Nanogranular origin of concrete creep
Concrete, the solid that forms at room temperature from mixing Portland cement with water, sand, and aggregates, suffers from time-dependent deformation under load. This creep occurs at a rate that deteriorates the durability and truncates the lifespan of concrete structures. However, despite decade...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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National Academy of Sciences
2010
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/52363 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7089-8069 |
| _version_ | 1826206698017128448 |
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| author | Vandamme, Matthieu Ulm, Franz-Josef |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Vandamme, Matthieu Ulm, Franz-Josef |
| author_sort | Vandamme, Matthieu |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Concrete, the solid that forms at room temperature from mixing Portland cement with water, sand, and aggregates, suffers from time-dependent deformation under load. This creep occurs at a rate that deteriorates the durability and truncates the lifespan of concrete structures. However, despite decades of research, the origin of concrete creep remains unknown. Here, we measure the in situ creep behavior of calcium–silicate–hydrates (C–S–H), the nano-meter sized particles that form the fundamental building block of Portland cement concrete. We show that C–S–H exhibits a logarithmic creep that depends only on the packing of 3 structurally distinct but compositionally similar C–S–H forms: low density, high density, ultra-high density. We demonstrate that the creep rate (≈1/t) is likely due to the rearrangement of nanoscale particles around limit packing densities following the free-volume dynamics theory of granular physics. These findings could lead to a new basis for nanoengineering concrete materials and structures with minimal creep rates monitored by packing density distributions of nanoscale particles, and predicted by nanoscale creep measurements in some minute time, which are as exact as macroscopic creep tests carried out over years. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:37:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/52363 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:37:08Z |
| publishDate | 2010 |
| publisher | National Academy of Sciences |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/523632022-09-28T15:04:11Z Nanogranular origin of concrete creep Vandamme, Matthieu Ulm, Franz-Josef Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Ulm, Franz-Josef Ulm, Franz-Josef Concrete, the solid that forms at room temperature from mixing Portland cement with water, sand, and aggregates, suffers from time-dependent deformation under load. This creep occurs at a rate that deteriorates the durability and truncates the lifespan of concrete structures. However, despite decades of research, the origin of concrete creep remains unknown. Here, we measure the in situ creep behavior of calcium–silicate–hydrates (C–S–H), the nano-meter sized particles that form the fundamental building block of Portland cement concrete. We show that C–S–H exhibits a logarithmic creep that depends only on the packing of 3 structurally distinct but compositionally similar C–S–H forms: low density, high density, ultra-high density. We demonstrate that the creep rate (≈1/t) is likely due to the rearrangement of nanoscale particles around limit packing densities following the free-volume dynamics theory of granular physics. These findings could lead to a new basis for nanoengineering concrete materials and structures with minimal creep rates monitored by packing density distributions of nanoscale particles, and predicted by nanoscale creep measurements in some minute time, which are as exact as macroscopic creep tests carried out over years. 2010-03-08T15:03:57Z 2010-03-08T15:03:57Z 2009-06 2009-01 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0027-8424 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/52363 Vandamme, Matthieu, and Franz-Josef Ulm. “Nanogranular origin of concrete creep.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106.26 (2009): 10552-10557. Print. 19541652 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7089-8069 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0901033106 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf National Academy of Sciences PNAS |
| spellingShingle | Vandamme, Matthieu Ulm, Franz-Josef Nanogranular origin of concrete creep |
| title | Nanogranular origin of concrete creep |
| title_full | Nanogranular origin of concrete creep |
| title_fullStr | Nanogranular origin of concrete creep |
| title_full_unstemmed | Nanogranular origin of concrete creep |
| title_short | Nanogranular origin of concrete creep |
| title_sort | nanogranular origin of concrete creep |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/52363 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7089-8069 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT vandammematthieu nanogranularoriginofconcretecreep AT ulmfranzjosef nanogranularoriginofconcretecreep |