Influence of power ultrasound on the portland cement pore solution compositions

The composition of the cement pore solution reflects the kinetics of hydration process and determine essential insight into the rate at which cement phases hydrated. This characterization can therefore provide information about the stable and unstable solid phases which may precipitate and dissolve, respectively. Power ultrasound (PUS) is currently under consideration to improve the hydration of cementitious materials and to promote the effectiveness of replacing supplementary cementitious materials; SCMs, in terms of mechanical, microstructural and transport properties. This could enhance the properties of cementitious composites, reduce the quantity of waste materials, as well as decreasing the CO2 footprint of cementitious materials. This
study investigates the effect of direct PUS on the Portland cement pore solution compositions at early hydration using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) technique. The sonication influence is also inspected by microstructure study of the cement paste using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results shows PUS increases high and low concentration ions in the cement pore solution due to the physical and chemical effect of acoustic cavitation, speeding up the hydration process and enhancing the Portland cement performance. The SEM micrographs indicates the more volume of compacted solid phases of hydration products.