Title: High-Performance Concrete: the Role of the Cementitious Materials Modeling Laboratory

Author(s): D. P. Bentz, E. J. Garboczi, N. S. Martys, and Geoffrey J. Frohnsdorff

Publication: Symposium Paper

Volume: 159

Issue:

Appears on pages(s): 265-282

Keywords: concretes; diffusivity; durability; models; performance tests; permeability; porosity; setting (hardening); General

DOI: 10.14359/1601

Date: 2/1/1996

Abstract:
The Cementitious Materials Modeling Laboratory (CMML) was established at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 1989 as a joint activity of NIST and the NSF Center for Advanced Cement-Based Materials. The purposes of the CMML are: (1) to develop tools for simulating the physical, chemical, and mechanical behavior of concrete and other cementitious materials, thereby gaining insight into factors affecting their engineering performance, and (2) ultimately, in combination with other computer-based representations of knowledge, to provide the technical basis and tools for optimization needed to facilitate the design of high-performance concretes and other new cementitious systems. The CMML is described and two examples -- setting and diffusivity -- of the progress being made in simulating the behavior of portland cement pastes are presented. They illustrate the use of digital-image-based models to represent the micro structures of this class of materials and to investigate aspects of their engineering performance. Some other simulations are mentioned briefly. The CMML and the techniques developed in it are helping to clarify the relationships between microstructure and engineering properties that need to be understood if high-performance concrete and other cement-based materials are to have a sound basis in materials science.