Ink-bottle effect and pore size distribution of cementitious materials identified by pressurization-depressurization cycling mercury intrusion porosimetry

Ink-bottle effect and pore size distribution of cementitious materials identified by pressurization-depressurization cycling mercury intrusion porosimetry

Zhang, Y. (TU Delft Materials and Environment; Fuzhou University)
Yang, Bin (Chengdu Design & Research Institute of Building Materials Industry Co.)
Yang, Zhengxian (Fuzhou University)
Ye, G. (TU Delft Materials and Environment)

2019

Capturing the long-term performance of concrete must be underpinned by a detailed understanding of the pore structure. Mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) is a widely used technique for pore structure characterization. However, it has been proven inappropriate to measure the pore size distribution of cementitious materials due to the ink-bottle effect. MIP with cyclic pressurization-depressurization can overcome the ink-bottle effect and enables a distinction between large (ink-bottle) pores and small (throat) pores. In this paper, pressurization-depressurization cycling mercury intrusion porosimetry (PDC-MIP) is adopted to characterize the pore structure in a range of cementitious pastes cured from 28 to 370 days. The results indicate that PDC-MIP provides a more accurate estimation of the pore size distribution in cementitious pastes than the standard MIP. Bimodal pore size distributions can be obtained by performing PDC-MIP measurements on cementitious pastes, regardless of the age. Water-binder ratio, fly ash and limestone powder have considerable influences on the formation of capillary pores ranging from 0.01 to 0.5 μm.

Cementitious
Ink-bottle
Mercury porosimetry
Pore size distribution
Pressurization-depressurization

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:70e1f2e0-6b78-495f-bb0a-e39a09581be2

https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12091454

1996-1944

Materials, 12 (9)

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2019 Y. Zhang, Bin Yang, Zhengxian Yang, G. Ye