[en] The curing of Portland cement concrete involves the conversion of water from a free to a bound state. The process can be monitored nondestructively by measuring the shift in the neutron energy spectrum in the epithermal range (0.025-1 eV). A tuned array of ⁶Li glass detectors has been constructed with varying efficiencies over the epithermal energy range. To determine the efficiency of each detector as a function of neutron energy, it is necessary to calibrate it against a reference neutron spectrum. This was accomplished using a time-of-flight approach with a pulsed neutron beam produced at the Gaerttner LINAC Laboratory at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. With a neutron flight path of 25 m it was possible to determine the neutron detector efficiencies to an energy resolution of 11 μeV. The data showed good agreement with the detector design calculations

[en] A nondestructive test method for detecting chlorides in concrete has been developed based on prompt gamma neutron activation (PGNA). Its performance has been modeled using a hybrid MCNP/optical ray tracing approach. Since the chlorides often come from de-icing salts applied to the concrete surface, the Cl concentration has a non-linear depth profile which is typically modeled by the erfc function. The signals from this distribution have been simulated for several significant Cl capture peaks to estimate the erfc function parameters.

[en] The hydration of Mg-stabilized triclinic and monoclinic tricalcium silicate samples were studied using quasielastic neutron scattering to follow the fixation of hydrogen into the reaction products and by applying hydration models to the data. The quantity of Ca(OH)₂ produced during hydration was also determined using inelastic neutron scattering. The monoclinic form was found to be intrinsically less reactive that the triclinic form. The monoclinic form was also confirmed to produce more product than the triclinic form after 50 h, a process found to occur through a longer, rather than earlier, nucleation and growth regime. Results indicated an increase in the permeability of the hydration layer product relative to the triclinic form and the increase in the length of the nucleation and growth regime was thus attributed to an alteration in morphology or structure of the hydration layer product, extending the time for diffusion limited mechanics to be reached

[en] Analyses of materials with ion beams have proven to be a valuable technique for describing the spatial distributions of specific elements in host materials. We have applied this technique using the ¹⁵N(p, αγ)¹²C reaction to study the time dependence of the chemical reactions involved in the curing of cement. By using the Dynamitron Tandem accelerator at the Ruhr Universitaet, Bochum, Germany, we have been able to achieve a few nanometer spatial resolution at the surface of cement grains and to study the hydrogen distributions to a depth of about 2 μm. By applying a technique for stopping the chemical reactions at arbitrary times, the time dependence of the chemical reactions involving specific components of cement can be investigated. In addition, the effects of additives on the chemical reactions have been studied, as have materials that are components of concrete