Abstract
This paper reports an investigation on the size and distribution of capillary and gel pores in an alkali activated cementitious(AACM) mortar and comparative OPC mortar. These pore properties were determined from the cumulative and differentialpore volume curves obtained by mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP). The classification and distribution of these poresprovides a useful insight to the properties of hardened concrete such as the durability, fire resistance and mechanical properties.The results show that AACM mortar mixes possess a bimodial pore size distribution while OPC concrete has unimodialpore sizes distribution. The intrudable porosity is lesser in AACM mortar than OPC mortar. The volume of the capillary poreswas higher in AACM mortar compared with OPC mortar. However, the volume of the gel pores was much lower in AACMmortar than OPC mortar.The distribution of bimodal pores in AACM mortar is greatly influenced by the effects of curing type and the activatordilution. The distribution of unimodal pores in OPC mortar is similarly influenced by the curing typ