Estimation and Measurement of Porosity Change in Cement Paste

Laboratory-scale experiments were performed to understand the porosity change of cement pastes. The cement pastes were prepared using commercially available Type-I ordinary Portland cement (OPC). As the cement pastes were exposed in water, the porosity of the cement pastes sharply increased; however, the slow decrease of porosity was observed as the dissolution period was extended more than 50 days. As expected, the dissolution reaction was significantly influenced by w/c raito and the ionic strength of solution. A thermodynamic model was applied to simulate the porosity change of the cement pastes. It was highly influenced by the depth of the cement pastes. There was porosity increase on the surface of the cement pastes due to dissolution of hydration products, such as portlandite, ettringite, and CSH. However, the decrease of porosity was estimated inside the cement pastes due to the precipitation of cement minerals.