Size effect on cubic and prismatic compressive strength of cement paste

Abstract

A series of compression tests were conducted on 150 groups of cement paste specimens with side lengths ranging from 40 mm to 200 mm. The specimens include cube specimens and prism specimens with height to width ratio of 2. The experiment results show that size effect exists in the cubic compressive strength and prismatic compressive strength of the cement paste, and larger specimens resist less in terms of strength than smaller ones. The cubic compressive strength and the prismatic compressive strength of the specimens with side length of 200 mm are respectively about 91% and 89% of the compressive strength of the specimens with the side length of 40 mm. Water to binder ratio has a significant influence on the size effect of the compressive strengths of the cement paste. With a decrease in the water to binder ratio, the size effect is significantly enhanced. When the water to binder ratio is 0.2, the size effects of the cubic compressive strength and the prismatic compressive strength of the cement paste are 1.6 and 1.4 times stronger than those of a water to binder ratio of 0.6. Furthermore, a series of formulas are proposed to calculate the size effect of the cubic compressive strength and the prismatic compressive strength of cement paste, and the results of the size effect predicted by the formulas are in good agreement with the experiment results.

Keywords

size effect / cement paste / water to binder ratio / cubic compressive strength / prismatic compressive strength

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