37º IAHS World Congress on Housing: - Universidad de Cantabria

XXXVII <strong>IAHS</strong><strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> on HousingOctober 26 – 29, 2010, Santander, SpainCODE: 103PREDICTION OF THE MORTAR PROPERTIES RELATEDTO THE LIFE-CYCLE USING ULTRASONIC EVALUATIONJ. V. Fuente, T. Ibrahim, R. Fernández, V. Albert, V. CíscarDepartment of Applied Technologies for Structural Assessment and Heritage EvaluationAIDICO, Instituto Tecnológico de la Construccióne-mail: jvfuente@aidico.esKey words: ultrasonic testing, prediction models, nondestructive evaluation, physical-chemicalanalysis, porosity, compressive strength.AbstractUltrasonic testing could be a powerful nondestructive technique to extract some relevantinformation about micro- and macrostructural performance of cement-based materials andstructures related to the curing and also degradation process. This paper presents theultrasonic inspection, considering the forward and backscattering energy could be used for theprediction of the microstructural concrete properties as porosity and also mechanical strength.The experimental workplan takes the ultrasonic investigation of some cement paste andmortars with two kinds of cements CEMI 42,5 R/SR and CEMII A-L 42,5 R. The w/c ratiohas been modified to provide different porous nets.Ultrasonic grain noise shows the influence of the aggregates and large porosity while thevelocity is more affected by the ratio sand/cement phases. We have focused on how theseultrasonic parameters evolve according to the microstructural changes caused by the hydrationprocess. The relevance of this research is to start up a nondestructive evaluation which canfollow the curing and degradation process through the changes caused in cement-based elasticmodules, increase of the porosity, and related to the mechanical behavior changes.Microstructural changes will be analysed by conventional techniques as SEM, DRX andporosity Hg intrusion. This work is framed in a general research that attempts to establish theprediction of final properties and degradation model in sea water degradation of precastconcrete. But mortar is the second step to understand the variation of our nondestructiveparameters.37º <strong>IAHS</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> On Housing Science 59