Preferred orientation of ettringite in concrete fractures

Hans-Rudolf Wenk, Paulo J. M. Monteiro, Martin Kunz, Kai Chen, Nobumichi Tamura, Luca Lutterotti, John Del Arroz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

Sulfate attack and the accompanying crystallization of fibrous ettringite [Ca6Al2(OH)12(SO4) 3·26H2O] cause cracking and loss of strength in concrete structures. Hard synchrotron X-ray microdiffraction is used to quantify the orientation distribution of ettringite crystals. Diffraction images are analyzed using the Rietveld method to obtain information on textures. The analysis reveals that the c axes of the trigonal crystallites are preferentially oriented perpendicular to the fracture surfaces. By averaging single-crystal elastic properties over the orientation distribution, it is possible to estimate the elastic anisotropy of ettringite aggregates. © 2009 International Union of Crystallography.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)429-432
Number of pages4
JournalJournal of Applied Crystallography
Volume42
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - May 15 2009
Externally publishedYes

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