Effect of 10-Year Outdoor Exposure and Curing Conditions on the Pore Structure Characteristics of Hardened Cement Mortar

摘要

The objective of this study was to determine the influence of environmental conditions on the pore structure of mortar. For this purpose, the experimental program was designed with the following two series: Series 1 included both a 10-year outdoor exposure test set and a laboratory test set and Series 2 included only a laboratory test set. The pore structure of mortar specimens was evaluated using the Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry method. In general, the pore structure change due to temperature in both the outdoor exposure test and the laboratory test showed the same tendency. The test results confirmed that the pore structure of mortar coarsened and that the volume of pores with a diameter range of 40 to 2000 nm increased due to the increase in temperature and the decrease in relative humidity. Furthermore, this paper reports evidence for the relationship between pore structure change and maturity, and an improved maturity function is proposed. The change in the pore structure is determined by the proposed maturity function, which considers the curing temperature history and the relative humidity. The relative humidity is an additional and novel factor forming the new maturity function for the prediction of pore structure change.