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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Eduardo Duque RedondoORCiD, Dr Eric Masoero
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
© 2022 The Authors. The calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) controls most of the final properties of the cement paste, including its mechanical performance. It is agreed that the nanometer-sized building blocks that compose the C-S-H are the origin of the mechanical properties. In this work, we employ atomistic simulations to investigate the relaxation process of C-S-H nanoparticles subjected to shear stress. In particular, we study the stress relaxation by rearrangement of these nanoparticles via sliding adjacent C-S-H layers separated by a variable interfacial distance. The simulations show that the shear strength has its maximum at the bulk interlayer space, called perfect contact interface, and decreases sharply to low values for very short interfacial distances, coinciding with the transition from 2 to 3 water layers and beginning of the water flow. The evolution of the shear strength as a function of the temperature and ionic confinement confirms that the water diffusion controls the shear strength.
Author(s): Duque-Redondo E, Masoero E, Manzano H
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Cement and Concrete Research
Year: 2022
Volume: 154
Print publication date: 01/04/2022
Online publication date: 18/01/2022
Acceptance date: 10/01/2022
Date deposited: 21/02/2022
ISSN (print): 0008-8846
ISSN (electronic): 1873-3948
Publisher: Elsevier Ltd
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconres.2022.106716
DOI: 10.1016/j.cemconres.2022.106716
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