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Construction and Building Materials 40 (2013) 869874
h i g h l i g h t s
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: The compressive, exural and splitting tensile strength of cement mortar has been measured and inter-
Received 5 July 2012 preted in terms of its porosity. The authors rst reviewed the existing porositystrength relationships
Received in revised form 26 September (Ryshkewithch, Schiller, Balshin and Hasselman model) and assessed the suitability of existing relation-
2012
ships. The Zheng model for porous materials has been used to evaluate the porositystrength relationship
Accepted 21 November 2012
of cement mortar. Over the porosity ranges examined, the extended Zheng model is good representation
of the experimental data on the strength of cement mortar. Based on the generality of the assumptions
used in the derivation of the extended Zheng model, this model for cement mortar can be applied for
Keywords:
Strength
other cement-based materials. The experimental data also show that the ratio between compressive
Porosity strength and indirect tensile (splitting tensile and exural) strength of cement mortar is not constant,
Cement mortar but is porosity dependent. The ratio decreases with increase porosity values of cement mortar.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction In the eld of more basic research, the pore structure of cement-
based materials has been a dominant topic [2,1114]. But experi-
The fact that a reduction of porosity in a solid material increases mentally measurement of a relevant porosity parameter has
its strength in general, and the strength of cement-based materials proved to be extremely difcult in cement-based materials,
in particular, was recognized long ago [13]. It has also been dis- because of the special character of the hydration products formed
covered that porosity has an important role in the frost resistance [15]. Hence the results obtained will depend not only on the mea-
of concrete [46]. Furthermore, porosity has a role in the relation- suring principle but also on the drying method used prior to the
ship between mechanical properties of concrete, such as the porosity measurements [16]. But even with these problems solved,
compressive strength-modulus of elasticity relationship [7]. The a connection between the porosity and strength has to be estab-
practical importance of durability of cement-based materials lished. The inuence of porosity on the strength of cement-based
created such an upsurge in research activities that our knowledge material has already been investigated. Taking an empirical ap-
concerning the relationship between pore structure and frost proach, Powers [11] was able to deduce an equation which relates
resistance of concrete is much more complete than the strength the compressive strength of mortar cubes to a function of the gel-
porosity relationship. This does not mean that no efforts have been space ratio. Schiller [17] using a theoretical approach deduced an
made for the development of quantitative relationships between equation relation the strength of material to the porosity. He ap-
strength and porosity but rather that these efforts have been spo- plied this equation to experimental data on gypsum plasters and
radic [810] and the results have less than satisfactory. obtained a good t for compressive and tensile strengths. Some
excellent reviews [1820] of the effect of porosity on the strength
of concrete presented some of the more important empirical and
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 25 83786551; fax: +86 26 83786986. theoretical equation for relating strength to porosity. The profusion
E-mail address: cxdong1985@hotmail.com (X. Chen). of the possible equation is enormous and whilst one equation is
0950-0618/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2012.11.072
870 X. Chen et al. / Construction and Building Materials 40 (2013) 869874
most suitable for one material a quite different equation is most 3. Test results and discussion
suitable for a second material. Clearly some simplication is
desirable. Despite the relatively large number of experimental Quite a few relationships involving strength and porosity of
investigations that have been conducted to characterize the link engineering materials have been reported in the literature [20].
between strength and porosity, few systematic evaluations have Historically, several general types of model have been developed
been extended beyond simple expressions for tensile or compres- for cement-based materials.
sive strength of a specic material. None of these encompasses Balshin [31], from his study of the tensile strength of metal
both compressive and tensile strength for cement-based materials. ceramics, suggested the relation (Eq. (2)):
The compressive and tensile strength of concrete are important
design parameters in civil engineering. The splitting tensile and r r0 1 pb 2
exural test has been reported as two indirect measure of the ten-
where r is the strength, r0 is the strength at zero porosity, b is the
sile strength of cement-based materials [21,22]. It has been used
empirical constant.
widely in practice due to its testing ease, simplicity of specimen
Ryshkewitch [32], from a study of the compressive strength of
preparation, and possible eld applications.
Al2O3 and ZrO2, obtained the relation (Eq. (3)):
The objective of this paper is to determine the compressive
strength, splitting tensile, and exural strength of cement mortar, r r0 ekp 3
and to study how porosity inuences the magnitude of and the
relationship between these mechanical properties. In addition, where k is the empirical constant.
the existing strengthporosity relationship have been reviewed Schiller [17], on the basis of the study of set sulfate plasters,
and compared with experimental results. proposed the relation (Eq. (4)):
p0
r n ln 4
p
2. Experimental details
where n is the empirical constant, p0 is the porosity at zero strength.
