Research

The transport properties of porous materials such as concrete does not only depend on the porosity, but also on the spatial distribution of each phase. Therefore, the transport properties of HCP, which is a main component of concrete, was predicted. Figure 1 shows a cross section of HCP observed using a backscattered electron image, showing the distribution of each phase. We extracted each phase, calculated the autocorrelation function, and based on the results, distributed each phase in three-dimensional space to construct the three-dimensional spatial image model shown in Fig. 2. Figure 3 shows a comparison of the results of the diffusion coefficient calculated by the finite difference method and the measured values. The estimated and measured values agreed well with each other, even for different samples, indicating that the diffusion coefficients of hardened cement can be predicted using this model.