Title:
Prediction of Effective Properties of Fly Ash-Based Geopolymers
Author(s):
Sumanta Das, Pu Yang, Sudhanshu S. Singh, James C.E. Mertens, Xianghui Xiao, Nikhilesh Chawla and Narayanan Neithalath
Publication:
Symposium Paper
Volume:
335
Issue:
Appears on pages(s):
49-62
Keywords:
Geopolymers, Nanoindentation, Synchrotron Tomography, Homogenization, Microstructure
DOI:
10.14359/51720215
Date:
9/20/2019
Abstract:
A detailed microstructural and micromechanical study of a fly ash‐based geopolymer paste including: (i) synchrotron x‐ray tomography (XRT) to characterize the pores (size > 0.74 m) that are influential in fluid transport, (ii) mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) to capture the volume fraction of smaller pores, (iii) high resolution scanning electron microscopy (SEM) combined with a multi‐label thresholding method to identify and characterize the solid phases in the microstructure, and (iv) nanoindentation to determine the component phase elastic properties using statistical deconvolution techniques, is reported in this paper. The 3D pore structure from XRT is used in a computational fluid transport model to predict the permeability of the material. The pore volume from XRT, solid phase volumes from SEM, and the phase elastic properties are used in a numerical homogenization framework to determine the homogenized macroscale elastic modulus of the composite. The homogenized elastic moduli are in good agreement with the flexural elastic modulus determined on macroscale paste beams. It is shown that the combined use of microstructural and micromechanical characterization tools at multiple scales provides valuable information towards the material design of fly ash‐based geopolymers.
Related References:
1. Chithiraputhiran, S., and Neithalath, N. “Isothermal reaction kinetics and temperature dependence of alkali activation of slag, fly ash and their blends,” Construction and Building Materials, V. 45, 2013, pp. 233–42.
2. Kuenzel, C., Li, L., Vandeperre, L., et al. “Influence of sand on the mechanical properties of metakaolin geopolymers,” Construction and Building Materials, V. 66, 2014, pp. 442–6.
3. Peng, Z., Vance, K., Dakhane, A., et al. “Microstructural and 29Si MAS NMR spectroscopic evaluations of alkali cationic effects on fly ash activation,” Cement and Concrete Composites, V. 57, 2015, pp. 34–43.
4. Rashad, A. M. “A comprehensive overview about the influence of different admixtures and additives on the properties of alkali-activated fly ash,” Materials & Design, V. 53, 2014, pp. 1005–25.
5. Ravikumar, D., Peethamparan, S., and Neithalath, N. “Structure and strength of NaOH activated concretes containing fly ash or GGBFS as the sole binder,” Cement and Concrete Composites, V. 32, No. 6, 2010, pp. 399–410.
6. Jang, J. G., Lee, N. K., and Lee, H. K. “Fresh and hardened properties of alkali-activated fly ash/slag pastes with superplasticizers,” Construction and Building Materials, V. 50, 2014, pp. 169–76.
7. Catauro, M., Bollino, F., Papale, F., et al. “Investigation of the sample preparation and curing treatment effects on mechanical properties and bioactivity of silica rich metakaolin geopolymer,” Materials Science and Engineering: C, V. 36, 2014, pp. 20–4.
8. Ma, Y., Hu, J., and Ye, G. “The pore structure and permeability of alkali activated fly ash,” Fuel, V. 104, 2013, pp. 771–80.
9. Bentz, D. P., and Martys, N. S. “A Stokes permeability solver for three-dimensional porous media,” US Department of Commerce, Technology Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, MD, USA, 2007.
10. Sumanasooriya, M. S., Bentz, D. P., and Neithalath, N. “Planar image-based reconstruction of pervious concrete pore structure and permeability prediction,” ACI Materials Journal, V. 107, No. 4, 2010.
11. Miller, K. J., Zhu, W., Montési, L. G. J., et al. “Experimental quantification of permeability of partially molten mantle rock,” Earth and Planetary Science Letters, V. 388, 2014, pp. 273–82.
12. da Silva, W. R. L., Němeček, J., and Štemberk, P. “Methodology for nanoindentationassisted prediction of macroscale elastic properties of high performance cementitious composites,” Cement and Concrete Composites, V. 45, 2014, pp. 57–68.
13. Hu, C., and Li, Z. “Micromechanical investigation of Portland cement paste,” Construction and Building Materials, V. 71, 2014, pp. 44–52.
14. Constantinides, G., and Ulm, F.-J. “The effect of two types of C-S-H on the elasticity of cement-based materials: Results from nanoindentation and micromechanical modeling,” Cement and Concrete Research, V. 34, No. 1, 2004, pp. 67–80.
