Open porosity of cement pastes and their gas permeability

This paper presents the results of extensive research work on the open porosity and gas permeability of cement pastes. Tests were conducted on cement pastes with different water/cement ratios and types of cement. The three most popular cements in Poland from the CEM I, CEM II and CEM III groups were tested after the pastes had been cured for 90 days in laboratory conditions. The scope of experiments included the assessment of open porosity determined using three different methods: comparing the bulk and specific densities, mercury intrusion porosimetry and saturating the material with water. In addition, this article contains an analysis of the porosity characteristics based on the distributions produced by porosimetry examinations. Gas permeability was determined using the modified RILEM-Cembureau laboratory method. The results of the completed test allowed a quantitative determination to be made of the impact of water-cement ratio and type of cement used on open porosity assessed by various methods, and the influence of these parameters on the gas permeability of the paste. The quantitative changes in the content of capillary pores and meso-pores in the cement pastes analysed are also presented