Compressive Strength of Irradiation-Cured Green Concrete A Multiscale Physical and Engineering Analysis

Green concrete incorporating industrial by-products, recycled aggregates, geopolymer binders, polymeric modifiers, and radiation-shielding minerals represents animportant approach for reducing the environmental impact of cement-based construction materials. The application of ionizing radiation, particularly gamma rays andelectron beams, introduces an additional processing variable capable of modifyingthe chemical, physical, and mechanical behavior of cementitious matrices.This study develops a theoretical and engineering framework for investigating thecompressive strength of irradiation-treated green concrete. The principal variablesinclude binder chemistry, water-to-binder ratio, supplementary cementitious materialcontent, radiation dose, dose rate, moisture condition, aggregate type, polymercontent, porosity, and interfacial transition-zone quality. A multiscale model isproposed to relate radiation energy deposition to hydration, geopolymerization,polymer cross-linking, pore refinement, microcrack development, and macroscopiccompressive strength.The governing relationships include radiation-energy balance, photon attenuation, hydration kinetics, Arrhenius-type reaction equations, porosity–strength relationships, effective-medium homogenization, stress–strain constitutive equations,fracture-energy formulations, and reliability-based statistical models. The theoretical analysis indicates that low and intermediate irradiation doses may improve compressive strength when they promote additional reaction, densification, polymer cross-linking, and interfacial bonding. Excessive radiation dose, however, may causeradiolysis, polymer degradation, radiogenic heating, drying, aggregate damage, andmicrocracking.The optimum mechanical performance is therefore expected to occur within alimited dose interval rather than increasing monotonically with absorbed radiationdose. The proposed framework is applicable to low-carbon geopolymer concrete,fly-ash and slag concrete, recycled-plastic concrete, nano-modified mortar, and highdensity concrete containing magnetite, barite, hematite, or other radiation-shieldingaggregates.