US-Canada Workshop On Cement Hydration Kinetics and Modeling; Quebec City; January 12-15, 2009

Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville TN

Investigators

Abstract

This U.S.-Canada activity will support a workshop on cement hydration kinetics and modeling, to be held in Quebec, Canada in January 2009. Organized by the Dr. Joseph Biernacki of the Tennessee Technological University and Dr. Will Hansen of the University of Michigan, together with Dr. Jacques Marchand of Laval University-Canada, the workshop will be a working international meeting focused around seven topical thrusts: Modeling, Thermochemistry, Early Age Hydration Phenomena, Stage IV Hydration Phenomena, Pozzolans, Alternative Cement Systems and Geochemical View of Cement Hydration. Portland cement concrete is one of the world's most pervasive construction materials. Yet a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental processes involving hydration remains elusive. An important aim of this workshop is to introduce promising graduate students and early career researchers to careers in infrastructure materials. For this purpose, it will bring together some of the leading researchers in the field with early career scientists and students. The meeting will also increase the potential for transformative collaborative research that may lead to a consistent and universally accepted theory of how Portland cement is transformed; from its anhydrous constituents to the hydrate that forms the strength-bearing matrix of the most commonly used building material on Earth.