15. Sorelli, L., Constantinides, G., Ulm, F.-J., et al. “The nano-mechanical signature of Ultra High Performance Concrete by statistical nanoindentation techniques,” Cement and Concrete Research, V. 38, No. 12, 2008, pp. 1447–56.
16. Sheng, P. “Effective-medium theory of sedimentary rocks,” Physical Review B, V. 41, No. 7, 1990, pp. 4507–12.
17. Sun, Z., Garboczi, E. J., and Shah, S. P. “Modeling the elastic properties of concrete composites: Experiment, differential effective medium theory, and numerical simulation,” Cement and Concrete Composites, V. 29, No. 1, 2007, pp. 22–38.
18. Mercier, S., and Molinari, A. “Homogenization of elastic–viscoplastic heterogeneous materials: Self-consistent and Mori-Tanaka schemes,” International Journal of Plasticity, V. 25, No. 6, 2009, pp. 1024–48.
19. Segurado, J., Lebensohn, R. A., LLorca, J., et al. “Multiscale modeling of plasticity based on embedding the viscoplastic self-consistent formulation in implicit finite elements,” International Journal of Plasticity, V. 28, No. 1, 2012, pp. 124–40.
20. Lebensohn, R. A., Tomé, C. N., and CastaÑeda, P. P. “Self-consistent modelling of the mechanical behaviour of viscoplastic polycrystals incorporating intragranular field fluctuations,” Philosophical Magazine, V. 87, No. 28, 2007, pp. 4287–322.
21. Das, S., Yang, P., Singh, S. S., et al. “Effective properties of a fly ash geopolymer: Synergistic application of X-ray synchrotron tomography, nanoindentation, and homogenization models,” Cement and Concrete Research, V. 2015, No. 2015, 2015.
22. Dunant, C. F., Bary, B., Giorla, A. B., et al. “A critical comparison of several numerical methods for computing effective properties of highly heterogeneous materials,” Advances in Engineering Software, V. 58, 2013, pp. 1–12.
23. Idiart, M. I., Willot, F., Pellegrini, Y.-P., et al. “Infinite-contrast periodic composites with strongly nonlinear behavior: Effective-medium theory versus full-field simulations,” International Journal of Solids and Structures, V. 46, Nos. 18–19, 2009, pp. 3365–82.
24. Nguyen, V. P., Stroeven, M., and Sluys, L. J. “Multiscale failure modeling of concrete: Micromechanical modeling, discontinuous homogenization and parallel computations,” Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, V. 201–204, 2012, pp. 139–56.
25. Zhang, J. L., Liu, X., Yuan, Y., et al. “Multiscale modeling of the effect of the interfacial transition zone on the modulus of elasticity of fiber-reinforced fine concrete,” Computational Mechanics, V. 55, No. 1, 2014, pp. 37–55.
26. Sanahuja, J., and Toulemonde, C. “Numerical homogenization of concrete microstructures without explicit meshes,” Cement and Concrete Research, V. 41, No. 12, 2011, pp. 1320–9.
27. Paiboon, J., Griffiths, D. V., Huang, J., et al. “Numerical analysis of effective elastic properties of geomaterials containing voids using 3D random fields and finite elements,” International Journal of Solids and Structures, V. 50, Nos. 20–21, 2013, pp. 3233–41.
28. Chawla, N., and Chawla, K. K. “Microstructure-based modeling of the deformation behavior of particle reinforced metal matrix composites,” Journal of Materials Science, V. 41, No. 3, 2006, pp. 913–25.
29. Padilla, E., Jakkali, V., Jiang, L., et al. “Quantifying the effect of porosity on the evolution of deformation and damage in Sn-based solder joints by X-ray microtomography and microstructure-based finite element modeling,” Acta Materialia, V. 60, No. 9, 2012, pp. 4017–26.
30. Williams, J. J., Flom, Z., Amell, A. A., et al. “Damage evolution in SiC particle reinforced Al alloy matrix composites by X-ray synchrotron tomography,” Acta Materialia, V. 58, No. 18, 2010, pp. 6194–205.
31. De Carlo, F., and Tieman, B. “High-throughput x-ray microtomography system at the Advanced Photon Source beamline 2-BM.” vol. 5535. 2004. pp. 644–51.
32. Dowd, B. A., Campbell, G. H., Marr, R. B., et al. “Developments in synchrotron x-ray computed microtomography at the National Synchrotron Light Source.” vol. 3772. 1999. pp. 224–36.
33. Rivers, M. L. “tomoRecon: High-speed tomography reconstruction on workstations using multi-threading.” vol. 8506. 2012. pp. 85060U-85060U – 13.
34. Marone, F., and Stampanoni, M. “Regridding reconstruction algorithm for real-time tomographic imaging,” Journal of Synchrotron Radiation, V. 19, No. 6, 2012, pp. 1029–37.
