Abstract
The paper presents the results of predictive modelling of the mechanism of Portland cement curing using the VCCTL tool. The curing is studied at the water-cement (W/C) ratio of 0.30 and 0.35, during 28 days at room temperature. It is shown that the hydration degree correlates with the heat generation and the accumulation rate of hydration products. At W/C=0.30, the content of clinker phases and hydration products is higher than at W/C=0.35, but the rate of the indicated processes is almost similar. The growth in the water-cement ratio reduces the pore space filled with free moisture as well as the moduli of rupture. The correlation is detected between the Portland cement strength and Young’s modulus in the form of quadratic and cubic polynomials. These dependencies are in good agreement with the literature data and testify to the suitability of the VCCTL microstructural model of Portland cement curing.
Highlights
The model-based testing of physicochemical properties of concretes after 28-day curing allows a user to significantly reduce the time, materials, and human resources
A consistent description of this process requires the quantitative data on the initial phase composition, water-cement (W/C) ratio, activation energy of clinker phase dissolution, heat generation in forming the intermediate and final products, porosity, bound moisture, ion composition of aqueous solution, humidity, external conditions, composition, amount, and elastic properties of hydration products
According to fig. 3e, the amount of free moisture in pores is higher at a 0.30 water-cement ratio. These results indicate that at W/C ratio ranging between 0.26 and 0.35, the hydration process occurs under conditions close to saturation
Summary
The model-based testing of physicochemical properties of concretes after 28-day curing allows a user to significantly reduce the time, materials, and human resources. Portland cement curing is a complex process which includes many mechanisms. A consistent description of this process requires the quantitative data on the initial phase composition, water-cement (W/C) ratio, activation energy of clinker phase dissolution, heat generation in forming the intermediate and final products, porosity, bound moisture, ion composition (electrical conductivity) of aqueous solution, humidity, external conditions, composition, amount, and elastic properties of hydration products. One of the most efficient tools of predictive modelling of the Portland cement hydration and strength gain is the Virtual Cement and Concrete Testing Laboratory (VCCTL) [1 6]. It seems to be very interesting to study the hydration process mechanisms and search for the correlation between the experimental parameters of stressstrain curves and elastic moduli of hydrated cement in ordinary conditions as well as the influence of the water-cement ratio on this correlation
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