El Rol físico del agua en mezclas de cemento Portland
- Autores: Nayara Soares Klein
- Directores de la Tesis: Berenice Martins Toralles-Carbonari (dir. tes.), Antonio Aguado de Cea (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) ( España ) en 2012
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Enric Vazquez Ramonic (presid.), Sergio H. Pialarissi Cavalaro (secret.), Juan Eugenio Cañadas Bouzas (voc.), Jose María Varona Ruiz (voc.), Marcelo Medeiros (voc.)
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
- Resumen
Water is one of the fundamental components of concrete, not only for its role on the hydration of Portland cement, but also because of the physical functions it develops, which are associated with the main phases of concrete life: fresh state, hardened state and the useful life of the structures. The objective of this PhD Thesis is to study in detail the physical role of water in Portland cement mixtures: the aggregate absorption, the wetting and the fluidization of the granular skeletons that compose the cement pastes. The study covers the mathematical modelling of the mentioned physical functions in a way that it is possible to calculate the volume of water necessary to perform such functions, facilitating the mix-design process. The calculated volume is considered to be the total volume of water needed for production. Moreover, the calculation must take into account the conditions and constraints associated with the production and casting, as well as the technical requirements of the material to be designed. The modelling of the water physical functions allowed the development of a calculation method to quantify the approximate volume of water needed for concrete production. The developed method was used to calculate the volume of water of three different special concretes: a lightweight self-compacting concrete reinforced with fibres, an ultra-high performance concrete reinforced with steel fibres and a concrete with recycled aggregates. What is more, the volume of water for two conventional concretes, with compressive strengths of 25 and 30 MPa, was calculated. Since the calculation was based on granular skeletons for real mixtures, produced in laboratory or/and industrially, the results obtained through the use of the developed method were compared to the experimental results of each concrete. At last, the method was used to quantify the volume of paste necessary for the production of a porous concrete. The results show that the mathematical models used to describe the physical phenomena of absorption, wetting and fluidization fit well to the experimental reproduction of these phenomena. Corrections are needed in some situations due to the ideal boundary conditions adopted during modelling, which facilitate calculation. Anyhow, the errors are corrected through the use of adjusting coefficients. Therefore, the calculation method developed has proven itself effective and applicable in the mix-design of different types of conventional and special concretes, showing the potential to be used for the development of new materials.
