Refractory concretes of a new generation. Thermodynamic aspect of the technology

With allowance for the approach developed preferentially in the works of Tsimmermanis and Shtakel'berg, a set of fundamental regularities of the thermodynamics of irreversible processes (nonequilibrium thermodynamics) is used to analyze the processes of structure formation in manufacturing new refractory concretes. Structure formation and hardening of concretes is phenomenologically realized as the formation of a capillary-porous structure in the process of changes in the free surface energy of the system, which serves as a measure for the strength, elastic, and other properties of the material. In this approach to thermodynamic analysis of structure formation the watering potential of a disperse system is treated as an analog of the Gibbs chemical potential. The notions of structural affinity and the degree of completeness of structure formation are introduced by analogy with chemical affinity and the degree of completeness of a chemical reaction.Translated from Ogneupory, No. 1, pp. 2–7, January, 1995.