Method for determining a plasticity parameter of a hydrating cement paste

1. A method for determining a plasticity parameter of a hydrating cement paste comprising:

providing a plurality of components of a cement paste, the cement past including comprising at least cement powder and water,

mixing said plurality of components to obtain a cement slurry and pouring said cement slurry in a sealed oedometric cell,

performing at least one oedometric measurement operation comprising:

applying a predefined axial stress path to the cement slurry inside the oedometric cell, said axial stress path being a profile of axial stress applied to the cement slurry over a predefined measurement duration, and

performing a plurality of measurements of an axial strain of said cement slurry inside the oedometric cell, respectively at a plurality of respective sample times within said predefined measurement duration,

wherein said at least one oedometric measurement operation is performed within a predefined early-age time interval following the mixing of said cement slurry,

determining at least one value of a plasticity parameter of the hydrating cement paste by performing at least one calibration processing operation comprising:

providing an initial value of a plasticity parameter of an elastoplastic model of hydrating cement paste,

determining a plurality of simulated axial strain values by solving said elastoplastic model of hydrating cement paste for a plurality of respective axial stress conditions respectively corresponding to axial stress values of the predefined axial stress path at the respective

sample times of the plurality of axial strain measurements of the cement slurry, and comparing the plurality of simulated axial strain values from said at least one calibration processing operation with the plurality of axial strain measurements of the cement slurry to determine a plasticity parameter of the hydrating cement paste; and

wherein said plasticity parameter is chosen between a parameter hardening function, a parameter of a plastic yield surface and a parameter of a plastic potential of said elastoplastic model of hydrating cement paste, and

wherein solving said elastoplastic model of hydrating cement paste comprises computing a hardening function of the pastic yield surface by solving:

dp o −h ξ dξ−h t dε vp =0

where

ξ is the hydration degree;

ε vp is the plastic volumetric strain;

h ξ =(∂p o )/∂ξ and h t =(∂p o )/(∂ε ep ) are hardening parameters;

and wherein said plasticity parameter is function of at least one of said hardening parameter h ξ and h t .

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said predefined early-age time interval following the mixing of said cement is less than 10 days, preferably less than 6 days.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said predefined axial stress path is a constant axial stress over the predefined measurement duration.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said predefined measurement duration is at least 1 day, preferably at least 4 days, more preferably 6 days.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said oedometric measurement operation starts less than 10 minutes after the mixing of said cement slurry.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said predefined axial stress path comprises at least one loading/unloading cycle in which an axial stress applied to the cement slurry varies between a predefined minimum axial stress and a predefined maximum axial stress.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said predefined measurement duration is less least 1 hour.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein solving said elastoplastic model of hydrating cement paste comprises computing a plastic yield surface of a modified Cam-Clay yield surface model by solving:

q 2 +M 2 (p d +p t )(p d −p o )=0

Where

p d is the differential mean stress (Terzaghi effective mean stress)

P t is the yield stress related to the tensile strength of the material

P o is the yield stress under hydrostatic loading

M is the Cam-Clay parameter corresponding to the slope of the Critical State Line and wherein said plasticity parameter is function of said Cam-Clay parameter M.

9. A method according to claim 1 , wherein solving said elastoplastic model of hydrating cement paste further comprises computing a poroelasticity of a cement paste derived from Hooke's law by solving:

c d dp d +c d (1−b)χdp w −(dε v −dε vp )=0

dq−G(dγ−dγ p )=0

Where

p d is the differential mean stress (Terzaghi effective mean stress)

p w is the pore pressure

q is the second invariant of the deviatoric stress tensor

γ is the shear strain intensity

γ p is plastic shear strain intensity

ε v is the volumetric strain

ε vp is the plastic volumetric strain

c d =1/K d is the drained compressibility of the porous material

b is Biot's effective stress coefficient

χis the Bishop effective stress coefficient

G is the elastic shear modulus

and wherein said poroelasticity parameters c d , b, χ and G are determined by using an upscaling technique.

10. A method according to claim 1 , further including repeating said calibration processing operation a plurality of times with a respective plurality of initial values of the plasticity parameter, said plurality of initial values of the plasticity parameter scanning a predefined range of initial value of the plasticity parameter, and wherein comparing the plurality of simulated axial strain values from said plurality of calibration processing operations with the plurality of axial strain measurements of the cement slurry comprises computing a plurality of error values, respectively associated to each simulated axial strain values and the value of the plasticity parameter may be determined from said plurality of error values, in particular by selecting the initial value of the plasticity parameter leading to the smallest error value among the plurality of error values.

11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, having stored thereon a computer program comprising program instructions, the computer program being loadable into a data-processing unit and adapted to cause the data-processing unit to carry out the steps of claim 1 when the computer program is run by the data-processing device.