Estimating the mechanical properties of hydrating blended cementitious materials: An investigation based on micromechanics

The hydration model of Parrot & Killoh (1984) has been extended to blended cements and coupled to a micromechanical scheme similar to that of Pichler & Hellmich (2011) to estimate the Young modulus and the compressive strength of cementitious materials as a function of time. A finite aspect ratio of 7 is introduced to describe the shape of the hydrates and improve the estimate of the early age strength by the micromechanical scheme. Furthermore, accounting for the stress fluctuations in the cement paste partly explains the fact that the compressive strength of a concrete can be lower than that of its cement paste. Finally, the estimated physical properties are compared to numerous experimental measurements from the literature and new experimental measurements on blended cement pastes featuring significant weight fractions of limestone filler, fly ash or silica fume. It is shown that the present model slightly overestimates the dilution effect.