Durability of alternative cementitious binders

Over the past few decades, various alternative binders have been developed and explored, as result of growing global pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy use related to Portland cement production. However, wider commercial adoption of the new binders is often hindered by the lack of data on their long-term properties and durability. During their lifetime, binder materials come in contact with various aggressive solutions or conditions with deteriorating effects. Durability assessment of alternative binders is complicated by wide variety of their compositions and lack of standardized procedures, as test parameters used to determine durability of Portland cement are not always suitable for the newly developed binders. In this work, an overview of the testing procedures used and the results obtained when alternative binders, such as alkali activated materials and high volume fly ash binders, were subjected to various aggressive solutions, will be given.