Simulation of Permeation of Saturated Cement Paste Based on a New Meso-scale Pore Network Model

Yong Zhou,Yuxuan Yang,Weiping Zhang,Bigya Gyawali

doi:10.1186/s40069-021-00468-7

Yong Zhou, Yuxuan Yang + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40069-021-00468-7

Copy DOI

Abstract

This paper presents the simulation of the permeation of saturated cement paste based on a novel pore network model. First, a 2D hydration model of cement particles was developed by extending the work of Zheng et al. 2005 to provide the background for the network construction. Secondly, the establishment of the pore network model and simulation of permeation of saturated cement paste were carried out. The irregular pores between any two hydrated cement particles were linearized with clear distances as the diameters of pores. The straight tubular pores were interconnected with one another to form the network model. During this process, the weighted Voronoi diagram was employed to operate on the graphical expression of the hydrated cement particles. Water permeation in saturated cement paste was simulated to verify the pore network model. Finally, the factors including water–cement ratio, reaction temperature, reaction time and cement particle size that would influence water permeation were numerically investigated.

Highlights

Cementitious materials have been extensively used in many fields of construction because of their low price, abundant raw materials, high compressive strength and relatively simple production and construction techniques
Li and Xu (2019) proposed a microstructural-based numerical test method based on three-dimensional (3D) finite element method (FEM) to describe the pore-scale flow and compute the permeability of hydrating cement paste, where HYMOSTRUC3D model was used for the microstructure evolution of cement paste
2.1 Model Size Selection The model size should be consistent with the representative volume element (RVE) size of cementitious materials

Summary

Introduction

Cementitious materials have been extensively used in many fields of construction because of their low price, abundant raw materials, high compressive strength and relatively simple production and construction techniques. Li and Xu (2019) proposed a microstructural-based numerical test method based on three-dimensional (3D) finite element method (FEM) to describe the pore-scale flow and compute the permeability of hydrating cement paste, where HYMOSTRUC3D model was used for the microstructure evolution of cement paste. Another frequently used tools for the numerical simulation of permeability in porous media is the network model. The proposed model is much simpler and faster than the existing hydration models like HYMOSTRUC3D, CEMHYD3D, μIC and can give the acceptable results These existing models can predict the hydrated product, which is not necessary when the concern is just the water transport problem

Hydration of Cement Particles

Particle Interference and Degree of Hydration

Investigation of Factors Affecting the Overall Permeability of the Model

Conclusion