Abstract :

Abstract. In this study, an innovative curing technique, that is able to polarize the ions inside cementpastes is investigated. This technique is curing the cement paste while applying a direct current (DC).A total of 6 cement paste cubes were casted, 3 of them were not treated so it will serve as a referenceand other 3 were cured while applying 25 V DC on two opposite sides of the specimen. All specimenswere tested under different amplitude cyclic loading and the produced piezoelectric voltage wasrecorded. The results show that this technique was able to increase the produced piezoelectric voltageof the treated cement paste specimens when compared to the reference ones. In addition, the producedpiezoelectricity showed a proportional behavior to the applied loads, which indicates the capabilitiesof self-sensing of the treated specimens. The voltage sensitivity values of the both the referencespecimens and the treated ones are 0.34 and 1.77 mV/kN, respectively. The effect of the trappedmoisture inside the specimens was also investigated, and the results show that the piezoelectricitygreatly depends on the existence of moisture inside the specimens.