Neutron diffraction as a tool in the study of reinforced concrete. Compilation of some cases

Cementitious materials are much more complex than it seems at a first sight. On one hand, due to the excess of water needed to make the mix workable, a network of pores is generated, that puts in contact the material with the environment and allows their attack by aggressive agents that can be physical of chemical agents, producing the deterioration of the concrete itself and corrosion of the rebars. Then, it is necessary to study the transport properties and the chemical and physical interaction of aggressive agents with the solid and liquid phases of the cement paste the corrosion of the rebars, and the reparation processes. This is an approach concerning the service life of structures, however, we cannot forget an important chapter which is gaining much relevance in the last time: that of the special uses of concrete, for which, tailored concretes have to be designed. In order to undertake these problems, we need new analysis tools, different that the traditionally ones applied to study concrete, that allows the understanding of the mechanisms regulating the processes. One of these analysis tools is neutron diffraction that gives us the possibility of study the bulk of materials using a quite big specimen. In this work, 4 different problems undertaken with the help of neutrons in experiments carried out by the group of the author at the ILL, at the D1B and D20 instruments are presented.