SOME ASPECTS OF EVALUATION OF CONCRETE THROUGH MERCURY INTRUSION POROSIMETRY

Through an experimental investigation, statistical distribution of thr ee identified parameters of mercury intrusion porosimetry which are cl osely related to the strength and performance of concrete, have been w orked out. It has been demonstrated that distribution of these three p arameters are normal for different mix proportions of concrete. The mi nimum number of samples to be tested while evaluating performance of c oncrete through these parameters of mercury intrusion porosimetry have been estimated using the experimental data for various permissible er rors at 95% confidence level. Further, the number of samples to be tes ted for permissible errors to be within 15% of the true value are also suggested. In the second part of the paper an investigation on the fo rm of sample to be adopted for MIP study of in-situ concrete has been presented, whereby it has been demonstrated that it is preferable to u se mortar adhered with aggregate, rather than mortar devoid of aggrega te from the same parent in-situ concrete. Copyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.