Effects of fiber curvature on the microstructure of the interfacial transition zone in fresh concrete

Abstract

The study on the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) of concrete has received lots of attention in the last decade. However, no information is available on the influence of the curvature of a rigid surface on the microstructure of ITZ. This paper employed computer simulation technology to study the influence of fiber curvature on the initial microstructure of ITZ in concrete. For the sake of simplification, the investigation was first focused on the mono-size spherical particle packing system around a cylindrical fiber with different diameters. An algorithm of serial cylindrical sectioning was developed. The curve of the solid volume fraction versus the distance to the surface of the fiber was used as a parameter to characterize the microstructure of the ITZ. Then, the influence of the ratio of fiber diameter to particle diameter on the initial ITZ s microstructure was studied. These curves were compared with the ones from flat aggregate surface on which mono-size spherical particles were packed. Furthermore, the multi-size spherical particles system was further investigated. The simulation results demonstrate that no matter whether the spherical particles system is mono-size or multi-size, the fresh ITZ s microstructure is irrelevant to the curvature of the fiber. The shape of the curve of solid volume fraction versus the distance from the surface of the fiber is similar to that around a flat aggregate surface. In all cases, the horizontal coordinates of the first peak of the curves are located at around half the mean weight diameter of the particles. The thickness of ITZ reduces slightly with the decrease in water/cement ratio. Therefore, one may use the ITZ s microstructure around a flat aggregate surface to represent the ITZ s microstructure around a cylindrical fiber in the fresh state, and vice versa.