Limited fractal behavior in cement paste upon mercury intrusion porosimetry test: Analysis and models

The fractal nature of cement paste has been discussed a lot in recent decades. Most of studies are concentrated on ordinary fractal dimension of a complete fractality, while an incomplete or limited fractality is exhibited in fact. This paper presents some results towards a comprehensive understanding about the limited fractal behavior in cement paste upon the mercury intrusion porosimetry test. To that end, two modules of analysis are adopted, i.e., the ordinary fractal and the multiscale fractal. Moreover, ordinary and multiscale fractal models are introduced to simulate pore structure, and pore size distributions are compared among ordinary fractal model, multiscale fractal model and test. Results indicate that multiscale fractal provides a much richer and preciser way than ordinary fractal to describe the limited fractal behavior in cement paste even it may deviate far from perfect fractaltiy. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.