Title: Mesoscopic simulation of chloride ions diffusion in frost-damaged concrete

Authors: Licheng Wang, Tamon Ueda

Addresses: State Key Laboratory of Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning, China. ' Division of Built Environment, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

Abstract: Cracking and the porosity increase of concrete due to freeze-thaw cycling can form interconnecting flow channels for ingress of aggressive agents dissolved in water-like chloride and sulphate ions. This process will accelerate the deterioration of concrete structures. In this paper, a numerical simulation method, namely the mesoscopic truss network model, is developed to investigate the chloride ions diffusion in frost-damaged concrete focusing on the effect of frost-induced cracks. In the model, concrete is treated as a three-phase composite, i.e., consisting of mortar, coarse aggregates and the interfacial transition zone between them. Based on the observation of experimental facts, the damage of concrete caused by freezing-thawing action is divided into two parts: one is the formation of cracks at the interfacial transition zone and the other is the porosity increase of mortar. An example illustrates that the proposed method can satisfactorily simulate the chloride diffusion process in a frost-damaged concrete based on some experimental findings. It is also found that the predicted result is in a good agreement with the test data.

Keywords: chloride diffusion; frost damaged concrete; mesoscopic simulation; truss network modelling; concrete structures; cracks; chloride ingress; sulphate ions; numerical simulation; mortar porosity; crack formation; interfacial transition zone.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIC.2009.027068

International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control, 2009 Vol.7 No.2, pp.148 - 154

Published online: 14 Jul 2009 *

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