Thermal expansion kinetics: Method to measure permeability of cementitious materials: II, Application to hardened cement pastes

A new approach to determine the permeability of cementitious materials is presented in this paper. The method involves the measurement of the thermal dilatation of thin slabs of saturated cement paste. On heating and subsequent isothermal holding, the sample first expands, then gradually contracts over time. The paste is treated as a porous solid with low permeability in which the initial expansion is partly due to the liquid expanding within the pores, putting both solid and liquid under stress. The time-dependent contraction is due to the liquid flowing out of the pores to restore the pressure to equilibrium. By analyzing the kinetics of the thermal expansion and contraction, the liquid permeability of the porous solid can be calculated. The theoretical analysis is applied to determine the water permeability coefficients of selected cement pastes modified with silica fume and made with different water/solid ratios.