Rheological properties of cement paste: Thixotropic behavior and structural breakdown

In this work, a new material model is presented to simulate rheological behavior of cement paste. This material model is among others based on combined concepts by Hattori and Izumi and by Tattersall and Banfill. More precisely, coagulation, dispersion and re-coagulation of the cement particles (giving a true thixotropic behavior) in combination with the breaking of certain chemically formed linkages between the particles (giving a so-called structural breakdown behavior) are assumed to play an important role in generating the overall time-dependent behavior of the cement paste. The model evaluation is done by comparing experimental data with model prediction.