DETERMINATION OF CEMENT CONTENT OF CEMENT BLENDS USING GAMMA-RAY SPECTROSCOPY

Samples of cement, ground granulated blast-furnace slag, and pulverise d fuel-ash (PFA) were studied to determine their natural levels of rad ioactivity. A nondestructive test for the determination of the cement content of a PFA-cement blend was investigated with these samples usin g gamma-ray spectrometry. All tests were performed using a high-purity germanium detector. Several PEA-cement blends were sampled to establi sh the feasibility of the test and the linearity of the detector syste m used. Three blind tests were performed to independently evaluate the accuracy of the method. Two methods were used to calculate the blend proportions of the blind samples, and the cement content was consisten tly determined to within 5% of the actual content. (C) 1997 Elsevier S cience Ltd.