Effect of grinding agent and fly ash: Modeling and optimization

This paper aims to optimize the effect of fly ash and grinding agent on the cement performance by using the box behnken plan which consists to minimize the experiments number compared with classical design. this modeling optimization has shown that we can have a better mechanical property of cement,by staring the fly ash percentage in 5%,clinker percentage in 67% and grinding agent debit in 491kg/t. in this case,the cement compressive strength reaches to 26.5,40.0 and 50.8mpa after 7,28 and 90 days of curing,respectively. these results showed that the milling agent begins to develop the cement compressive strength at a young age (at 7 days) but the fly ash begin to react after 28 days of curing. the reactivity of the fly ash and grinding agents is due to their composition and their structure which was examined by the sem microstructure analysis. so,the effect of the grinding agent and fly ash should be considered during the cement formulation. the factors effects and their interactions on the cement properties was modeled and analyzed. the final results demonstrate how the dose and the percentage of each factor and their interactions can be manipulated to manufacture a mortar with a better quality and which satisfy the relevant european (eu) and moroccan (nm) standards. © 2017,university of mohammed premier oujda morocco.