Basic creep of cement paste at early age - the role of cement hydration

In this work, the uniaxial creep in compression during the first days of hydration is studied experimentally on cement pastes with w/c of 0.50. to order to assess the effect of the evolving microstructure on creep, the so-called equivalent systems are employed. In these systems, part of the otherwise unhydrated cement is replaced with inert filler (quartz powder). With this approach, non-aging systems are obtained that can emulate specific microstructural features of the real hydrating systems.