Thermal properties of hydrated cement pastes studied by the photoacoustic technique

Photoacoustic (PA) technique has been applied to measure the effective thermal diffusivity (α_eff) of hydrating cement pastes with a varying water to -cement ratio (w/c) and for variable duration (d) of hydration. Four samples with w/c = 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 and o.6 were prepared. The frequency variation of the PA signal for each sample was recorded at the begining (0 d), as well as one week and one month of hydration. The effective thermal effusivity (e_eff) was obtained by measuring the variation of the signal with modulation frequency and the corresponding values of the effective thermal conductivity (k_eff) were calculated. The results for k_eff show a decrease at higher w/c (0.6), no change for other samples has been observed. The thickness of the duplex film of Ca(OH)₂ and C-S-H formed on the surface of the samples of w/c = 0.5 were determined using the effective layer model in the 0 d and after one month of hydration; a remarkable increase was observed in the last case.