Effect of Water Cement Ratio on the Electrical Conductivity and Piezoelectricity of Cement Paste Cured While Applying Direct Current

Abstract

Electrical conductivity and piezoelectricity of cement paste are key properties for developing a smart concrete. Applying a static electrical potential on cement paste while curing proved to be effective in altering the aforementioned properties by polarizing the ions in the cement paste. In this study, the effect of the water cement ratio (w/c) on the effectiveness of the static electrical curing technique was tested. Six cement paste specimens (50 × 50 × 50 mm) were self-cured while applying a static electrical potential of 10 V, and another 6 specimens were self-cured without applying electricity to serve as reference. To study the effect of the w/c, 2 different w/c were tested, namely 0.3 and 0.34. The results of the bulk resistivity of the specimens show a reduction of 67% in the resistivity of the specimens that cured while applying electricity when compared to the reference specimens. In addition, the polarized specimens show an improved piezoelectricity behavior. However, there was no significant difference in the behavior of the polarized specimens with different w/c on both the bulk resistivity and the piezoelectricity behavior.