Preferred orientation of ettringite in concrete fractures

Hans-Rudolf Wenk, Paulo J. M. Monteiro, Martin Kunz, Kai Chen, Nobumichi Tamura, Luca Lutterotti, John Del Arroz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

Sulfate attack and the accompanying crystallization of fibrous ettringite [Ca6Al2(OH)12(SO4) 3·26H2O] cause cracking and loss of strength in concrete structures. Hard synchrotron X-ray microdiffraction is used to quantify the orientation distribution of ettringite crystals. Diffraction images are analyzed using the Rietveld method to obtain information on textures. The analysis reveals that the c axes of the trigonal crystallites are preferentially oriented perpendicular to the fracture surfaces. By averaging single-crystal elastic properties over the orientation distribution, it is possible to estimate the elastic anisotropy of ettringite aggregates. © 2009 International Union of Crystallography.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)429-432
Number of pages4
JournalJournal of Applied Crystallography
Volume42
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - May 15 2009
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): KUS-I1-004-21
Acknowledgements: We acknowledge access to beamline 12.3.2 at the ALS of the LBNL and discussions with Sergio Speziale (Potsdam). This publication was based on work supported in part by award No. KUS-I1-004-21 made by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) (to PJMM and HRW) and by NSF grant No. EAR 0836402. The ALS is supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences Division of the US Department of Energy under contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231 at the LBNL.
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.

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