Modeling Heat and Moisture Transport During Hydration of Cement-Based Materials in Semi-Adiabatic Conditions

Published

October 10, 2014

Author(s)

Emilio Hernandez-Bautista, Dale P. Bentz, Sadoth Sandoval-Torres, Prisciiano Cano Barrita

Abstract

The process of accelerated curing of pre-cast concrete consists in increasing the temperature within a saturated water vapor atmosphere during several hours. In this process, the cement hydration has a significant importance in the thermal behavior of concrete, since it has an effect on both the mechanical and durability properties. A Multiphysics model that describes hydration and heat and mass transport in cement-based materials was developed. The hydration reactions are described by a maturity function that uses the equivalent time concept, thereby describing the change in the degree of hydration based on the time-temperature history in the form of Domain Ordinary Differential Equations. These equations are coupled to a heat balance, using the COMSOL Heat Transfer module. Using the PDE general form, we solved the moisture content conservation equation. The numerical results were compared with the experimental temperatures obtained directly by semi-adiabatic temperature measurements. The numerical results show a good agreement.

Proceedings Title

Proceedings of the 2014 COMSOL Conference

Conference Dates

October 8-10, 2014

Conference Location

Boston, MA, US

Conference Title

COMSOL Conference Boston 2014

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

Portland cement, maturity, hydration degree, heat transfer, mass transfer, semi-adiabatic conditions

Citation

Hernandez-Bautista, E. , Bentz, D. , Sandoval-Torres, S. and Cano Barrita, P. (2014), Modeling Heat and Moisture Transport During Hydration of Cement-Based Materials in Semi-Adiabatic Conditions, Proceedings of the 2014 COMSOL Conference, Boston, MA, US, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=918103 (Accessed October 17, 2025)