Abstract
Mechanical properties and durability of cement-based materials are largely affected by pore structures. This paper provides an overview of several experimental techniques to characterize pore size distribution and specific surface area, with focus on pores in calcium silicate hydrates. The reviewed experimental techniques are nitrogen and water vapor sorption isotherm, proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) and small-angle scattering (SAS). Different pretreatment methods are compared for sorption measurements. Pore size distribution and specific surface area are analyzed using data from different methods to understand difference and consistency of these methods. It is found that pore size distribution calculated from sorption isotherm is very sensitive to adsorption model. Though specific surface areas from different techniques are quite different from each other, they are all able to detect the microstructural alteration due to long-term drying.
Highlights
Cement paste and concrete are porous material composed from solid skeleton and pores, with the size of pores varying from several micrometers to nanometers
This article aims at reviewing such experimental techniques and related theories that are widely used on Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) pastes
6 Conclusion This article reviewed three experimental methods that are used for analysis of pore size distribution and specific surface area of cement based materials: sorption isotherm, proton nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry and small-angle scattering
Summary
Cement paste and concrete are porous material composed from solid skeleton and pores, with the size of pores varying from several micrometers to nanometers. During salt attack in cement paste, crystallization pressure is different in larger pores and smaller pores (Scherer 1999, 2004) It was confirmed in Sasano et al (2018) that drying shrinkage reduced the performance of reinforced concrete structure. This drying shrinkage is caused by three different mechanisms in Ordinary cement paste is a multi-phase material, composed from unhydrated clinker and hydration products. The hydration products include crystalline phases such as Portlandite, sulfoaluminates and amorphous calcium
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