Experimental study of the drying kinetic of mortar

This work reports the results of an experimental study concerning on one hand the influence of water-to cement ratios (W/C), and the role of aggregates on the other hand on the drying kinetics of cement pastes during thermal drying. Three types of cement pastes were realized and studied; cement pastes with ratios W/C 0.4, W/C 0.5 and mortar with ratio W/C 0.5. These tries present the advantage to reproduce the natural conditions met in the problems of interaction atmosphere and material.

Cylindrical samples of cement of size (17 X 13) mm are dried in a convective dryer. The sample is continuously weighed during the drying test and its mass is recorded every 60 s, in the purpose to obtain the drying curves.

The results show that the increase of the W/C ratio leads to an increase of the drying rate due to the increase of the initial porosity. The effect of the introduction of aggregates is observable by the comparison of the drying curve obtained for the mortar and the cement pastes. The results show a decrease of the drying kinetics with mortars.

The results also show that the air drying temperature has a large impact on the drying process, increasing the temperature leading to significant drying time reduction.

The Effective diffusion coefficient is calculated by comparison between the experimental results and the analytical solution of Fick’s equation written for a finite medium.