Composite Dielectric Model for Cement Concrete Considering Water Saturation
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 35, Issue 7
Abstract
Water has a significant impact on the dielectric constant of materials. As a multiphase composite material, the effect of water content must be taken into account when modeling the composite dielectric of cement concrete. Cement concrete traditionally has been thought of as a three-phase mixed material consisting of mortar, aggregate (limestone), and pores (air). Water was used as a constituent material of cement concrete in this paper, and its content was described in terms of water saturation. By abstracting the components of cement concrete into independent medium units and arranging them according to certain rules, the four-phase mixing model of cement concrete can be established. To investigate the effect of water, the dielectric constant of cement concrete was measured using a network analyzer at various water saturation levels. The experimental results show that water significantly can enhance the dielectric constant of cement concrete, and this effect is related to porosity: the higher the water saturation, the faster the dielectric constant increases. According to the established concrete four-phase mixed model, combined with the parallel plate capacitor theory, a composite dielectric model considering water saturation was developed which can improve the prediction accuracy under different water saturation conditions and provide a foundation for the application of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) in the quality inspection of cement concrete pavement.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
The research presented in this work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51878624 and 51878622), the National Key Research and Development Plan (Grant No. 2018YFB1600200), the Henan Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (Grant No. 202300410354), the Funding Program for Key Scientific Research Projects of Higher Education Institutions in Henan Province (Grant No. 22A580004), and the Central Plains Talent Program—leading talents in basic research in Central Plains.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 35 • Issue 7 • July 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 6, 2022
Accepted: Nov 3, 2022
Published online: Apr 21, 2023
Published in print: Jul 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Sep 21, 2023
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