Estimation of the 2D mineralogical distribution in hydrated C3S matrix through coupling of chemical solver with experimental data.

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents a procedure to identify 2D mineralogical distribution in a cement matrix using EDS quantified maps. The results obtained from EDS analysis are combined with the chemical solver GEMS and the thermodynamic database CEMDATA18 to estimate the mineralogical distribution in pixels, while respecting thermodynamic equilibrium. Anhydrous phases are identified through a clustering process applied to the EDS quantified maps. Homogenization schemes are then employed to calculate in on hand the homogenized mechanical distribution in the studied zone and in one other hand the macroscopic homogenized properties. The proposed method is applied to C3S hardened cement paste (HCP) at 28 days of hydration. An accompanying experimental campaign confirms the accuracy of the estimated mineralogical and mechanical distributions using this approach.