Abstract
Cement is the most used building material on earth, yet its properties are inexactly understood and not fully controlled. Cement hydrates named C-S-H (Calcium-Silicate-Hydrate) are the most abundant phase in hydrated cement paste and are responsible for gluing all other hydration products and unreacted cement together. A source of complexity in modelling C-S-H is that the structure is amorphous, multiscale with fully interconnected porosity spanning from a few nm up to mm. The focus of this chapter is modeling approaches that allow connecting structure and mechanics of C-S-H at the mesoscale (the scale that spans from few nm up to the micron) from the early stages of hydration, the setting and up to the hardened cement paste. The modelling approach reviewed here is of reduced complexity based on coarse-graining with emphasis on the effective interactions between C-S-H particles. It addresses the mesoscale of C-S-H and has provided a unified framework for understanding the microstructure of C-S-H and reconciling data from many different experimental techniques. A consistent picture is presented covering (1) the reactive solidification of cement, (2) the origin of the observed microstructure of C-S-H, and (3) its link to mechanics. This provides a powerful predictive tool for nanoscale design of cement.
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Ioannidou, K. (2018). Mesoscale Structure and Mechanics of C-S-H. In: Andreoni, W., Yip, S. (eds) Handbook of Materials Modeling. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50257-1_127-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50257-1_127-1
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