Characteristic lengths of the carbonation front in naturally carbonated cement pastes: Implications for reactive transport models

Experimental evidence of a smooth carbonation front is often used to support the inclusion of kinetic reactions in reactive transport models. A new interpretation for a smooth carbonation front is proposed. We first show that the alkalis and sulfur can be used to map a natural carbonation front with energy dispersive spectroscopy. The resulting carbonation front is relatively sharp but tortuous. Most experimental methods takes an average over a...