Morphological properties of the cement skin: Understanding the effect of contact with formwork

Abstract

The process of creating cement skin is very complex and depends mainly on the material from which the formwork is made. To date, the analyzes of the surface morphology of cement composites have focused mainly on the assessment of the differences between the applied methods of treatment. However, there were not any studies which comprehensively described the influence of the formwork used on the surface morphology of cement skin. For this purpose, in this study, the four most popular materials used in the formwork were used and their impact on the morphology of the surface of the cement skin was evaluated. The evaluation of this morphology was carried out using the 3D laser scanning method, which had previously been used successfully to assess the surface morphology of cement composites, such as concretes or mortars. The results obtained during the research allowed to determine the influence of the materials used in formwork on the surface morphology parameters and to assess their potential use as substrates for coatings made of epoxy based materials or cementitious composites.

Keywords

• Formworks
• Cementitious surfaces
• Concrete surface morphology
• Cement skin