Rheology of Cement Paste: Role of Excess Water to Solid Surface Area Ratio
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 20, Issue 2
Abstract
Although many attempts have been made in previous research to identify the various parameters governing the rheology of cement paste, there has been little progress in evaluating the combined effects of these parameters. In this paper, a new parameter, the excess water to solid surface area ratio, is proposed to evaluate the combined effects of water content, packing density, and solid surface area on the rheological properties of cement paste. For the purpose of determining the value of this new parameter, a new wet packing method has been developed to measure the packing density of cementitious materials so that the voids content of the cementitious materials and the amount of excess water in the cement paste can be quantified. A number of cement paste samples containing different proportions of cement, pulverized fuel ash and condensed silica fume, and different water contents have been tested and their rheological properties, as measured by a rheometer, correlated to the new parameter. The correlation revealed that the excess water to solid surface area ratio, which serves as an indicative measure of the average water film thickness, is the single most important factor governing the rheology of cement paste.
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Acknowledgments
The work described in this paper was fully supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. UNSPECIFIEDHKU 7139/05E).
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 20 • Issue 2 • February 2008
Pages: 189 - 197
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Mar 26, 2007
Accepted: Jun 11, 2007
Published online: Feb 1, 2008
Published in print: Feb 2008
Notes
Note. Associate Editor: Chiara F. Ferraris
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