Effect of supercooling on the instantaneous freezing dilation of cement-based porous materials

Abstract

This study seeks to assess the instantaneous deformation of saturated cement-based porous materials induced by supercooling of pore fluid. Thermodynamic equilibria account for the physical behaviors of the confined crystallization of ice for partially frozen porous systems. Pore pressure is built up when ice forms in pores, and this can be intimately related to the pore structure of the porous materials. To overcome the metastability of supercooled water that surpasses a normal poromechanical description, a special program for cooling has been designed. The hydraulic pressure resulting from rapid ice formation and the thermal shock caused by heat release account for an observed dilation peak. The lower the supercooled temperature, the larger the dilation peak becomes. Rapid pore pressure relaxation accounts for significant contraction following the dilation peak. The pore structure also has a significant impact on the freezing deformation of the cement-based porous materials. Results obtained in these examples are comparable with previously published data, which confirms the importance of the detrimental effects of supercooling in porous materials.

Modeling of water transport in highly saturated concrete with wet surface during freeze/thaw

“…where R is the critical pore size for freezing under different temperatures, R*=4.26nm in Coussy's paper, which reflects the characteristics of the pore size distribution and connection of cementitious materials. The parameter m represents the pore size distribution concentration, the pores are more concentrated with larger value of m [21]. For CBM, it has been verified through capillary experiments that m usually varies from 0.42 to 0.57 [22].…”

Experimental investigation and hygrothermal modelling of freeze-thaw process of saturated fired clay materials including supercooling phenomenon

“…They calculated the freezing expansions and the results reasonably agreed with the experimental results. They also investigated the relationship between the extent of supercooling and expansion during freezing [8]. Gawin et al [9] developed a hygrothermal model that includes the hysteresis of the ice content and the supercooling effects.…”

Deformation of fired clay material during rapid freezing due to supercooling

“…The model was based on a poromechanical approach established by Coussy (2004). Models based on poromechanics have been developed in (Eriksson et al, 2018;Koniorczyk, 2015;Koniorczyk et al, 2015;Zeng et al, 2011Zeng et al, , 2016 but have been validated only for small cement-based materials with dimensions of several millimeters. Therefore, we validated the model by comparing the calculated strain evolution with the measurement results using a relatively large specimen.…”