Characterization of Mineral Building Materials by Mercury‐Intrusion Porosimetry

Mineral building materials are generally heterogeneous and porous solids. Their engineering properties are closely associated with their porosity and pore-size distribution, which can be studied by mercury intrusion. The entire pore-size distribution curves are used to determine changes in the pore structure of a material class in a qualitative way. Certain parameters derived from pore-size distributions can be correlated to engineering properties. These key values are applied as criteria to evaluate the quality and durability of a building material. However, because of the heterogeneity of natural and artificial building materials and the influence of moisture content on their pore structure the results are strongly affected by preparation conditions such as sampling and drying. A correct analysis requires a knowledge of these effects. The paper describes the use of mercury porosimetry to study mineral building materials such as cementitious materials, bricks, and renderings. Furthermore, the influence of preparation effects on the precision of measurements is discussed.

[1]  Antonia Moropoulou,et al.  Correlation of physicochemical and mechanical properties of historical mortars and classification by multivariate statistics , 2003 .

[2]  J. Van Brakel,et al.  Mercury porosimetry: state of the art , 1981 .

[3]  D. Knöfel,et al.  Systematic mercury porosimetry investigations on sandstones , 1992 .

[4]  C. Gallé,et al.  Effect of drying on cement-based materials pore structure as identified by mercury intrusion porosimetry: A comparative study between oven-, vacuum-, and freeze-drying , 2001 .

[5]  K. L. Gauri,et al.  Control of porosity on durability of limestone at the great sphinx, Egypt , 1990 .

[6]  L. Moscou,et al.  Practical use of mercury porosimetry in the study of porous solids , 1981 .

[7]  G. De Schutter,et al.  Influence of hydration reaction on engineering properties of hardening concrete , 2002 .

[8]  M. J. Setzer,et al.  CIF-Test-Capillary suction, internal damage and freeze thaw test , 2001 .

[9]  Kenneth C. Hover,et al.  MERCURY POROSIMETRY OF CEMENT-BASED MATERIALS AND ASSOICATED CORRECTION FACTORS , 1993 .

[10]  B. Pradhan,et al.  Prediction of the hydraulic diffusivity from pore size distribution of concrete , 2005 .

[11]  C. L. Y. Leon,et al.  New perspectives in mercury porosimetry , 1998 .

[12]  I. Odler,et al.  Investigations on the relationship between porosity, structure and strength of hydrated Portland cement pastes. II. Effect of pore structure and of degree of hydration , 1985 .

[13]  F. Glasser,et al.  Critical Examination Of Drying Damage To Cement Pastes , 2000 .

[14]  Investigations on the aging of hydrated tricalcium silicate and portland cement pastes , 1995 .

[15]  A. Ćwirzeń,et al.  Aggregate-cement paste transition zone properties affecting the salt-frost damage of high-performance concretes , 2005 .

[16]  V. E. Penttala,et al.  Nature of compression strength in concrete , 1992 .

[17]  D. Winslow,et al.  Sub-distributions of pore size: A new approach to correlate pore structure with permeability , 1995 .

[18]  Bishwajit Bhattacharjee,et al.  Porosity, pore size distribution and in situ strength of concrete , 2003 .

[19]  S. Chatterji A discussion of the paper “Mercury porosimetry—an inappropriate method for the measurement of pore size distributions in cement-based materials” by S. Diamond☆ , 2001 .

[20]  P. Demo,et al.  The effect of temperature on strength – porosity relationship for concrete , 2004 .

[21]  Rakesh Kumar,et al.  Assessment of permeation quality of concrete through mercury intrusion porosimetry , 2004 .

[22]  S. Diamond A discussion of the paper “Effect of drying on cement-based materials pore structure as identified by mercury porosimetry—a comparative study between oven-, vacuum-, and freeze-drying” by C. Gallé☆ , 2003 .

[23]  Rakesh Kumar,et al.  STUDY ON SOME FACTORS AFFECTING THE RESULTS IN THE USE OF MIP METHOD IN CONCRETE RESEARCH , 2003 .

[24]  P. Tumidajski Relationship between resistivity, diffusivity and microstructural descriptors for mortars with silica fume , 2005 .

[25]  Sidney Diamond,et al.  Mercury porosimetry: An inappropriate method for the measurement of pore size distributions in cement-based materials , 2000 .