Author ORCID Identifier:

https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8695-539X

Date of Graduation

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Civil Engineering (MSCE)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Civil Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Murray, Cameron

Committee Member

Heymsfield, Ernie

Second Committee Member

Hale, Micah

Keywords

BCSA; Chemical Prestressing; Restrained Expansion; SBCSA

Abstract

Belitic calcium sulfoaluminate (BCSA) cement, an alternative cement, is increasingly used in the United States for its fast-setting and rapid strength gain characteristics, particularly for rapid pavement construction and repair. In addition, BCSA exhibits some early age expansion when moist cured due to the formation of ettringite. Under restrained conditions, expansive cements can be used to generate chemical prestress in reinforced concrete or to offset prestress losses in prestressed concrete. This study investigates the restrained expansion of concrete made from traditional BCSA and a new BCSA cement formulation intended to provide increased initial expansion behavior. Concrete samples were tested using a modified ASTM C878 test setup. Expansive behavior and maximum expansive strain were measured under moist curing conditions and comparisons were made between the two cement types. After moist curing, subsequent strain measurements were also collected under dry conditions to evaluate later-age shrinkage behavior and the net achievable prestress. Potential chemical prestress was estimated for the SBCSA concrete, based on its ability to generate sufficient restrained expansion, up to 40 days, to evaluate the maximum achievable stress and the subsequent loss of prestress due to shrinkage. Results show that increasing reinforcement ratios led to reduced early age expansion under moist curing but increases in net chemical prestress.

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