Mechanism Analysis on Carbonation of Hardened Cement Paste with XCT
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 35, Issue 9
Abstract
X-ray computed tomography (XCT) was used to monitor microstructure changes of hardened cement paste, with different water/cement ratios during a one-dimensional carbonation process. After removing equipment-induced measurement errors by a volume-constant method, the pores, dense hydration products, loose hydration products, and unhydrated cement in the sample were classified. Consequently, variation of each component with depth and carbonation duration were obtained, based on which mechanism of carbonation on hardened cement paste was conducted. Results showed that microstructure changes in hardened cement paste under effects is a coexisting simultaneous densification and cracking process. Within the entire carbonation process, the changes exhibited a general alternate pattern of densification–cracking–redensification, leading to connection of micropores into macro ones in hardened cement paste (i.e., the so-called carbonation-induced cracking); entire volume of the pores bigger than 4.4 μm did not present obvious changes during carbonation; a influence depth can be obtained by this method, which has an approximate linear relationship with the square root of carbonation duration and has limited influence with the water/cement ratio used in this study.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52078301, 51978406, 51908370, and 51878415) and Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 2019A1515012014). Technical support was provided by Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Durability for Marine Civil Engineering, SZU (2020B1212060074).
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 35 • Issue 9 • September 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 3, 2022
Accepted: Mar 6, 2023
Published online: Jul 4, 2023
Published in print: Sep 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Dec 4, 2023
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