To the hardened cement paste, how much water it can absorb after drying at 80 degree for more than 1 week at the water to cement ratio 0.44?
Dear Lu
It's depends of the cement type, but revising our laboratories results we found that the water absorption could represent in similar conditions around 40% in volume or 4l/m2 with water absorption coefficient of 0.6l/m^2*h^0.5. But I am sure that in the literature you will find others sources of results that can help you.
If you apply Powers' model (see Hansen, T. C. (1986). Physical structure of hardened cement paste. A classical approach. Materials and Structures, 19(6), 423-436.) to a paste with w/c 0.44 fully hydrated, the total porosity (gel pores plus capillary pores) should be about 0.36 by volume. At 80 C, you will likely not be able to empty all gel pores, so less than this porosity will be available. On the other hand, the degree of hydration will likely not be 1, so there will be some more porosity available. All this disregards any air voids that you may have in the paste, which are known to take up water as well, given enough time (there is recent work by the group of Prof Weiss at Purdue on this topic).
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