On The Role Of Soft Inclusions On The Fracture Behaviour Of Cement Paste

Soft inclusions, such as capsules and other particulate admixtures are increasingly being used in cementitious materials for functional purposes (i.e. self-healing and self-sensing of concrete). Yet, their influence on the fracture behaviour of the material is sometimes overlooked and requires in-depth study for the optimization of mechanical...

Combined experimental and numerical study on micro-cube indentation splitting test of cement paste

The aim of this paper is to investigate the fracture performance of cement paste at micro scale by both experimental and numerical methods. Micro cubic specimens with length of 100 µm were fabricated by precision cutting, grinding and micro-dicing, and tested by splitting with a wedge tip mounted on a nano-indenter. A nominal splitting...

Size effect on splitting strength of hardened cement paste: Experimental and numerical study

Cement paste possesses complex microstructural features including defects/pores over a range of length-scales, from nanometres to millimetres in size. As a consequence, it exhibits different behaviour under loading depending on the size. In this work, cubic specimens in a size range of 1: 400 were produced and tested by a one-sided splitting...

Influence of microencapsulated phase change material (PCM) addition on (micro) mechanical properties of cement paste

Excessive cracking can be a serious durability problem for reinforced concrete structures. In recent years, addition of microencapsulated phase change materials (PCMs) to concrete has been proposed as a possible solution to crack formation related to temperature gradients. However, the addition of PCM microcapsules to cementitious materials...