The influence of medium temperature environments on the water permeabilityof high performance mortar

In this study, the durability of normal portland cement mortar and silica f ume mortar are characterized by measuring the water permeability under four different types of curing temperatures. It is observed that the water perm eability of normal portland cement mortar increases as temperature increase s up to 75 degrees C. However, the water permeability of silica fume mortar decreases as the temperature increases. This indicates that the high pozzo lanic reaction and microfiller effect of silica fume at medium temperature has modified the open channels at the transition zone of silica fume mortar , making it much denser and stronger and leading to a fine and discontinuou s pore structure. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.