Role of cavitation in drying cementitious materials

TL;DR

This paper investigates how cavitation influences water desorption in cement pastes, revealing that cavitation causes sudden moisture loss in the desorption process, especially in gel porosity disconnected from capillary pores.

Contribution

It identifies cavitation as a key factor affecting desorption isotherms in cementitious materials and applies classical nucleation theory to analyze this phenomenon.

Findings

Cavitation causes sudden moisture loss at 0.3 pv psat.

Homogeneous cavitation occurs in disconnected gel porosity.

Cavitation influences the shape of the desorption isotherm.

Abstract

This study aims to identify and isolate the role of properties of water with respect to the shape of the first desorption isotherm of hardened cement pastes. It has been observed that desorption occurs not only by receding meniscus but is also affected by cavitation. Classical nucleation theory was used to understand and examine parameters that influence cavitation. The results show that the sudden moisture loss at 0.3 pv psat in desorption isotherm occurs due to homogeneous cavitation. Further investigations revealed that homogeneous cavitation occurs in the part of gel porosity that is disconnected from the rest of capillary pores in the pore network.