USE OF OSCILLATORY SHEAR TO STUDY FLOW BEHAVIOR OF FRESH CEMENT PASTE

Abstract Low-amplitude oscillatory shear was used to study the flow behavior of fresh cement paste. Three cements were studied, slightly different in their particle size distributions, at w/c levels of 0.40, 0.45, and 0.50. The results indicated that the suspensions were flocculated and behaved as viscoelastic solids. The storage modulus values for cement paste in its low-strain linear-viscoelastic region ranged from 14 to 24 kPa. As strain was increased above some critical level, the storage modulus values decreased; this critical strain for cement paste was approximately 10−4. As w/c was increased, the storage modulus tended to decrease and the critical strain decreased slightly.