Dynamic behaviors of water contained in calcium-silicate-hydrate gel at different temperatures studied by quasi-elastic neutron scattering spectroscopy

The dynamic behaviors of water contained in calcium-silicate-hydrate（C-S-H） gel with different water content values from 10%to 30%（by weight）,are studied by using an empirical diffusion model（EDM） to analyze the experimental data of quasi-elastic neutron scattering（QENS） spectra at measured temperatures ranging from 230 K to 280 K.In the study,the experimental QENS spectra with the whole Q-range are considered.Several important parameters including the bound/immobile water elastic coefficient A,the bound water index BWI,the Lorentzian with a half-width at half-maximum（HWHM） Γ;（Q） and Γ;（Q）,the self-diffusion coefficients D;and D;of water molecules,the average residence times τ;and τ;,and the proton mean squared displacement（MSD）(u;) are obtained.The results show that the QENS spectra can be fitted very well not only for small Q（≤1 A;） but also for large Q.The bound/immobile water fraction in a C-S-H gel sample can be shown by the fitted BWI.The distinction between bound/immobile and mobile water,which includes confined water and ultra-confined water,can be seen by the fitted MSD.All the MSD tend to be the smallest value below 0.25 A;（the MSD of bound/immobile water） as the Q increases to 1.9 A;no matter what the temperature and water content are.Furthermore,by the abrupt changes of the fitted values of D;,τ;,and Γ;（Q）,a crossover temperature at 250 K,namely the liquid-to-crystal-like transition temperature,can be identified for confined water in large gel pores（LGPs） and/or small gel pores（SGPs） contained in the C-S-H gel sample with 30% water content.

Recurrence anomaly of ground water behavior before strong earthquakes in North China

By analyzing the relationship between ground water behavior and strong seismic activity during the past more than 20 years in North China, we have found similar water level descending variation of a part of wells in the short-term stage before several strong earthquakes. The characteristics of anomaly are: at the beginning, water level dropped abruptly or accelerated to drop; then it turned to slow rising with a smaller amplitude than that of descending; earthquakes occurred during the slow-rising process of water level, and at that time or before earthquake occurrence, water level rose with a large amplitude. Among more than 100 wells in North China, the descending anomalies were not recorded for many times, but similar variation processes of water level were noted at different wells before several strong earthquakes, which proves that seismic precursory anomalies of ground water are of certain recurrence features, occurring repeatedly before different strong earthquakes. Therefore, it is necessary to study the genesis of this type of anomaly and its relationship with strong seismic activity.