METHODOLOGY FOR POROSIMETRY IN VIRTUAL CEMENTITIOUS COMPOSITES TO ECONOMICALLY AND RELIABLY ESTIMATE PERMEABILITY

Authors

  • Kai Li Delft University of Technology
  • Piet Stroeven Delft University of Technology
  • Nghi LB Le Delft University of Technology

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5566/ias.1271

Keywords:

DEM, permeability, porosimetry, water saturation

Abstract

A novel methodology is described for porosimetry as well as for water transport through the pore system in dynamic DEM-based virtual cementitious materials. The pore network topology, the pore size distribution and the pore connectivity are assessed on the basis of a robotics-inspired pore delineation method and star volume measurements. Permeability estimates are based on a tube network model that incorporates these parameters and a shape factor. Since concrete contains in practical situations a variable amount of water, permeability estimation is presented as a function of the state of saturation. Satisfactory agreement is found with experimental data, validating the methodology. Earlier, the various "building blocks" were separately validated. 

References

Abbas A, Carcasses M, Ollivier JP (1999). Gas permeability of concrete in relation to its degree of saturation. Mater Struct 32: 3-8.

Abell AB, Willis KL and Lange DA (1999). Mercury intrusion porosimetry and image analysis of cement-based materials. J Colloid Interf Sci, 211:39-44.

Bamforth PB (1987). The relationship between permeability coefficients for concrete obtained using liquid and gas. Mag Concr Res 39: 3-11.

Banthia N, Mindess S (1989). Water permeability of cement paste. Cem Concr Res 19: 727-36.

Baroghel-Bouny V, Thiery M, Wang X (2011). Modelling of isothermal coupled moisture-ion transport in cementitious materials. Cem Concr Res 41: 828-41.

Chen H, Stroeven P, Ye G, Stroeven M (2006). Influence of boundary conditions on pore percolation in model cement paste. Key Engr Mat 302-303: 486-92.

Coussy O, Eymard R, Lassabatere T (1998). Constitutive unsaturated modeling of drying deformable materials. J Eng Mech 124: 658-67.

Diamond S (2000). Mercury porosimetry: an inappropriate method for the measurement of pore size distribution in cement-based materials. Cem Concr Res 30: 1517-25.

Dhir RK, Hewlett PC, Chan YN (1989). Near surface characteristics of concrete: intrinsic permeability. Mag Concr Res 41: 87-97.

Garboczi EJ, Bentz, DP (2001). The effect of statistical fluctuation, finite size error, and digital resolution on the phase percolation and transport properties of the NIST cement hydra-tion model. Cem Concr Res 31: 1501-14.

Garboczi EJ, Bullard JW (2004). Shape analysis of a reference cement. Cem Concr Res 34: 1933-37.

Gundersen HJG, Bendtsen TF, Korbo L, Marcussen N, Møller A, Nielsen K, Nyengaard JR, Pakkenberg B, Sørensen FB, Vesterby A and West MJ (1988). Some new, simple and efficient stereological methods and their use in pathological research and diag-nosis, APMIS 96: 379-94.

He H (2010). Computational modelling of particle packing in concrete. PhD Thesis, Delft University of Technology. Delft.

He H, Stroeven P, Stroeven M and Sluys LJ. (2011). Influence of particle packing on frac-ture properties of concrete. Comp Concr 8(6): 677-92.

Hearn N, Detwiler RJ, Sframeli C (1994). Water permeability and microstructure of three old concretes. Cem Concr Res 24: 633-40.

Hu J, Stroeven P (2003). Application of image analysis to assessing critical pore size for permeability prediction on cement paste. Image Anal Stereol 22: 97-103.

Hu J (2004). Porosity of concrete: Morphological study of model concrete. PhD Thesis, Delft University of Technology. Delft.

Hu J, Stroeven P (2006). Shape characterization of concrete aggregate. Image Anal Stereol 25:43-53.

Kameche ZA, Ghomari F, Choinska M, Khelidj A (2014). Assessment of liquid water and gas permeabilities of partially saturated ordinary concrete. Construct Build Mater 65: 551-65.

Lange DA, Jennings HM, Shah SP (1994). Image analysis techniques for characterization of pore structure of cement-based materials. Cem Concr Res 24: 841-53.

LaValle SM and Kuffner JJ (2001). Rapidly-exploring random trees: progress and pros-pects. In: Donald BR, Lynch KM and Rus D, eds. Algorithmic and computational robotics: New directions. Wellesley (Ma).

Le LBN (2015). Micro-level porosimetry of virtual cementitious materials – Structural impact on mechanical and durability evolution. PhD Thesis, Delft University of Technology. Delft.

Le LBN and Stroeven P (2014). Packing issue in cement blending for sustainability develop-ments – Approach by discrete element method. Int J Res Eng Technol 3: 89-96.

Le LBN, Stroeven M, Sluys LJ, Stroeven P (2013). A novel numerical multi-component model for simulating hydration of cement. Comp Mater Sci 78: 12-21.

Le LBN and Stroeven P (2012). Porosity of green concrete based on a gap-graded blend. In: Brandt AM, Olek MA and Leung CKY, eds. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Brittle Matrix Composites 10, 2012 October 15-17; Warsaw, Poland, 315-24.

