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Updated: Dec 27, 2025

Expression of Cementitious Pore Solution and the Analysis of Its Chemical Composition and Resistivity Using X-ray Fluorescence
Published on: September 23, 2018
Cement Mortar Porosity by Modified Analysis of Differential Scanning Calorimetry Records
Piotr Stępień1, Zbigniew Rusin1, Karol Skowera1
1Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Kielce University of Technology, Al. Tysiąclecia Państwa Polskiego 7, 25-314 Kielce, Poland.
Abstract:
A modified method of interpreting a heat flux differential scanning calorimetry records in pore structure determination is presented. The method consists of determining the true phase transition energy distribution due to the melting of water during a differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) heating run. A set of original apparatus functions was developed to approximate the recorded calorimetric signals to the actual processes of the water phase transition at a given temperature. The validity of the proposed calorimetric curves-based algorithm was demonstrated through tests on a cement mortar sample. The correct analysis required taking into account both the thermal inertia of the calorimeter and the thermal effects that are associated with water transitions over the fairly narrow temperature ranges close to 0 °C. When evaluating energy distribution without taking the shifts of the proposed modified algorithm into account, the volume of the pores with radii bigger than 20 nm was greatly overestimated, while that of the smaller pores (rp < 20 nm) was underestimated, in some cases by approximately 70%.
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