2.1. Materials and mix compositions Hasselman [33] suggested the equation of a linear relationship
An adequate number of series of cement mortar compositions were prepared to
between strength and porosity for different refractory materials
study the strengthporosity relationship. Cement mortar samples were prepared (Eq. (5)):
from ordinary Portland cement 42.5. The ne aggregate used for mortar specimens
was river quartzite sand. The sand was passed through a No. 4 sieve before use. Four r r0 cP 5
watercement ratio (w/c), 03, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7, were used for cement mortar. The
corresponding sandcement ratio (s/c) for all cement mortars is 1.2. Mixing was
where c is the empirical constant.
done in a small mixer. Casting was completed in two layers which were compacted Results of tting previously mentioned models of strength
on a vibrating table. The cast specimens were covered with polyurethane sheet and porosity relations are given in Figs. 13. Values of parameters r0
damped cloth in a 20 2 C chamber and were demoulded at the age of 1 day. For in models of Hasselman, Balshin, and Ryshkewithch correspond
strength and porosity tests, the specimens were cured in saturated limewater at
to the strength of nonporous material or equivalently to the
20 2 C until the test age 7 and 28 days.
extrapolated strength of specimens to the zero porosity. It should
also be mentioned that the estimated value of the parameter r0
2.2. Strength measurements (strength at zero porosity) may not always provide a reliable esti-
mate of the material nonporous response. Other microscopic aws
Compressive tests were run on specimens according to ASTM C 349 [23]. The remaining in the material under these conditions can control its
specimens (40 40 160 mm) were prepared according to ASTM C 348 [24]. Three
strength, and this aspect is not explicitly taken into account in
specimens were tested for each mix proportions. Flexural tests for exural strength
of the mix proportions were carried out on the long surface of prism specimens the above models. Hence, one should be careful with how this t-
using a bend tester (ASTM C 348 [24]). Similar to the compressive tests, exural ting parameter is used in practical applications. For cement-based
tests were carried out on triplicate specimens and average exural strength values materials, the constant r0 contains microstructure factors in-
were obtained. Splitting tensile tests were run on cubical specimens
volved, like density of cement particle and CSH, particle size dis-
(70.7 70.7 70.7 mm) according to BS 1881-117 [25].
tribution and size, and density of aws [3436]. The model of
After the exural tests, three pieces from each specimen were weighed under
water and in the saturated surface-dry (SSD) [26] condition, thus enabling the bulk
volume to be calculated. It was assumed that any volume change during drying or
re-saturation was negligible; this volume was used to calculate the bulk density of
each sample after drying (in the worst case, the bulk volume change due to drying
would be approximately 1.5% [26,27]). Each specimen was then dried in a carbon-
dioxide free oven at 105 C until it reached constant weight. The difference in
weight between in the water-saturated and oven-dry conditions was used to calcu-
late the porosity expressed as a percentage of the bulk specimen volume. The data
which are presented are the average of three replicates. The porosity was calculated
using the following equation:
W ssd W d
p 100% 1
W ssd W w
where p is the porosity (100%), Wssd is the specimen weight in the saturated surface-
dry (SSD) condition (g), Wd is the specimen dry weight after 24 h in oven (g), and Ww
is the weight of saturated specimen (g).
This method has been used to measure the porosity of the cement-based mate- Fig. 1. Experimental data on compressive strengthporosity dependence. Graphs of
rials successfully [15,2830]. the best t obtained for existing models tested are shown.
X. Chen et al. / Construction and Building Materials 40 (2013) 869874 871
The exural and splitting tensile tests are much cheaper, sim-
pler and quicker to carry out because the samples are smaller,
and the set up time for the tests is much less. All quantitative data
reported so far referred exclusively to compressive strength [7]. In
this section, we explore the role of porosity and how it inuences
the correlation between indirect tensile and compressive strength.
From a number of other investigators [7,21,5557], a simple power
law model has become one of the most widely used analytical
models for describing the relationship between the indirect tensile
(splitting tensile/exural) strength and compressive strength of
concrete. From the experimental results, we can write a new
expression for the ratio between indirect tensile strength and com-
Fig. 4. Comparison of predicted and observed compressive strength. pressive strength, as a function of porosity:
X. Chen et al. / Construction and Building Materials 40 (2013) 869874 873
indicated by Eqs. (13) and (14) are in conformity with the ndings
of Odler and Robler [58].
5. Conclusions
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