Assessing strain rate sensitivity of cement paste at the micro-scale through micro-cantilever testing

This study presents an experimental investigation of the rate-dependent mechanical properties of cement paste at the microscale. With the use of a nanoindenter, micro-cantilever beams with the size of 300 μm × 300 μm × 1650 μm were loaded at five different strain rates from around 10⁻⁶/s to 10⁻²/s until failure. It is...