The pore fillability of cementitious materials and its application in predicting compressive strength of gap-graded blended cements

To utilize cementitious materials efficiently, pore fillability was defined as volume expansion of cementitious materials during hydration, and calculated according to its chemical shrinkage and non-evaporable water content. Relationship between hydration characteristics of cementitious materials and porosity of cement pastes was established, and then the compressive strength of gap-graded blended cements was predicted based on the pore fillability of cementitious components and initial solid volume concentration of cement pastes. The results showed that the pore fillability of cementitious materials increased dramatically with the increase of hydration time and the decrease of particle size. For a given hydration degree, pore fillability of cementitious materials mainly dominated by the size of fraction, fine fraction presented a much higher pore fillability than coarse fraction as outer products contribute to a higher proportion in the hydration products. The compressive strengths measured and predicted were consistent with each other very well, indicating pore fillability can be used for the strength prediction of gap-graded blended cement (within 2.5% deviation). (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.