{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,5]],"date-time":"2026-03-05T12:08:32Z","timestamp":1772712512124,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,21]],"date-time":"2020-01-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1579564800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100005632","name":"The National Centre for Research and Development","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["LIDER\/033\/639\/L-4\/12\/NCBIR\/2013"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["LIDER\/033\/639\/L-4\/12\/NCBIR\/2013"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100005632","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Materials"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In this paper an analysis of the influence of polymer modification on the microstructure, shielding properties against neutrons, and compressive strength of heavy-weight magnetite concrete is carried out. The modifications involve the addition of acrylic or epoxy dispersions as well as micro- or\/and macrofibers. A computer image analysis method is used to evaluate the microstructure of concretes and parameters of pore structure are calculated; these parameters include relative volume fraction, relative specific surface area, and pore arrangement ratios, including a proprietary ratio based on Voronoi tessellation. An assessment of significance of differences between stereological parameters of reference concrete and polymer modified concretes, as well as the impact of polymer form (dispersion or fibers) on shielding properties and compressive strength is carried out using Student\u2019s t-test. The results show that except for the effect of the addition of both polypropylene micro- and macrofibers on the relative volume of pores, all other modifications result in statistically significant changes in the values of stereological parameters. Nevertheless, it is shown that neither polymer dispersions nor fibers have a statistically significant impact on shielding properties, but that they do influence compressive strength.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ma13030498","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,21]],"date-time":"2020-01-21T11:25:59Z","timestamp":1579605959000},"page":"498","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":19,"title":["Influence of Polymer Modification on the Microstructure of Shielding Concrete"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9520-0288","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kamil","family":"Zalegowski","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Building Materials Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, Al. Armii Ludowej 16, PL 00-637 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2547-7601","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tomasz","family":"Piotrowski","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Building Materials Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, Al. Armii Ludowej 16, PL 00-637 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Andrzej","family":"Garbacz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Building Materials Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, Al. Armii Ludowej 16, PL 00-637 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"417","article-title":"Analiza ilo\u015bciowa mikrostruktury betonu (The quantitative image analysis of concrete microstructure)","volume":"75","author":"Zalegowski","year":"2016","journal-title":"In\u017cynieria I Bud."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"681","DOI":"10.1016\/j.proeng.2015.06.199","article-title":"Properties of Cement Mortars Modified with Ceramic Waste Fillers","volume":"108","author":"Garbacz","year":"2015","journal-title":"Procedia Eng."},{"key":"ref_3","first-page":"2","article-title":"Ultrasonic quality assessment of polymer-cement concrete with PET waste as the aggregate","volume":"64","year":"2018","journal-title":"Arch. Civ. Eng."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"869","DOI":"10.1016\/j.conbuildmat.2012.11.072","article-title":"Influence of porosity on compressive and tensile strength of cement mortar","volume":"40","author":"Chen","year":"2013","journal-title":"Constr. Build. Mater."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"832","DOI":"10.1016\/j.proeng.2015.11.045","article-title":"Porosity, Pore Size and Compressive Strength of Self Compacting Concrete Using Sea Water","volume":"125","author":"Tjaronge","year":"2015","journal-title":"Procedia Eng."},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"Naik, T.R. (1997, January 4\u20137). Concrete durability as influenced by density and\/or porosity. Proceedings of the Cement and Concrete Institute of Mexico Symposium: World of Concrete, Guadalajara, Mexico."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"74","DOI":"10.1520\/JTE11604J","article-title":"Capillary porosity in hardened cement paste","volume":"1","author":"Auskern","year":"1973","journal-title":"J. Test. Eval."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"731","DOI":"10.1016\/0008-8846(72)90008-7","article-title":"Hardened Portland cement pastes of low porosity part 5: Compressive strength","volume":"2","author":"Yudenfreund","year":"1972","journal-title":"Cem. Concr. Res."},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"Konkol, J. (2008). Zastosowanie analizy struktury do oceny w\u0142a\u015bciwo\u015bci beton\u00f3w (The use of structure analysis for evaluation of concrete properties), Zastosowanie metod statystycznych w badaniach naukowych III. StatSoft Pol., 357\u2013367."},{"key":"ref_10","first-page":"247058","article-title":"Influence of Pore Structure on Compressive Strength of Cement Mortar","volume":"2014","author":"Zhao","year":"2014","journal-title":"Sci. World J."