Development of a Practical Heat of Hydration Model for Concrete Curing for Geotechnical Applications

Thermal integrity profiling (TIP) is a common non-destructive technique to evaluate the quality of construction of piles by analysing the temperature fields due to heat of hydration from freshly cast concrete piles. For this process to be accurate, a reliable concrete heat of hydration model is required. This paper proposes a practical and simple to calibrate four parameter model for the prediction of concrete heat of hydration. This model has been shown to be able to reproduce the evolution of heat of hydration measured in laboratory tests, as well as field measurements of temperature within curing concrete piles, as part of a thermal integrity profiling (TIP) operation performed at a site in London. With the simplicity of the model and the small number of model parameters involved, this model can be easily and quickly calibrated, enabling quick predictions of expected temperatures for subsequent casts using the same concrete mix.

Effect of Mixing Light-Burned MgO with Different Activity on the Expansion of Cement Paste

In mass concrete, shrinkage resulting from temperature drop and drying leads to cracking, which can seriously affect the strength and durability of cement-based materials. Fortunately, expansion agents can deter or prevent these effects, especially MgO expansion agents (MEAs). In this study, the effects of four MEAs of different activity on the expansion properties, strength, and hydration of cement paste were explored. The different expansion phenomena between the high activity and low activity MgO was especially explained by the hydration model and dynamic theory. The results indicate that when the other conditions were the same, higher curing temperature and dosage could improve the expansion to some extent. Moreover, the hydration of high activity MgO and the expansion behavior occurred mainly in the early hydration stage, while the hydration of low activity MgO and the expansion behavior had a high contribution rate in the later stage, and the final expansion of cement mixed with low activity MgO was larger.

An Efficient Approach of Predicting the Elastic Property of Hydrating Cement Paste

Although elastic properties of hydrating cement paste are crucial in concrete engineering practice, there are only a few widely available models for engineers to predict the elastic behavior of hydrating cement paste. Therefore, in this paper, we derive an analytical model to efficiently predict the elastic properties (e.g., Young’s modulus) of hydrating cement paste. Notably, the proposed model provides the prediction of hydration, percolation, and homogenization of the cement paste, enabling the study of the early age elasticity evolution in cement paste. A hydration model considering the mineral composition and the initial w/c ratio was used, while the percolation threshold was calculated adopting a phenomenological semi-empirical method describing the effects of the solid volume fraction and the w/c ratio. An efficient mixing rule based on the degree of solid connectivity was then adopted to calculate the elastic properties of the hydrating cement paste. Moreover, for ordinary Portland cement, a simplified model was built using Powers’ hydration model. The obtained modeling results are following experimental data and other numerical results available in the literature.

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

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.

Property Analysis of Slag Composite Concrete Using a Kinetic–Thermodynamic Hydration Model

Slag is increasingly unitized for the production of sustainable concrete. This paper presents a procedure with which to analyze the property development of slag composite concrete. Experimental studies of the hydration heat and compressive strength development and simulation studies using a kinetic hydration model and a thermodynamic model were performed. First, we performed an experimental study of the isothermal hydration heat of cement–slag blends. Based on the results of the experimental study on cumulative hydration heat, the reaction degree of slag was determined. We found that the reaction degree of slag decreased as the slag content increased. Second, the reaction degree of slag and cement were used as the input parameters for the Gibbs energy minimization (GEM) thermodynamic equilibrium model. Moreover, the phase assemblage of hydrating cement–slag was determined. The trends of calcium silicate hydrate (CSH) are similar to those of strength. Based on the CSH content, the strength of hardening cement–slag blends was determined. In addition, the calcium hydroxide (CH) content resulting from the thermodynamic model shows good agreement with the experimental results. In summary, the integrated kinetic–thermodynamic model is useful for analyzing the properties of cement–slag blends.

Hydration Features of Composite Binding Material with High-Dose Copper Tailings

Based on Krstulovic-Dabic model, this paper modifies the center particle hydration model according to the features of copper tailings, and then simulates the hydration process of cement-based composite binding system mixed with copper tailings. The hydration exothermic features were analyzed under different dosages, and different temperatures. Then, the simulated parameter values of the hydration process were compared with those measured in experiments. The results show that: the mixing of copper tailings powder can reduce the hydration heat release and slow down hydration rate of the composite binding material, and improve the thermal performance of the concrete; the prepared copper tailings powder is active enough to replace fly ash and ground-granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) as cement admixtures; When the dosage surpasses 40%, the copper tailings can be applied to mass concrete projects.