Modelling Porewater Chemistry in Hydrated Portland Cement

Extensive employment of concrete is foreseen in radioactive waste repositories. A prerequisite for modelling the interactions between concrete and formation waters is characterisation of the concrete system. Available experimental data from high pressure squeezing of cement pore-water indicate that, besides the high pH due to alkali hydroxide dissolution, cement composition itself influences the solubility determining solid phases. A model which simulates the hydration of Portland cement assuming complete hydration of the main clinker minerals is presented. The model also includes parameters describing the reactions between the cement and blending agents. Comparsion with measured pore-water data generally gives a consistent picture and, as expected, the model gives correct predictions for pure Portland cements. For blended cements, the required additional parameters can, to some extent, be derived from pore-water analysis.