Abstract
The kinetics of capillary imbibition in ordinary Portland cement pastes has been studied experimentally and theoretically. Nuclear magnetic resonance stray field imaging (STRAFI) has been used to record water concentration profiles for various ingress times. The profiles follow a √t law and thus a master curve can be formed using the Boltzmann transformation. The distribution of pore sizes within the sample as measured by NMR cryoporometry shows a prominent peak at 100 Å. A computer model of the pore structure was developed consisting of a lattice of interconnecting pores with a size distribution consistent with the cryoporometry results. The Hagen–Poiseuille law was used to describe the kinetics of the water in this pore structure. The best agreement between the computer simulations and the experimental master curve was obtained by using a narrower range of pore sizes than indicated by the cryoporometry results.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abel-Jawad, Y. and Hansen, W.: 1989, Pore structure of hydrated cement determined by mercury porosimetry and nitrogen sorption techniques, In: L. R. Roberts and J. P. Skalny (eds), Materials Research Society Symp. Proc., Vol. 137: Permeability of Cementitious Materials, Materials Research Society, Pittsburgh, pp. 105–118.
Bhattacharja, S., Moukwa, M., D'Orazio, F., Jehng, J-Y. and Halperin, W. P.: 1993, Microstructure determination of cement pastes by NMR and conventional techniques, Adv. Cement Based Mater. 1, 67–76.
Bohris, A. J., Goerke, U., McDonald, P. J., Mulheron, M., Newling, B. and Page, B. L.: 1998, A broad line NMR andMRI study of water and water transport in Portland cement pastes, Magnetic Resonance Imaging 16(5/6), 455–461.
Chen, J. D. and Wilkinson, D.: 1985 Pore-scale viscous fingering in porous media, Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 1892–1895.
Dunn, K.-J., LaTorraca, G. A. and Bergman, D. J.: 1998, Permeability relation for periodic structures, Magnetic Resonance Imaging 16(5/6), 553–556.
Ferer, M., Geisbrecht, R. A., Sams, W. N. and Smith, D. H.: 1992, Crossover from fractal to compact growth from simulations of two-phase flow with finite viscosity ratio in two-dimensional porous media, Phys. Rev. A 45, 6973–6976.
Ferer, M., Gump, J. C. and Smith. D. H.: 1996, Fractal nature of viscous fingering in three-dimensional pore-level models, Phys. Rev. E 53, 2502–2508.
Gummerson, R. J., Hall, C., Hoff, W. D., Hawkes, R., Holland, G. N. and Moore, W. S.: 1979, Unsaturated water flow within porous materials observed by NMR imaging, Nature 281, 56–57.
Hall, C.: 1994, Barrier performance of concrete: A review of fluid transport theory, Mater. Struct. 27, 291–306.
Halperin, W. P., Jehng, J.-Y. and Song, Y.-Q.: 1994, Application of Spin–Spin relaxation to measurement of surface area and pore size distribution in a hydrating cement paste, Magnetic Resonance Imaging 12, 169–173.
Hammecker, C., Mertz. J. D., Fischer. C. and Jeannette, D.: 1993, A geometrical model for numerical simulation of capillary imbibition in sedimentary rocks, Transport in Porous Media 12, 125–141.
Hammecker, C. and Jeannette, D.: 1994, Modelling the capillary imbibition kinetics in sedimentary rocks: Role of petrographical features, Transport in Porous Media 17, 285–303.
Hampton J. H. D. and Thomas M. D. A.: 1993, Modelling relationships between permeability and cement paste pore microstructures, Cement and Concrete 23, 1317–1330.
Hughes, P. D. M., McDonald, P. J., Halse, M. R., Leone, B. and Smith, E. G.: 1995, Water diffusion in zeolite 4A beds measured by broad-line magnetic resonance imaging, Phys. Rev. B 51, 11332–11338.
Jehng, J. Y., Sprague, D. T. and Halperin, W. P.: 1996, Pore structure of hydrating cement paste by magnetic resonance relaxation analysis and freezing, Magnetic Resonance Imaging 14, 785–791.
Kaufmann, J. and Studer, W.: 1995, One dimensional transport in concrete application of nondestructive methods, Mater. Struct. 28, 115–124.
Kaufmann, J., Studer, W., Link, J. and Schenker, K.: 1997, Study of water suction of concrete with magnetic resonance imaging methods, Magazine of Concrete Research 49, 157–165.
Lenormand, R.: 1990, Liquids in porous media, J. Phys. Condensed Matter 2, 79–88.
McDonald, P. J., Pritchard, T. and Roberts, S. P.: 1996, Diffusion of water at low saturation levels into sandstone rock plugs measured by broad line magnetic resonance profiling. J. Colloid Interface Sci. 177, 439–445.
McDonald, P. J. and Strange, J. H.: 1998, Magnetic resonance: Imaging and porous materials, Physics World 11(7), 29–34.
Milia, F., Fardis, M., Papavassiliiou, G. and Leventis, A.: 1998, NMR in porous materials, Magnetic Resonance Imaging 16(5/6), 677–678.
Neville, A.M. and Brooks, J. J.: 1990, Concrete Technology, Longman Scientific & Technical, Essex, U.K.
Sahimi, M.: 1993, Flow phenomena in rocks: From continuum models to fractals, percolation, cellular automata, and simulated annealing, Rev. Mod. Phys. 65, 1393–1534.
Samoilenko, A. A., Artemov, D. Yu. and Sibel'dina, L. A.: 1988, Formation of sensitive layer in experiments on NMR subsurface imaging of solids, JETP Lett. 47, 417–419.
Strange, J. H., Rahman, M. and Smith, E. G.: 1993, Characterisation of porous solids by NMR, Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 3589–3591.
Strange, J. H. and Webber, J. B.: 1997, Multidimensional resolved pore size distributions, Applied Magnetic Resonance 12, 231–245.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Leventis, A., Verganelakis, D.A., Halse, M.R. et al. Capillary Imbibition and Pore Characterisation in Cement Pastes. Transport in Porous Media 39, 143–157 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006687114424
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006687114424