and
a yellow barrier filter. Both the polarizer and analyzer were removed from the light path and a
condenser was adjusted to give Khler illumination. The microscope examination of the thin sections
was carried out in a semi-dark room. A JVC 3-CCD color video camera was used to collect images,
and an image analysis software was used to determine the GT intensity. The green tone value was
determined at 10 different randomly selected paste areas through the thin section, and the mean GT
was then calculated. Details can be found in Reference [3].
From the above information, relationships between GT intensity and w/cm can be established. The
relationships of the control Portland cement concrete and concrete made from the blast-furnace slag
cement were compared.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1 Estimation of slag content in cement pastes
The chemical composition of the cement pastes determined from XRF is presented in Tables 3. The
chemical composition of the pastes can also be calculated from that of the raw materials (Table 1) by
Equation (1), and the results are given in Table 4.
Table 3 - Chemical compositions of the hardened cement pastes determined by XRF technique
(a) Cement paste samples cured for 28 days

(b) Cement paste samples cured for 91 days

Oxide Content
(% by mass)

NPC

30%Slag

50%Slag

70%Slag

Oxide Content
(% by mass)

NPC

30%Slag

50%Slag

70%Slag

CaO
SiO2
Al2O3
Fe2O3
Na2O
K2O
MgO
SO3

66.3
21.2
4.5
3.4
0.1
0.2
3.1
1.2

60.6
24.0
6.9
2.7
0.1
0.2
4.0
1.5

54.9
26.7
9.2
2.1
0.1
0.2
5.0
1.7

50.6
28.7
11.2
1.5
0.1
0.2
5.7
2.0

CaO
SiO2
Al2O3
Fe2O3
Na2O
K2O
MgO
SO3

64.3
22.2
5.4
3.2
0.1
0.2
3.4
1.3

59.9
24.6
7.1
2.7
0.1
0.2
4.1
1.5

55.2
26.6
9.2
2.2
0.1
0.2
4.9
1.7

50.2
28.7
11.5
1.6
0.1
0.2
5.8
2.0

Table 4 - Chemical compositions of the cement

pastes calculated from the raw materials
Oxide Content
(% by
mass)
CaO
SiO2
Al2O3
Fe2O3
Na2O
K2O
MgO
SO3

NPC

30%Sla
g

50%Sla
g

70%Sla
g

65.3
20.8
4.9
3.2
0.2
0.3
3.4
2.0

58.6
23.6
8.2
2.4
0.2
0.3
4.7
2.2

54.0
25.5
10.4
1.8
0.2
0.3
5.6
2.3

49.4
27.5
12.6
1.3
0.2
0.3
6.5
2.4

Oxide contents calculated from binders (%wt)

The content of SiO2 and Al2O3 calculated is plotted against that determined from hardened paste for
both 28 and 91 days samples (Fig. 1). The SiO2 and Al2O3 calculated and determined by XRF seem
to have good relationships. Linear regression lines were drawn for the SiO2 and the Al2O3 and the
gradients represent the correlation factors. Empirical relationships between the oxide contents
calculated and determined for the hydrated cement pastes can be established and shown in
Equation (4), where Sicp and Alcp are SiO2 and Al2O3 contents in the hardened cement paste,
respectively.
30

25

Line of
equality

20

SiO2
y = 0.9442x

15

28-day
91-day

10

Al2O3
y = 1.1005x

0
0

10

15

20

25

30

Oxide contents measured from pastes (%wt)

Fig.1 - Correlation of the oxide contents in cement pastes

calculated from raw materials and determined by XRF method

0.94Sicp
Si

Al CM 1.1Alcp

Eq. (4)

By substituting Equation (4) into Equation (3), the slag content R can be determined as shown in
Equation (5).

