Computer simulation model for cement hydration and virtual microstructures

In order to study the complex process of cement hydration, a computational model based on HYMOSTRUC3D is used to generate the three-dimensional microstructure of the cement paste in this paper. The basic principle of hydration simulation is taking all particles as interacting spheres and distributing them in a random way. Periodic boundary conditions are employed to make this simulation simple and realistic. By calculations, we can know the composition of hydration products at different curing ages and water/cement ratios. Moreover, some useful parameters can also be obtained, such as microstructure information, degree of hydration, number of particles, elastic modulus and porosity. The simulated results are compared with the data obtained by experimental techniques to validate the model. Finally, the influence of water/cement ratio and clinker species on hydration is also discussed. It is found that the degree of hydration and porosity increase with the increase in water/cement ratio, while elastic modulus shows the opposite tendency, and the number of particles keeps a similar tendency all the same.