A geochemical assessment method for identification of natural pozzolans as supplementary cementitious material

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Abstract
Pozzolans are available in natural resources as raw materials potentially applicable in the cement and concrete industries. Proper identification and exploration methods are very crucial regarding the technical and economical purposes. In this paper, a two-phase study employed based on the geochemical data processing and experimental investigations. Chemical and petrography of natural pozzolans (NPs) were utilized to develop the proposed method. This method proposes three geochemical indexes including the limiting values of SiO2/CaO, alumina saturation and alkali content to qualify the natural pozzolan regarding the supplementary cementetious requirements. Then based on ASTM C618 and EN 196-5 standards and complementary tests, the chemical and physical properties of two natural pozzolans were assessed to validate the proposed method. The results showed that the proposed method could be used as a robust method to identify the natural pozzolans as a direct method.