Li K, Le LBN, Stroeven P, Stroeven M (2014). Strategy for predicting transport-based dura-bility properties of concrete based on DEM approach. In: Bjegovic D, Beushausen H, Serdar M, eds. Proceedings of the RILEM International Workshop on Performance-based Specification and Control of Concrete Dura-bility, 2014 June 11-13; Zagreb, Croatia, 443-50.

Loosveldt H, Lafhaj Z, Skoczylas F (2002). Expe-rimental study of gas and liquid permeability of a mortar. Cem Concr Res 32: 1357-63.

Mason G and Morrow NR (1991). Capillary behaviour of a perfectly wetting liquid in iregu-lar triangular tubes. J Colloid Interf Sci 141: 262-74.

Muller ACA, Scrivener KL, Gajewicz AM, McDonnald PJ (2013). Densification of C-S-H measured by 1H NMR relaxometry. J Phys Chem C 117: 403-12.

Patzek TW and Silin DB (2001). Shape factor and hydraulic conductance in noncircular capilla-ries: One-phase creeping flow. J Colloid Interf Sci 236: 295-304.

Pignat C, Navi P, Scrivener K (2005). Simulation of cement paste microstructure, hydration, pore space characterization and permeability deter-mination. Mat Struct 38: 450-66.

Richardson IG (2004). Tobermorite/jennite- and tobermorite/calcium hydroxide-based models for the structure of C-S-H: Applicability to hardened pastes of tricalcium silicate, β-dicalcium silicate, Portland cement, and blends of Portland cement with blast-furnace slag, metakaolin, or silica fume. Cem Concr Res 34: 1733-77.

Scrivener KL (1989). The use of backscattered electron microscopy and image analysis to study the porosity of cement paste. In: Roberts LR, Skalny JP, eds. Proceedings of material research society symposium 137, 1989; Warrendale, PA, 129-40.

Stroeven P, Hu J, Guo Z (2009). Shape assessment of particles in concrete technology: 2D image analysis and 3D stereological extrapolation. Cem Concr Compos 31: 84-91.

Stroeven P, Hu J, Koleva DA (2010). Concrete porosimetry: Aspects of feasibility, reliability and economy. Cem Concr Compos 32: 291-99.

Stroeven P, He H, Stroeven M (2011). Discrete element approach to assessment of granular properties in concrete. J Zhejiang Univ – Sci A 12: 335-44.

Stroeven P, Le LBN, Sluys LJ, He H (2012a). Porosimetry by double random multiple tree structuring. Image Anal Stereol 31: 55-63.

Stroeven P, Le LBN, Sluys LJ, He H (2012b). Porosimetry by random node structuring in virtual concrete. Image Anal Stereol 31: 79-87.

Stroeven P, Le LBN (2013). Evaluation by discrete element method (DEM) of gap-graded packing potentialities for green concrete design. In: Soustos M, Goodier C, Nguyen VT, eds. The International Conference on Sustainable Built Environment for Now and the Future, 2013 March 26-27; Hanoi, Vietnam, 347-54.

Vogel HJ and Roth K (2001). Quantitative morphology and network representation of soil pore structure. Adv Water Resour 24: 233-44.

Wang Y, Diamond S (1995). An approach to quantitative image analysis for cement pastes. In: Diamond S, Mindess S, Glasser FP, Roberts LW, Skalny JP, Wakeley LD, eds. Microstructure of cement based systems/ bonding and interfaces in cementitious mate-rials, Vol. 370 Material Research Society, Pittsburgh, 23-32.

Willis KL, Abell AB and Lange DA. (1998). Image-based characterization of cement pore structure using wood’s metal intrusion. Cem Concr Res 28(12): 1675-1705.

Williams SR and Philipse AP (2003). Random packings of spheres and spherocylinders simu-lated by mechanical contraction. Phys Rev E 67: 1-9.

Wong H, Buenfeld N, Hill J, Harris A (2007). Mass transport properties of mature wasteform grouts. Adv Cem Res 19: 35-46.

Wong HS, Zobel M, Buenfeld NR, Zimmerman RW (2009). Infulence of the interfacial transition zone and microcracking on the diffusivity, permeability and sorptivity of cement-based materials after drying. Mag Concr Res 61: 571-89.

Ye G (2003). Experimental study and numerical simulation of the development of the micro- structure and permeability of cementitious materials. PhD Thesis, Delft University of Technology. Delft.

Zalzale M, McDonnald PJ, Scrivener KL (2013). A 3D lattice Boltzmann effective media study: understanding the role of C-S-H and water saturation on the permeability of cement paste. Modelling Simul Mater Sci Eng 21: 085016.

Downloads

Published

2015-05-28

How to Cite

Li, K., Stroeven, P., & Le, N. L. (2015). METHODOLOGY FOR POROSIMETRY IN VIRTUAL CEMENTITIOUS COMPOSITES TO ECONOMICALLY AND RELIABLY ESTIMATE PERMEABILITY. Image Analysis and Stereology, 34(2), 73–86. https://doi.org/10.5566/ias.1271

Issue

Section

Review Article

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 > >>