Symposium on Aging, Creep and Fracture in Cement Hydrates

Posted in EDG News

Time-dependent properties and non-linear mechanics of cement hydrates are key to concrete creep and fracture. Most of the experimental characterization and models still used to predict and design cement performance have been developed at a macroscopic level, but it has become increasingly clear that the structural complexity of the material over the nanometer and micrometer scales is a major source of its unique features. Recent developments on microscopic plasticity and yielding in amorphous solids and nano-scale investigations of calcium-silicate-hydrates are progressively obtaining significant new understanding. Using this new knowledge to inform larger scale models and approaches is crucial to make progress on issues ranging from material optimisation to durability. Linking nano-scale observations to micro and eventually macro-scale models and experiments is an outstanding challenge and the aim of the symposium is hosting and promoting, within CONCREEP10, a discussion on these themes. The idea is to bring together world leading scientists working on non-linear mechanics of concrete, nano- and micro-mechanics of cement, molecular simulations and meso-scale approaches, non-linear dynamics and plasticity in amorphous solids.

http://concreep10.conf.tuwien.ac.at/scientific-programme/mini-symposia/

Organizers: E. Del Gado (Georgetown University), R. J.-M. Pellenq (CNRS and MIT)