0.94Sicp
SiNPC
Al
1.1Alcp NPC

R
0.94Sicp
Al AlNPC
SiNPC Sislag
1.1Al slag
cp

Eq. (5)

3.1.1 Estimation of slag content R when cement composition is known

If the cement used for the concrete is available or the chemical composition of the Portland cement
used is known, there are two possible scenarios for determining the slag content depending on
whether the chemical composition of the slag is known or unknown. In cases that the composition of
both the cement and slag is known, the slag content R can be directly estimated by Equation (5).
However, if the composition of slag is unknown, the selective dissolution process is required to
determine the composition of the slag. Table 5 presents the composition of residue slag samples
obtained using the selective dissolution process in comparison with that of the original unreacted slag.
The results indicate that SiO2 and Al2O3 contents in the residues are similar to those in the original
slag for most mixes except for the sample 30Slag- 91days. Nevertheless, the SiO2/Al2O3 ratio of the
residues for all the mixes was similar to that of the original slag and the difference was not more than
13% (Fig. 2).
Table 5 - Chemical composition of residue slag samples
after selective dissolution
30%
Slag,
28d,
residue

50%
Slag,
28d,
residue

70%
Slag,
28d,
residue

30%
Slag,
91d,
residue

50%
Slag,
91d,
residue

70%
Slag,
91d,
residue

CaO

42.4

26.1

32.4

34.5

25.1

27.4

32.7

SiO2

30.4

33.6

27.5

28.4

22.3

27.4

31.8

Al2O3

16.0

15.9

14.3

15.0

13.5

14.7

16.7

Fe2O3

0.4

2.2

1.3

0.8

1.9

2.3

1.2

Na2O

0.2

6.4

3.8

4.2

3.2

3.8

3.9

K2O

0.2

0.2

0.2

0.3

0.2

0.2

0.2

MgO

7.9

15.7

20.2

16.3

33.5

23.8

12.9

SO3

2.6

0.0

0.3

0.4

0.2

0.3

0.5

2.5

28 days

91 days

2.0
SiO2/Al 2O3

Oxide Content Original

(% by mass)
slag

1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
Pure Slag

30Slag

50Slag

70Slag

30Slag

50Slag

70Slag

Fig.2 - SiO2/Al2O3 ratios of the residues and

original unreacted slag

The estimated slag content is plotted against the actual content when the composition of the slag is
known or unknown (Fig. 3). The method yields reasonably good estimation of the slag content with
an absolute error of estimation within 5% by mass of cementitious materials regardless whether the
composition of slag is known or unknown.

+5 +2.5%

-2.5%
-5%

Estimated %by mass of cementitious materials

Estimated %by mass of cementitious materials

+5 +2.5%
80
70
60
50
28-day
91-day

40
30
20
10
0
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

-2.5%
-5%

70
60
50
28-day
91-day

40
30
20
10
0
0

80

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Actual %by mass of cementitious materials

Actual %by mass of cementitious materials

(a) Known slag

(b) Unknown slag
Fig. 3 - Verification of estimation when the composition of the cement is known
3.1.2 Estimation of slag content R when cement composition is unknown
In practice the cement used for the concrete to be investigated may not be available after the
construction is completed and the composition of the cement is unknown. In such cases the chemical
composition of the cement needs to be estimated. Because Portland cements are industrial products,
and their composition has to meet requirements of standards. The chemical composition of the
cement can thus be roughly estimated. Information of the chemical composition of normal Portland
cements used in Structural and Concrete Laboratory at NUS over the past five years were collected,
and their SiO2 and Al2O3 contents are shown in Fig. 4. From the available data, six-point boundaries
of SiO2-Al2O3 contents were drawn.
25
24
SiO2 (% by mass)

23
22
21
20

5-year data

Average
Boundary

19

NPC1

18
17
16
15
3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

5.5

6.0

6.5

7.0

Al2O3 (% by mass)

Fig. 4 - Chemical composition of normal Portland cements used

in Structural and Concrete Laboratory at NUS over the past 5 years
Similar to the cases where the chemical composition of cement is known, there are two possible
scenarios for determining the slag content depending on whether the composition of slag is known or
unknown. Figure 5 presents the estimated slag contents vs. the actual ones. To study the sensitivity
of estimated cement composition in order to estimate the slag content R, calculation was performed
by substituting the oxide content of cement with the 6-point boundary values, and the results are also
shown in Fig. 5. As expected, the estimation error for the slag content was higher than the cases
where the cement composition is known. The absolute error of estimation is within 10% by mass of
cementitious materials in most cases except for some values calculated from the boundaries A, E and
F.
Normally, relationships among oxides in Portland cement must be controlled by several parameters
called cement modulus to achieve a complete clinkering process in manufacturing. Index of activity,

