Capillary imbibition and pore characterisation in cement pastes

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 root 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 Angstrom. 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.