PURPOSES : It is necessary to clarify the rheological properties of cement paste as a basic research in the development of mechanistic concrete mix design. The rheological properties of cement paste with different binder types, mix propositions, and with/without high range water reducers have been analyzed. METHODS: In this study, ordinary Portland cement, fly-ash, blast furnace slag, silica fume, and limestone powder were used as binders. The range of water-binder ratio was 0.3-0.5, and a total of 30 different mixes have been tested. The slump flow test, V-funnel test, and Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR) test were performed to analyze the rheological properties of cement paste. RESULTS : As a result of the slump flow test, it was found that the composition ratio of the binder contents greatly affected the paste flow when the high range water reducers were added. The results of V-funnel test showed that when the water-binder ratio was decreased without high range water reducers, the binder composition ratio had a large effect on the passing time of the V-funnel tester, but with high range water reducers the impact of the binder composition ratio was decreased. The slump flow and V-funnel have a certain relationship with the rheological factors (yield stress and plastic viscosity), but the correlation was not significant. Finally, we proposed the M-value considering the density and specific surface area of the binder. The correlation between rheological factors and M-value were better demonstrated than experimental values, but there is still a limit to predict the rheological factor in general mix design. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the rheological properties of cement paste were analyzed. The binder type, composition ratio of binder, and with/without high range water reducers have combined to provide the complex effects on the rheological properties of cement paste. The correlation between the proposed M-value and rheological factor was found to be better than experimental results, but needs to be improved in the future.

The microstructure and hardness of (W,Ti)C cemented carbides with a different metallic binder composition of Ni and Co fabricated by powder technology were investigated. The densifications of the prepared materials were accomplished by using vacuum sintering at . Nearly full dense (W,Ti)C cemented carbides were obtained with a relative density of up to 99.7% with 30 wt.% Co and 99.9% with 30 wt.% Ni as a metallic binder. The average grain size of the (W,Ti)C-Co and the (W,Ti)C-Ni was decreased by increasing the metallic binder content. The hardness of the dense (W,Ti)C-15 wt%Co and (W,Ti)C-15 wt%Ni, was greater than that of the other related cemented carbides; in addition, the cobalt-based cemented carbides had greater hardness values than the nickel-based cemented carbides.