ABSTRACT
This shows that the volume of the larger capillary pores (ie. greater than 0.01 µm) is significantly reduced when the mortar has been adequately cured. The medium pore diameter (based on volume) showed a reduction from 0.2 µm for a non-cured specimen to 0.1 µm for a specimen cured for 3 days in water. Other researchers (12, 13) have also reported a significant reduction in total porosity of well-cured cement paste specimens at relative humidities above 80% and shown that storing the specimens below this relative humidity produced a coarsened pore structure with a large-diameter porosity (pore size greater than 37 ηm) three times greater than that obtained with saturated curing.
