Source: CBMA

Date: September 24, 2014

On the afternoon of September 22, 2014, Prof. Hamlin M. Jennings of Massachusetts Institute of Technology paid a visit to CBMA on invitation and honored as Visiting Professor of CBMA. He delivered an academic report titled “Hysteresis from water in multi-scale porosity of cement paste”.

Prof. Jennings introduced the latest achievements in pore structure research by him and his team in the report, and arose great interest of attendees in the essence of pore structure of cement paste. He explained classification of pores, water adsorption and desorption of different pores, and the network model of adsorption and desorption behaviors, taking the attendees into a wonderland of multi-scale structure of cement concrete with his innovative content, which made the R&D personnel and young students feel the divinity of basic theory research.

Prof. Jennings, one of the most renowned experts in cement chemistry today, got his bachelor’s degree from Tufts University, the US in 1969, and doctor's degree from Brown University in 1979. He established C-S-H nanostructure model, which is widely recognized by his counterparts and his related achievements were published in Nature Materials with an impact factor reaching as high as 32.8. C-S-H nanostructure model has become a focus of research in hydration area of chemistry since Prof. Jennings put it forward. Since the 1950s, his team and researchers all over the world have conducted research on it for more than 60 years. The research results solved the issue concerning hydration rate control mechanism, which had obsessed cement scientists for more than 100 years.