NSF Young Investigator

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The research plan involves the rheological behavior of fresh cement paste and concrete. There are a number of challenging scientific issues in cement rheology. It is critical to understand the various dynamic microstructural processes, not only to understand flow behavior of cement paste, but also to predict and control flow of concrete. One dynamic process is hydration, through which concrete transforms from liquid to solid. Another is flocculation and the response of flocculated particles to shear. The long- range objective during the next five years is to develop a microstructure-based model to simulate the flow behavior of cement past and concrete. The effort will focus on developing a dynamic computer-based microstructural simulation of hydration, flocculation and flow behavior. The simulation will be based on physicochemical aspects of particle interactions, including those resulting from hydration reactions, an approach generally similar to non-equilibrium molecular dynamics, a recent approach for modeling flow behavior of suspensions.