Elucidating the effect of accelerated carbonation on porosity and mechanical properties of hydrated Portland cement paste using X-ray tomography and advanced micromechanical testing

Journal article (2020)

Authors

H. Zhang Materials and Environment - CEG , Shandong University
C. Romero Rodriguez Materials and Environment - CEG
H. Dong Materials and Environment - CEG
Y. Gan Materials and Environment - CEG
E. Schlangen Materials and Environment - CEG
B. Šavija Materials and Environment - CEG
Research Group
Materials and Environment (CEG) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2020 H. Zhang, C. Romero Rodriguez, H. Dong, Y. Gan, E. Schlangen, B. Šavija
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/MI11050471
More Info
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Published Date

2020

Language

English

Faculty

Civil Engineering & Geosciences

Department

Materials- Mechanics- Management & Design

Research Group

Materials and Environment

Abstract

Carbonation of hydrated cement paste (HCP) causes numerous chemo-mechanical changes in the microstructure, e.g., porosity, strength, elastic modulus, and permeability, which have a significant influence on the durability of concrete structures. Due to its complexity, much is still not understood about the process of carbonation of HCP. The current study aims to reveal the changes in porosity and micromechanical properties caused by carbonation using micro-beam specimens with a cross-section of 500 μm x 500 μm. X-ray computed tomography and micro-beam bending tests were performed on both noncarbonated and carbonated HCP micro-beams for porosity characterization and micromechanical property measurements, respectively. The experimental results show that the carbonation decreases the total porosity and increases micromechanical properties of the HCP micro-beams under the accelerated carbonation. The correlation study revealed that both the flexural strength and elastic modulus increase linearly with decreasing porosity.