Surface fractal analysis of pore structure of high-volume fly-ash cement pastes

The surface fractal dimensions of high-volume fly-ash cement pastes are evaluated for their hardening processes on the basis of mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) data. Two surface fractal models are retained: Neimark's model with cylindrical pore hypothesis and Zhang's model without pore geometry assumption. From both models, the logarithm plots exhibit the scale-dependent fractal properties and three distinct fractal regions (I, II, III) are identified for the pore structures. For regions I and III, corresponding to the large (capillary) and small (C-S-H inter-granular) pore ranges respectively, the pore structure shows strong fractal property and the fractal dimensions are evaluated as 2.592-2.965 by Neimark's model and 2.487-2.695 by Zhang's model. The fractal dimension of region I increases with w/b ratio and hardening age but decreases with fly-ash content by its physical filling effect; the fractal dimension of region III does not evolve much with these factors. The region II of pore size range, corresponding to small capillary pores, turns out to be a transition region and show no clear fractal properties. The range of this region is much influenced by fly-ash content in the pastes. Finally, the correlation between the obtained fractal dimensions and pore structure evolution is discussed in depth.