The change of electrical resistivity with time at early ages was used to investigate the hydration process and the porosity development. Porosity reduction process of cement-based materials hydration was developed by a proposed method. The porosity reduction is fast at the setting period. The results find that the pore discontinuity occurs faster at lower water/cement ratios than at higher water/cement ratios which is similar to the results of the Percolation method.
The compressive strength and dynamic modulus of high volume fly ash concrete with incorporation of either metakaolin or silica fume were investigated. The water to cementitious materials ratio was kept at 0.4 for all mixtures. The use of high volume fly ash in concrete greatly reduces the strength and dynamic modulus during the first 28 days. The decreased properties during the short term of high volume fly ash concrete is effectively compensated by the incorporation of metakaolin or silica fume. The DTA results confirmed that metakaolin or silica fume increase the amount of the hydration products. An empirical relationship between dynamic modulus and compressive strength of concrete has been obtained. This relation provides a nondestructive evaluation for estimating the strength of concrete by use of the dynamic modulus.
