Experimental investigation on shrinkage and water desorption of the paste in high performance concrete

• DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2016.03.183
• Publication Date: 2016-04-06T04:47:24Z
• Authors: Weiguo Shen; Xinling Li; Gejin Gan; Liu Cao; Chaochao Li; Jian Bai
• Keywords: 0211 other engineering and technologies; 02 engineering and technology

Abstract The shrinkage and water desorption of the cement paste with various mineral admixtures, water/binder (w/b) ratios and curing times were measured in different environmental humidity, and the shrinkage behavior of those pastes were analyzed by studying their pore structure. The results indicated that, the paste contains fly ash has highest shrinkage and rapidest water desorption among the pastes of cement, silica fume cement and ground granulated blast slag (GGBS) cement; the shrinkage increases with the w/b ratio and reduces with the curing time. The porosity and pore diameter in the early age paste control the water loss and water desorption rate and the shrinkage of the paste. The curves of shrinkage versus water desorption of different pastes were very similar, two regression straight lines were established in each plots, one was in relative humidity (RH) of 45% and 60%, the other one was in RH 15%.