Experimental study of mechanical behaviour of cement paste under compressive stress and chemical degradation

This paper presents experimental investigations of mechanical behaviour of a pure cement paste subjected to compressive stresses and chemical degradation. Two series of laboratory tests have been performed: decoupled and coupled chemical-mechanical tests. Hydrostatic and triaxial compression tests have first been realized respectively on sound and chemically degraded samples. The obtained results allow the characterization of basic mechanical responses of the tested cement paste and the identification of chemical degradation effects on the mechanical behaviour. In the coupled tests, the samples are simultaneously subjected to deviatoric stresses and chemical leaching by aggressive solution flow. Variations of deformation of cement paste samples are measured during chemical degradation process. The results obtained in these tests can be used for the validation of chemo-mechanical constitutive modelling.