SiO2/Al2O3, is one of the moduli which has to be controlled whereby the value would fall under a
specified range. From Fig. 4, if considering the boundary in terms SiO2/Al2O3 as presented by the
slope of dash lines from origin, the boundaries of the Portland cement from 5-year collected data
would be at Boundaries C, D and E, whereas one point has been considered as outlier shown within a
circle. Excluding this outlier, the error of estimation will be lower than 10% by mass of cementitious
materials for all cases.
+10%

+5%

+10%

-5%
70

-5%
Estimated % by mass of cementitious materials

Estimated % by mass of cementitious materials

+5%

80

80

-10%

60
50
Boundary A
Boundary B

40

Boundary C
Boundary D

30

Boundary E
Boundary F

20
10

70

-10%

60
50
Boundary A
Boundary B

40

Boundary C
Boundary D

30

Boundary E
Boundary F

20
10

0
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

10

Actual % by mass of cementitious materials

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Actual % by mass of cementitious materials

(a) Known slag

(b) Unknown slag

Fig.5 - Verification of estimation when cement composition is unknown

3.2 Estimation of water-to-cementitious materials ratio (w/cm) of concrete

Figure 6 shows the relationship between the green tone (GT) intensity and w/cm. It is clear that the GT
intensity has good correlation with the w/cm of the concrete. However, the GT intensity of the concrete
made with the slag cement is lower compared with that of the control Portland cement concrete of
equivalent w/cm, indicating that the slag concretes are denser than the control concretes. It is also
noted that the GT intensity of the concrete cured for 56 days was generally lower than that cured for 28
days. The longer curing promotes further hydration which decreases porosity and thus the intensity of
the fluorescent light passing through a concrete thin section. Regression analyses of the data for the
control Portland cement concrete and concrete made with the slag cement cured for 28 days provide
two relations between the w/cm and GT intensity shown in Equations (6) and (7) with correlation
coefficient of 0.9959 and 0.9637, respectively.

w / cm 0.0053GT 0.0733

(for the control Portland cement concrete)

Eq. (6)

w / cm 0.0051GT 0.0689

(for the concrete with the slag cement)

Eq. (7)

0.80

y = 0.0051x + 0.0689
2
R = 0.9637

0.70

w/cm ratio

0.60

28d NPC

PBFC

56d NPC

0.50

28d PBFC

NPC

0.40

56d PBFC

y = 0.0053x - 0.0733
2
R = 0.9959

0.30
0.20
20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

Green tone value

Fig. 6 - Correlation between GT and w/cm ratio

(the regression lines are based on 28-day data)

Assume that the source and quality of the slag used in concrete in a local area is reasonably
consistent. If that is the case, the w/cm of the concrete with slag may be estimated if the standard thin
sections of concrete cured for 28 days with known slag contents and w/cm ratios are available as long
as the curing of the concrete to be examined is similar to that of the standards. The w/cm of the
concrete may be estimated by comparing the GT intensity of the concrete to be investigated with that
of the standards if the slag content in the concrete is known.
Table 6 presents the GT value of the concrete experimentally determined, the estimated w/cm
calculated based on Equations 6 and 7, and the error of estimation. The absolute error of estimation
for the w/cm of the concrete cured for 56 days was > 0.10 for a number of cases, particularly for the
concrete with the slag cement. This is probably due the fact that longer moisture curing results in
greater hydration and pozzolanic reaction for the concretes which reduces capillary porosity,
particularly for the concrete with the slag cement. Reduced capillary porosity would decrease the GT
value of thin section of the concrete. This results in underestimation of the w/cm of the concrete.
Therefore, in order to estimate the w/cm of the concrete with reasonable accuracy, the curing of the
concrete to be investigated, particularly those with slag, should be similar to that of the standards.
Table 6 - Error of estimation of w/cm
Age
28 days

