Dr. Snyder joined the Inorganic Building Materials Group in 1990 to study transport and reaction in random porous media. Studies of the diffusive transport of ionic species in cement paste pore solution have relied on characterizing the physical chemistry of transport and the thermodynamics of chemical reactions. The primary purpose of these studies is to develop reliable predictive models for the performance assessment of concrete structures exposed to the environment. Much of what has been learned has been incorporated into the 4SIGHT computer model that was sponsored by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the assessment of underground concrete structures. Future applications may include assessment of grouts for isolating wastes incidental to reprocessing (WIR).

Through a comprehensive approach that incorporates the physical chemistry of concentrated electrolyte solutions, the diffusive transport of ionic species can be characterized by a single transport coefficient, the formation factor, regardless of the number of different ionic species present.

To estimate the formation factor, Dr. Snyder is currently working toward a new test method that uses a single bulk conductivity measurement and pore solution expression, in conjunction with a predictive model for the electrical conductivity of concentrated multi-species electrolytes, also developed by Dr. Snyder.

Recently, Dr. Snyder has been leading an intramural Advanced Technology Program (ATP) project to develop the C-S-H Molecular Modeling Toolbox that includes computational tools and data for the molecular characterization of amorphous calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H), the binding component of concrete. The conceptual approach has been to start with crystalline materials related to cements research (tobermorite, jennite, ettringite, etc.), develop molecular dynamics (MD) descriptions, calculate hydrogen atom dynamics at room temperature, and compare those dynamics to quasi-elastic neutron scattering (QENS) measurements. The tools in the web site (see below) include a free Parrinello-Rahman molecular modeling (PRMD) program written in FORTRAN-90, tools for manipulating crystallographic information files (CIF), and molecular dynamics descriptions of minerals relevant to cements research.

Dr. Snyder is a member of the following professional societies:
American Physical Society (APS)
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)
RILEM

Web Sites of Projects Mentioned Above:

4SIGHT Computer Degradation Model

Physical Chemistry of Cement Paste Pore Solution

Electrolyte Conductivity Prediction

Kenneth A. Snyder

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