Related papers: The physics of cement cohesion

We first argue that the covalent bond and the various closed-shell interactions can be thought of as symmetry broken versions of one and the same interaction, viz., the multi-center bond. We use specially chosen molecular units to show that…

A number of dense particle suspensions experience a dramatic increase in viscosity with the shear stress, up to a solid-like response. This shear-thickening process is understood as a transition under flow of the nature of the contacts,…

Natural materials often feature a combination of soft and stiff phases, arranged to achieve excellent mechanical properties, such as high strength and toughness. Many natural materials have even independently evolved to have similar…

Chemo-mechanical effects are known to be significant in a number of applications in modern geomechanics, ranging from slope stability assessment to soil improvement and CO2 sequestration. This work focuses on coupled chemo-mechanical…

Solvation of ions is ubiquitous on our planet. Solvated ions have a profound effect on the behavior of ionic solutions, which is crucial in nature and technology. Experimentally, ions have been classified into "structure makers" or…

Water and silicon are chemically dissimilar substances with common physical properties. Their liquids display a temperature of maximum density, increased diffusivity on compression, they form tetrahedral crystals and tetrahedral amorphous…

We develop a physical and computational model for performing fully coupled, particle-resolved Direct Numerical Simulations of cohesive sediment, based on the Immersed Boundary Method. The model distributes the cohesive forces over a thin…

A modelling framework for predicting carbonation-induced corrosion in reinforced concrete is presented. The framework constituents include a new model for water transport in cracked concrete, a link between corrosion current density and…

A unified treatment of the cohesive and conducting properties of metallic nanostructures in terms of the electronic scattering matrix is developed. A simple picture of metallic nanocohesion in which conductance channels act as delocalized…

Hydrophobic solid-water interfaces underpin processes in nanofluidics, electrochemistry, and energy technologies. Microscopic insights into these systems are often inferred from our understanding of the air-water interface, which is assumed…

Conventional drying of colloidal materials and gels (including cement) can lead to detrimental effects due to the buildup of internal stresses as water evaporates from the nano/microscopic pores. However, the underlying nanoscopic…

Water/solid interfaces are relevant to a broad range of physicochemical phenomena and technological processes such as corrosion, lubrication, heterogeneous catalysis and electrochemistry. Although many fields have contributed to rapid…

The description of forces across confined complex fluids still holds many challenges due to the possible overlap of different contributions. Here, an attempt is made to untangle the interaction between charged surfaces across nanoparticle…

Values of water permeability for cementitious materials reported in the literature show a large scatter. This is partially attributed to the fact that materials used in different studies are different. To eliminate the effects of cements,…

Carbon monoxide and nitrogen are among the potentially interesting high-energy density materials. However, in spite of the physical similarities of the molecules, they behave very differently at high pressures. Using density functional…

Cement is an essential construction material due to its ability to flow before later setting, however the rheological properties must be tightly controlled. Despite this, much understanding remains empirical. Using a combination of…

The atomic scale insights into the interaction of water with oxide surface are essential for elucidating the mechanism of physiochemical processes in various scientific and practical fields, since the water is ubiquitous and coats…

A mathematical model is developed that captures the transport of liquid water in hardened concrete, as well as the chemical reactions that occur between the imbibed water and the residual calcium silicate compounds residing in the porous…

Superionic ice, where water molecules dissociate into a lattice of oxygen ions and a rapidly diffusing 'gas' of protons, represents an exotic state of matter with broad implications for planetary interiors and energy applications. Recently,…

Oxide ceramics are sensitive to slow crack growth because adsorption of water can take place at the crack tip, leading to a strong decrease of the surface energy in humid (or air) conditions. This is a major drawback concerning demanding,…