In the last post, I explained the clear definition of different densities. Among these densities, bulk density and apparent density are the two most important values when performing mercury intrusion porosity (MIP) experiment.
Since samples that undergo MIP are usually irregular, the bulk volume is not possible to measure without being immersed in liquid. By the help of MIP, the bulk volume can be measured, thus the bulk density can be calculated simply dividing the mass by bulk volume.
As material researchers, we know density is the physical property of materials. Even since grade school, we are taught that density is simply the mass of an object divided by its volume.
However, this is pretty complicated in the case of cementitious materials. The mass of a certain amount of harden cement (or concrete) paste is a finite value, but how about the volume? since the harden cement paste is porous, how do we consider the open and close pores inside the paste as we want to determine the volume?