Fractal assessment of structural changes in cellular concrete under acoustic excitation

Cellular concrete is this study's object with emphasis on the formation and evolution of its internal structure. Currently, there is an issue related to the insufficient quantity and quality of tools for assessing the nature of building materials' structure. This does not allow the concept of controlled structure formation to be fully applied. The results reported here confirm that artificial composite materials in the design process follow stages that have the characteristics of open systems. They are capable of self-organization and are sensitive to external energy influences, which is reflected in the change in the nature of the structure. The use of fractal and information dimensionalities as quantitative indicators of the nature of the material structure has been proposed. The influence of water content and acoustic activation parameters on the change in structural characteristics was investigated on physical models in the form of water-clay suspensions, justified as analogs of cement slurry. The effect of acoustic activation on the properties of foam concrete was established: at a frequency of 12 kHz, the compressive strength was 1.8 MPa, while at a frequency of (22 kHz) the strength decreased to 0.5–0.7 MPa, and the humidity increased to 34–35%, which indicates destabilization of the structure. Changes in the degree of order and complexity of the structure were quantitatively recorded using fractal and information dimensionalities. The results are attributed to the technology of manufacturing cellular concretes, in particular foam concrete, in which the use of acoustic activation at the early stages of structure formation makes it possible to control the structure of the material and its physical and mechanical properties. The proposed approach could be integrated into industrial technological schemes provided that stable parameters of acoustic influence are ensured; it does not require significant changes to standard equipment