Actual
w/cm
0.30

Green tone
value
70

Estimated
w/cm
0.30

0.00

Green tone
value
52

Estimated
w/cm
0.33

0.40

89

0.40

+0.03

0.00

63

0.39

0.50

112

-0.01

0.52

+0.02

83

0.49

0.60

-0.01

128

0.61

+0.01

97

0.56

-0.04

145

0.70

0.00

130

0.73

+0.03

0.30

60

0.24

-0.06

38

0.26

-0.04

0.50

109

0.50

0.00

61

0.38

-0.12

0.70

125

0.59

-0.11

99

0.57

-0.13

0.70
56 days

Mixture

NPC

Error

Mixture

PBFC

Error

4. Summary and Conclusions

For the preliminary study, the determination of the slag content was based on cement pastes with w/cm
of 0.40 and different slag contents using a chemical analysis method, and the determination of w/cm
was based on concrete with a fixed slag content and different w/cm ratios using a petrographic method.
Based on the results, the following conclusions may be drawn:
1. The slag content in hardened concrete may be estimated by the chemical analysis method.
However, the accuracy of the estimation depends on whether the chemical composition of the
cement and slag used in the concrete to be investigated is known. In cases that the composition of
the cement is known, the absolute error of estimation of the slag content is within 5% by mass of
cementitious materials regardless whether the composition of slag is known or unknown. In cases
that the composition of the slag is unknown, a selective dissolution process may be used to
estimate the ratio of SiO2/Al2O3. In cases where the composition of the cement is unknown, the
absolute error of estimation of the slag content is within 10% by mass of cementitious materials
for most of the cases. It is recommended, therefore, to keep chemical composition of the cement
used in record for various construction projects.
2. For both concretes made with the slag cement and Portland cement, there are good correlations
between the green tone (GT) intensity and w/cm. However, the GT intensity of the concrete made
with the slag cement is lower compared with that of the control Portland cement concrete of
equivalent w/cm. The GT intensity of the concrete cured for 56 days was generally lower than that
cured for 28 days. Assume that the source and quality of the slag used in concrete in a local area is
reasonably consistent, the w/cm of the concrete with slag may be estimated with reasonable
accuracy if the standard thin sections of concrete cured for 28 days with known slag contents and
w/cm ratios are available as long as the curing of the concrete to be investigated is similar to that of
the standards.
Further research is needed to determine the slag content in concrete samples. The challenge is to
separate the fine aggregate particles from the cement pastes.

References
[1] Hooton, R. D. and Rogers, C. A., 1995, Determination of Slag and Fly Ash Content in Hardened
Concrete, Cement, Concrete and Aggregates, CCAGDP, Vol.17, No.1, pp.55-60.
[2] Grantham, M. G., 1995, Determination of Slag and Pulverized Fuel Ash Hardened Concrete The
Method of Last Resort Revisited, Cement, Concrete, and Aggregate, CCAGDP, Vol.17, No.1, pp 7678.
[3] Zhang, S. Q. and Zhang, M. H., 2005, Application of petrography for determining the quality of
concrete cured in tropical environment, Cement and Concrete Research, Vol.35, Issue 7, pp.13771384.
[4] St John Donald, A., Poole Alan, W. and Sims, I., Concrete petrography, A Handbook of
Investigation Techniques, John Wiley & Sons Inc., New York, 2000.
[5] Liu, J. J. and Khan, M. S., Comparison of Known and Determined Water-Cement Ratios Using
Petrography, Water-Cement Ratio and Other Durability Parameters Techniques for Determination,
ACI SP-191-2, pp. 11-25, 2000.
[6] Mayfield, B., The Quantitative Evaluation of the Water/cement Ratio Using Fluorescence
Microscopy. Magazine of Concrete Research, no. 150, pp. 45-49, 1990.
[7] Jakobsen, U.H., Understanding the Fetures Observed in Concrete Using Various Fluorescence
Impregnation Techniques. Proc. 20th ICMA, Mexico, pp. 281-301, 1998.
[8] Jakobsen, U. H., Laugesen, P. and Thaulow, N., Determination of Water-Cement Ratio in Hardened
Concrete by Optical Fluorescence Microscopy, Water-Cement Ratio and Other Durability Parameters
Techniques for Determination, ACI International SP-191-3, 2000.
[9] Nordtest Method, Concrete, Hardened: Water-Cement Ratio, NT Build 361, 1991
[10] Luke, K. and Glasser, F. P., 1987, Selective Dissolution of Hydrated Blast Furnace Slag Cements,
Cement and Concrete Research, Vol.17, pp. 273-282.
[11] British Standards BS 1881 Part 124, 1988: Testing Concrete, pp. 1-21.