Mesoscopic packing of disk-like building blocks in calcium silicate hydrate
Name
Mesoscopic packing.pdf
Size
1.12 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
9e026e463230b46c53212b81f26d237a
Author(s)
Yu, Zechuan
Zhou, Ao
Lau, Denvid
Date Issued
November 2016
Journal
Scientific Reports
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Yu, Zechuan, Ao Zhou, and Denvid Lau. “Mesoscopic Packing of Disk-Like Building Blocks in Calcium Silicate Hydrate.” Scientific Reports 6, no. 1 (November 15, 2016).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
At 100-nanometer length scale, the mesoscopic structure of calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) plays a critical role in determining the macroscopic material properties, such as porosity. In order to explore the mesoscopic structure of C-S-H, we employ two effective techniques, nanoindentation test and molecular dynamics simulation. Grid nanoindentation tests find different porosity of C-S-H in cement paste specimens prepared at varied water-to-cement (w/c) ratios. The w/c-ratio-induced porosity difference can be ascribed to the aspect ratio (diameter-to-thickness ratio) of disk-like C-S-H building blocks. The molecular dynamics simulation, with a mesoscopic C-S-H model, reveals 3 typical packing patterns and relates the packing density to the aspect ratio. Illustrated with disk-like C-S-H building blocks, this study provides a description of C-S-H structures in complement to spherical-particle C-S-H models at the sub-micron scale.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/srep36967
