A novel method to predict internal relative humidity in cementitious materials by 1H NMR. (February 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hu, Zhangli; Wyrzykowski, Mateusz; Scrivener, Karen; Lura, Pietro
• Is Part Of: Cement and concrete research. Volume 104(2018)
• Page Start: 80
• Page End: 93
• Publication Date: 2018-02
• Subjects: Self-desiccation -- Autogenous shrinkage -- Kelvin radius -- Porosity -- Relative humidity; Cement -- Periodicals; Cement -- Research -- Periodicals; Concrete -- Periodicals; Concrete -- Research -- Periodicals; Ciment -- Périodiques; Béton -- Périodiques; Cement; Concrete; Periodicals; 620.135
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cemconres.2017.11.001
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0008-8846

Abstract

Abstract: In sealed cementitious materials, the internal relative humidity (RH) decrease is mainly due to the water activity depression caused by menisci formation in partially-saturated pores. This process can be conveniently described with the evolution of the Kelvin radius. To obtain the Kelvin radius, a novel method based on the evolution of pore volumes quantified by 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) was developed. This approach was validated against experimental results for cementitious materials with a range of water to cement ratios from 0.30 to 0.46. A comparison between the Kelvin radius calculated with this approach with a previously published method using data obtained from MIP and chemical shrinkage was presented. A sensitivity analysis for the new prediction method was performed using a bootstrapping technique.