Estimation of Young's modulus and compressive strength of cement using a solitary wave in granular crystals

This study presents an in-depth examination of the sensitivity of highly nonlinear solitary waves (HNSWs) to variations in the curing period, the water-to-cement (w/c) ratio, and the mechanical properties of cement. Experimental results verify that the travel times and amplitude ratios of the HNSWs are highly sensitive to changes in curing time of 1 to 28 days, the w/c ratio of 0.3 to 0.6, the elastic modulus of 0.225 to 2.39 GPa, and the compressive strength of 8.24 to 95.32 MPa. Based on the predictions of a numerical model, we establish a simple mathematical relation connecting the modulus and compressive strength of the sample with the delay of the first (i.e., primary) reflected HNSW. The latter relation is employed to evaluate the elastic modulus and compressive strength of the cement samples with different curing periods and w/c ratios, showing good agreement with the results obtained from destructive tests.