Theoretical prediction on thickness distribution of cement paste among neighboring aggregates in concrete

By virtue of chord-length density function from the field of statistical physics, this paper introduced a quantitative approach to estimate the distribution of cement paste thickness between aggregates in concrete. Dynamics mixing method based on molecular dynamics was employed to generate one model structure, then image analysis algorithm was used to obtain the distribution of thickness of cement paste in model structure for the purpose of verification. By comparison of probability density curves and cumulative probability curves of the cement paste thickness among neighboring aggregates, it is found that the theoretical results are consistent with the simulation. Furthermore, for the model mortar and concrete mixtures with practical volume fraction of Fuller-type aggregate, this analytical formula was employed to predict the influence of aggregate volume fraction and aggregate fineness. And evolution of its mean values were also investigated with the variation of volume fraction of aggregate as well as the fineness of aggregates in model mortars and concretes.