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"165","DOI":"10.1680\/adcr.2001.13.4.165","article-title":"Measurement of porosity as a predictor of the durability performance of concrete with and without condensed silica fume","volume":"13","author":"Claisse","year":"2001","journal-title":"Adv. Cem. Res."},{"key":"ref_12","first-page":"18","article-title":"\u03b3-Radiation, Shielding Properties of High Strength High Performance Concretes Prepared with Different Types of Normal and Heavy Aggregates","volume":"3","author":"Shuraim","year":"2013","journal-title":"Asian Trans. Eng."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"153","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cemconcomp.2005.09.006","article-title":"Radiation Shielding of concrete containing different aggregates","volume":"28","author":"Akkurt","year":"2006","journal-title":"Cem. Concr. Compos."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"71","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pnucene.2016.06.011","article-title":"Determination of gamma and fast neutron shielding parameters of magnetite concretes","volume":"92","author":"Oto","year":"2016","journal-title":"Prog. Nucl. Energy"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"41","DOI":"10.1515\/pjmpe-2016-0008","article-title":"Experimental investigation on radiation shielding of high performance concrete for nuclear and radiotherapy facilities","volume":"22","author":"Domanski","year":"2016","journal-title":"Pol. J. Med. Phys. Eng."},{"key":"ref_16","first-page":"161","article-title":"Monte-Carlo aided design of neutron shielding concretes","volume":"61","author":"Tefelski","year":"2013","journal-title":"Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci. Technol. Sci."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pnucene.2015.02.010","article-title":"Effect of mix parameters and hydrogen loading on neutron radiation shielding characteristics of latex modified concrete mixes","volume":"83","author":"Malkapur","year":"2015","journal-title":"Prog. Nucl. Energy"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"131","DOI":"10.4028\/www.scientific.net\/AMR.1129.131","article-title":"Polymers in Concrete\u2014The Shielding against Neutron Radiation","volume":"1129","author":"Piotrowski","year":"2015","journal-title":"Adv. Mater. Res."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Malkapur, S.M., and Narasimhan, M.C. (2019). Virgin and waste polymer incorporated concrete mixes for enhanced neutron radiation shielding characteristic. Use of Recycled Plastics in Eco-efficient Concrete, Woodhead Publishing.","DOI":"10.1016\/B978-0-08-102676-2.00010-4"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"583","DOI":"10.1016\/j.conbuildmat.2018.11.076","article-title":"Influence of gadolinium oxide and ulexite on cement hydration and technical properties of mortars for neutron radiation shielding purposes","volume":"195","author":"Piotrowski","year":"2019","journal-title":"Constr. Build. Mater."},{"key":"ref_21","first-page":"747","article-title":"The deformation and ageing of mild steel: III discuss of results","volume":"9","author":"Hall","year":"1951","journal-title":"Proc. R. Soc."},{"key":"ref_22","first-page":"25","article-title":"The cleavage strength of polycrystals","volume":"174","author":"Petch","year":"1953","journal-title":"J. Iron Steel Inst."},{"key":"ref_23","unstructured":"(2008). EN-480-11:2008. Admixtures for Concrete, Mortar and Grout. Test Methods. Determination of Air Void Characteristics in Hardened Concrete, Polish Committee for Standardization."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"117389","DOI":"10.1016\/j.conbuildmat.2019.117389","article-title":"Relation between microstructure, technical properties and neutron radiation shielding efficiency of concrete","volume":"235","author":"Zalegowski","year":"2020","journal-title":"Constr. Build. Mater."},{"key":"ref_25","first-page":"1","article-title":"Qualitative and quantitative interpretation of SEM image using digital image processing","volume":"264","author":"Salandra","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Microsc."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"407","DOI":"10.1016\/j.conbuildmat.2013.08.075","article-title":"Pore structure in concrete exposed to acid deposit","volume":"49","author":"Fan","year":"2013","journal-title":"Constr. Build. Mater."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102","DOI":"10.1016\/j.proeng.2015.06.124","article-title":"A method of analyzing the porous microstructure in air-entrained concrete on the basis on 2D image analysis","volume":"108","author":"Kozak","year":"2015","journal-title":"Procedia Eng."},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"Piotrowski, T., and Garbacz, A. (2016, January 10\u201312). Efektywno\u015bc modyfikacji materia\u0142owej w celu poprawy w\u0142a\u015bciwo\u015bci os\u0142onowych betonu przed promieniowaniem jonizuj\u0105cym (The effectiveness in material modification in order to improve shielding properties of concrete against neutron radiation). Proceedings of the IX Konferencja Dni Betonu. Tradycja i Nowoczesno\u015b\u0107, Wis\u0142a, Poland."}],"container-title":["Materials"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1996-1944\/13\/3\/498\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,13]],"date-time":"2025-10-13T13:29:56Z","timestamp":1760362196000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1996-1944\/13\/3\/498"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,21]]},"references-count":28,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,2]]}},"alternative-id":["ma13030498"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/ma13030498","relation":{},"ISSN":["1996-1944"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1996-1944","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,21]]}}}