Experimental Investigation and Modelling of Carbonation Process in Cement Materials

Cement mortar and cement paste samples were prepared and subjected to accelerated carbonation test at 20°C, 65% humidity relative, 20% or 50% concentration of CO₂. The carbonation depth was determined using classical phenolphthalein test. The mass fractions of Ca(OH)₂and CaCO₃were calculated from thermogravimetric analysis. We studied different factors that influence the carbonation process such as: concentration of CO₂, type of material, surface exposure to CO₂, porosity accessible to water, duration of carbonation. Based on the experimental results, a numerical simulation was developed to predict the carbonation depth. This physicochemical and deterministic model relies upon a detailed description of the carbonation mechanism as it takes into account the chemical kinetics, the microstructural and hydrous evolutions induced.

This creative work has been published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0) license which allows copying, and redistribution as well as adaptation of the original work provided appropriate credit is given to the original author and the conditions of the license are met.