Effect of dry-wet circulation on moisture absorption of autoclaved aerated concrete

Abstract

Moisture absorbability is the characteristic of autoclaved aerated concrete that differs from other wall materials. For autoclaved aerated concrete, dry-wet circulation is the main actual service environment and can directly affect moisture absorbability, which influences cracking performance of structure. In this study, autoclaved aerated concrete with dry-wet circulation times of 0, 30, 60, 150, and 270 is selected. The experiment is performed under the condition of temperatures 20°C, 30°C, 40°C, and 50°C and relative humidities (RH) of 40%, 60%, and 80%. The temperature and humidity have significant effects on moisture absorption. When the dry-wet circulation times are increased, the moisture absorption performance improves; when comparing the specimen at the dry-wet circulation of 0 times with the specimen of dry-wet circulation of 270 times, the amount of moisture absorption content increased by 85.7%, at the temperature of 50°C and RH of 80%. Origin software is chosen to fit the moisture absorption kinetics model. SPSS software is used to analyse the linear regression and variance. The results of hygroscopic kinetics showed that the fitting effect of the double exponential function was optimal, and the temperature and humidity were closely correlated with the specimens under dry-wet circulation, for R 2 greater than 0.941.