Determination of atomistic deformation of tricalcium silicate paste with high-volume fly ash

Jee, H.*; Im, S.*; Kanematsu, Manabu*; Suzuki, Hiroshi  ; Morooka, Satoshi  ; Koyama, Taku*; Machida, Akihiko*; Bae, S.*

We examined the influence of incorporating high-volume fly ash (FA) on the atomic structure and deformation behavior of calcium silicate hydrates (C-S-H) in tricalcium silicate (CH) paste upon exposure to external forces. Atomic structural changes and strains under compressive load were assessed using synchrotron in situ high-energy X-ray scattering-based atomic pair distribution function (PDF) analysis. Three different strain types, namely macroscopic strains, measured by a gauge attached to the specimen, strain in reciprocal space, (Bragg peak shifts), and strain in real space (PDF peak shift), were compared. All monitored and calculated strains for CH-FA (50 wt.% FA) paste were compared with those of pure CH paste. In the range of 10 , PDF analysis showed that CH-FA had a similar atomic structure to synthetic C-S-H followed by pure CH paste. The atomic strain of CH-FA in real space ( 20 ) was smaller than that of CH under compression, which suggests that the incompressibility of C-S-H on an atomistic scale is enhanced by fly ash incorporation. This may be caused by increased silicate polymerization of C-S-H due to the additional silicate provided by the fly ash.