Surface fractal analysis of pore structure of high-volume fly-ash cement pastes

The surface fractal dimensions of high-volume fly-ash cement pastes are evaluated for their hardening processes on the basis of mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) data. Two surface fractal models are retained: Neimark’s model with cylindrical pore hypothesis and Zhang’s model without pore geometry assumption. From both models, the logarithm plots exhibit the scale-dependent fractal properties and three distinct fractal regions (I, II, III) are identified for the pore structures. For regions I and III, corresponding to the large (capillary) and small (C-S-H inter-granular) pore ranges respectively, the pore structure shows strong fractal property and the fractal dimensions are evaluated as 2.592–2.965 by Neimark’s model and 2.487–2.695 by Zhang’s model. The fractal dimension of region I increases with w/b ratio and hardening age but decreases with fly-ash content by its physical filling effect; the fractal dimension of region III does not evolve much with these factors. The region II of pore size range, corresponding to small capillary pores, turns out to be a transition region and show no clear fractal properties. The range of this region is much influenced by fly-ash content in the pastes. Finally, the correlation between the obtained fractal dimensions and pore structure evolution is discussed in depth.