This is a 2D-native companion to the 3D hydration simulator, not a flattened camera view of it. The left panel is a genuine polished-section micrograph: clinker grains are packed and evolved directly as 2D disks, so growth uses area conservation (exponent 1/2) instead of the 3D model's volume conservation (exponent 1/3) — a real 2D cross-section is stereologically different from a sliced sphere, and the two formulas give numerically different radii at the same α:
r_core = r0 · (1 − α_i)^(1/2) [2D area, this model]
r_gel = r0 · (1 + (Vr − 1)·α_i)^(1/2), Vr ≈ 2.1
Each grain still follows the same Avrami/JMAK boundary-nucleation-and-growth kinetics after an induction period t₀, with the population average now weighted by grain area (r0²) rather than volume (r0³):
α_i(t_e) = α_u · [1 − exp(−((t_e − t₀)/τ_i)ⁿ)], τ_i ∝ r0², n ≈ 2
ᾱ = Σ(α_i · r0_i²) / Σ(r0_i²)
Temperature still drives the same Arrhenius equivalent-age maturity clock (ASTM C1074-style, Eₐ ≈ 40 kJ/mol), and the right panel is a second, entirely 2D-native representation the 3D build doesn't have at all: a live calorimetry strip chart plotting α(t) and heat-release rate against curing time as the reaction actually runs, rather than a single instantaneous readout.
t_e += exp[−Eₐ/R · (1/T − 1/T_ref)] · Δt
α_u = min(1, (w/c)/0.42)
Porosity ≈ (w/c − 0.36·α) / (w/c + 0.32)
- Water / cement ratio — sets the ultimate hydration ceiling αu and the capillary pore space that survives even at full reaction.
- Curing temperature — speeds up the equivalent-age clock; watch the calorimetry chart's peak shift left and rise with heat.
- Pore Water — toggles the scattered blue capillary-water dots in the interstitial space between grains.