Hysteresis from Multiscale Porosity: Modeling Water Sorption and Shrinkage in Cement Paste

The importance of concrete and cement to civil infrastructure cannot be overstated, yet there are still surprising gaps in our knowledge of these systems, which are unexpectedly complex. One basic example is that cement paste shrinks when water is removed from its multiscale pore network, and swells when water is added, but the mechanism is unclear. In a complete reassessment of this phenomenon, the authors differentiate the physical behavior of water in the layered nanostructures of cement hydrates from that in larger gel and capillary pores, linking microstructure to macroscopic material properties.