Abhay Goyal PhD defense

Congratulations to Abhay Goyal, who defended his PhD thesis on April 15! The title of Abhay’s thesis is Confinement and texture in cement hydrates: From nanoscale cohesion to rheology. During his PhD, Abhay worked to develop nano- and meso-scale computational models, connecting cement chemistry to its nanoscale cohesion and the consequential effects on microstructure and macroscopic material properties of this important material.

Concrete is the most abundant artificial material on Earth, yet the physical mechanisms that control its properties are not fully understood. Cement, the main binding agent, reacts with water to produce Calcium-Silicate-Hydrate (C-S-H) nanoparticles that form a heterogeneous and porous gel which serves as the glue for the hardened material. The C-S-H building blocks are highly charged and adhere due to electrostatics mediated by the water and counter-ions produced by cement dissolution. This multiscale complexity coupled to the non-equilibrium setting process is the central challenge to designing better cementitious materials—for more durable infrastructure, reduced emissions and improved sustainability, and 3D printing based construction.

The defense was a real success, in spite of these difficult times, and it was great to see friends and members of DelGadoLab current and past from all over the world! We are so thrilled for the great work Abhay has done. Watch out for new publications to come out soon!

We wish Abhay all the best for his future endeavors. He is now a post-doctoral researcher at Georgetown University and NIST, working on computational rheology of dense suspensions and cement rheology.