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Research Brief: Investigating the Mechanisms of ASR Using Atomistic Methods
(2020-05)
With 20% of highway pavements in the U.S. in poor condition, mitigating pavement failure has become increasingly important. However, the mechanisms of the alkali-silica-reaction (ASR), a leading cause of damage in concrete ...
Research Brief: A Reaction-Diffusion Model to Determine Mesoscale Patterns in Cement Paste
(2018-08)
Strength and toughness, two important aspects of the durability of concrete structures, are dramatically influenced by the material’s nanotexture, but the question of how the building blocks of cement paste organize ...
Research Brief: Simulating the Formation of ASR Gels
(2019-04)
Alkali-silica-reaction (ASR) is a significant cause of premature concrete deterioration. Although it has received much research attention, an essential question still remains—how does a soft gel, as is formed by this ...
Towards Understanding Cement Paste Creep: Implications from Glass Studies
(MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub, 2017-01-04)
This research brief presents foundational work toward understanding the mechanics of the complex process of creep by evaluating the phenomena occurring at the nano-scale in metallic glass, a model material, to better ...
Research Brief: Modeling the Freeze-Thaw Damage Mechanism in Cement
(2019-01)
Freeze-thaw (FT) damage is a significant threat to roads and pavement, yet the underlying mechanism is still unclear. Conventional thinking attributes the damage to pressure generated by expansion of water upon freezing. ...
A Scientific Investigation into Concrete Pavement Durability
(MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub, Oregon State University, University of New Brunswick, 2021-01)
Although concrete pavements offer many long-term performance benefits, there are still instances where premature degradation of pavements leads to unexpected and costly repairs. In addition to being a burden to transportation ...
Research Brief: Evolving the C-S-H Packing Density at the Microscale
(2017-10-02)
Cement paste is a complex multiphase material, roughly 50 percent of which, by volume, is composed of calcium-silicate-hydrates (C-S-H). The C-S-H phase, which lends the material its rigidity, appears to be a dispersion ...
Research Brief: Capillary Stress During Cement Drying Shrinkage
(2018-06)
Imagine a household sponge lying next to a kitchen sink. The sponge looks and feels different when it is wet versus when it is dry. When a sponge dries, it shrinks, curls and hardens due to suction forces (called “capillary ...