35. Moon, H. Y., Kim, H. S., and Choi, D. S. “Relationship between average pore diameter and chloride diffusivity in various concretes,” Construction and Building Materials, V. 20, No. 9, 2006, pp. 725–32.
36. Kumar, R., and Bhattacharjee, B. “Study on some factors affecting the results in the use of MIP method in concrete research,” Cement and Concrete Research, V. 33, No. 3, 2003, pp. 417–24.
37. Das, S., Stone, D., Convey, D., et al. “Pore- and micro-structural characterization of a novel structural binder based on iron carbonation,” Materials Characterization, V. 98, 2014, pp. 168–79.
38. Garboczi, E. J., and Bentz, D. P. “The effect of statistical fluctuation, finite size error, and digital resolution on the phase percolation and transport properties of the NIST cement hydration model,” Cement and Concrete Research, V. 31, No. 10, 2001, pp. 1501–14.
39. Provis, J. L., Myers, R. J., White, C. E., et al. “X-ray microtomography shows pore structure and tortuosity in alkali-activated binders,” Cement and Concrete Research, V. 42, No. 6, 2012, pp. 855–64.
40. Oliver, W. c., and Pharr, G. m. “Measurement of hardness and elastic modulus by instrumented indentation: Advances in understanding and refinements to methodology,” Journal of Materials Research, V. 19, No. 01, 2004, pp. 3–20.
41. Li, X., and Bhushan, B. “A review of nanoindentation continuous stiffness measurement technique and its applications,” Materials Characterization, V. 48, No. 1, 2002, pp. 11–36.
42. Moody, N. R., Gerberich, W. W., Burnham, N., et al. “Fundamentals of nanoindentation and nanotribology,” Warrendale, PA (United States); Materials Research Society, 1998.
43. da Silva, W. R. L., Němeček, J., and Štemberk, P. “Application of multiscale elastic homogenization based on nanoindentation for high performance concrete,” Advances in Engineering Software, V. 62–63, 2013, pp. 109–18.
44. Zhang, M., He, Y., Ye, G., et al. “Computational investigation on mass diffusivity in Portland cement paste based on X-ray computed microtomography (μCT) image,” Construction and Building Materials, V. 27, No. 1, 2012, pp. 472–81.
45. Diamond, S. “Mercury porosimetry: An inappropriate method for the measurement of pore size distributions in cement-based materials,” Cement and Concrete Research, V. 30, No. 10, 2000, pp. 1517–25.
46. Diamond, S. “Reply to the discussion by S. Wild of the paper ‘Mercury porosimetry—an inappropriate method for the measurement of pore size distributions in cement-based materials,’” Cement and Concrete Research, V. 31, No. 11, 2001, pp. 1655–1656.
47. Zalzale, M., and McDonald, P. J. “Lattice Boltzmann simulations of the permeability and capillary adsorption of cement model microstructures,” Cement and Concrete Research, V. 42, No. 12, 2012, pp. 1601–10.
48. Constantinides, G., Ravi Chandran, K. S., Ulm, F.-J., et al. “Grid indentation analysis of composite microstructure and mechanics: Principles and validation,” Materials Science and Engineering: A, V. 430, Nos. 1–2, 2006, pp. 189–202.
49. Němeček, J., Šmilauer, V., and Kopecký, L. “Nanoindentation characteristics of alkaliactivated aluminosilicate materials,” Cement and Concrete Composites, V. 33, No. 2, 2011, pp. 163–70.
50. Lubachevsky, B. D., and Stillinger, F. H. “Geometric properties of random disk packings,” Journal of statistical Physics, V. 60, Nos. 5–6, 1990, pp. 561–583.
51. Lubachevsky, B. D. “How to simulate billiards and similar systems,” Journal of Computational Physics, V. 94, No. 2, 1991, pp. 255–283.
52. Lubachevsky, B. D., Stillinger, F. H., and Pinson, E. N. “Disks vs. spheres: Contrasting properties of random packings,” Journal of Statistical Physics, V. 64, Nos. 3–4, 1991, pp. 501–524.
53. Meier, H. A., Kuhl, E., and Steinmann, P. “A note on the generation of periodic granular microstructures based on grain size distributions,” International journal for numerical and analytical methods in geomechanics, V. 32, No. 5, 2008, p. 509.
54. Suquet, P. “Elements of homogenization for inelastic solid mechanics,” 1987.
55. Sun, C. T., and Vaidya, R. S. “Prediction of composite properties from a representative volume element,” Composites Science and Technology, V. 56, No. 2, 1996, pp. 171–9.
56. Mori, T., and Tanaka, K. “Average stress in matrix and average elastic energy of materials with misfitting inclusions,” Acta Metallurgica, V. 21, No. 5, 1973, pp. 571–4.