In Situ Examination of Engineered Local Additives in Cement Paste via Neutron-Based Scattering Techniques

Published

May 20, 2020

Author(s)

Kunal Kupwade-Patil, Ali Bumajdad, Terrence J. Udovic, Kenneth Littrell, Oral Buyukozturk

Abstract

This work investigates the effect of early-age hydration on microstructural evolution of cement paste with local volcanic ash using neutron-based beamline techniques. Early-age hydration dynamics of Portland cement paste with volcanic ash was examined via Inelastic Neutron Scattering (INS), while the evolution of microstructure was observed with Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS). The data obtained from the ratio of Volume Fractal to Surface Fractal clearly showed that greater than 30% substitution of volcanic ash leads to unreacted volcanic ash and coarser morphology, which could influence the chemo-mechanical properties of the resulting hydration products. INS results showed that the effect of finer-particle-sized volcanic ash contributes to uniform hydration, which accommodates higher conversion of free water to bound water. Such advanced beamline characterization techniques were found useful in providing critical insights into the effect of additives by considering water dynamics along with morphological information during the course of hydration. The multi-scale analysis that combines a time-resolved study of water dynamics along with microstructure is found to provide a basis of optimizing and effectively utilizing engineered additives for the local cement industry.

Proceedings Title

Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium of Nanotechnology in Construction

Volume

243

Conference Dates

December 2-5, 2018

Conference Location

Hong Kong, CN

Conference Title

NICOM6

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.118175

Local Download

Keywords

additives, cement, curing, inelastic neutron scattering, INS, Portland cement, SANS, small-angle neutron scattering, volcanic ash

Citation

Kupwade-Patil, K. , Bumajdad, A. , Udovic, T. , Littrell, K. and Buyukozturk, O. (2020), In Situ Examination of Engineered Local Additives in Cement Paste via Neutron-Based Scattering Techniques, Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium of Nanotechnology in Construction, Hong Kong, CN, [online], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.118175, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=925610 (Accessed October 28, 2025)