Influence of Binder Composition and Concrete Pore Structure on Chloride Diffusion Coefficient in Concrete

The influence of binder composition and pore structure of concrete on chloride diffusion coefficient in concrete were investigated by the natural immersion test, MIP test, SEM and EDS test, respectively. The experimental results showed that the effect of binder composition on chloride diffusion coefficient was the comprehensive result of concrete pore structure and binder hydration products, and the porosity and pore size distribution were the main factors that influence the changes of diffusion coefficient. The chloride diffusion coefficient decreased with increasing the curing temperature and the relative humidity. The hydration degree were promoted by improving curing temperatures, and then the porosity of concrete decreased and the proportion of gel pore and transitional pore increased, respectively. But the water evaporation decreased with increasing the relative humidity and then decreased porosity and increased the proportion of gel pore and transitional pore. Additionally, The chloride diffusion coefficient of concrete got the lower value when the appropriate replacement of fly ash in the ranges of 10%-20%, when the double-adding fly ash and slag content was 50%. The porosity increased and the ratio of C/S in C-S-H decreased with further increasing the fly ash content, which led to increase the chloride diffusion coefficient in concrete.

Time Dependent Chloride Diffusion Coefficient in Concrete

In order to study how to correctly apply the two different time dependencies to service life prediction models, the definition of parameters in the time dependent equation using the long-term test method and the short-term test method, and its relationship were discussed. The experimental results show that, as the two time dependencies have different meanings, they have different manners when handled in service life prediction models. Time dependency of chloride diffusion coefficients in concrete was obtained by fitting experimental data. A large number of accurate experimental data were required to fit the formula of time dependency to ensure the accuracy of service life prediction model.

Modelling of Time Dependency of Chloride Diffusion Coefficient in Cement Paste

A computer-based model and method was presented to predict the time dependency of chloride diffusion coefficients in cement paste. The HYMOSTRUC3D model was applied to generate a 3D representative elementary volume （REV） of cement paste. In the simulation of microstructure, both of cement hydration and chloride binding were considered. With the simulated microstructure of cement paste, the finite element method was applied to simulate the diffusion process of chloride through the saturated cement paste. Based on the Fick’s first law, the chloride diffusion coefficient can be calculated. In this method, the influences of age and w/c ratio on the chloride diffusion coefficient were evaluated. The simulated chloride diffusivities with various w/c at different time were compared to experimental data obtained from the literature. The experimental results indicate that the chloride diffusion coefficient decreases with the increase of time and the decrease of w/c ratio. The trend of simulated relationship （diffusion coefficient vs time, diffusion coefficient vs w/c ratio） fits very well with the experiments.

Investigation in Mathematical Models of Chloride Diffusion Coefficient in Concrete Exposed to Marine Environment

Degradation of RC （reinforced concrete） in maritime structures has become a worldwide problem due to its excessive costs of maintenance, repair and replacement in addition to its environmental impacts and safety issues. Degradation of both concrete and steel which is the main reason of reduction in the service life of RC structures strongly depends on the diffusion process of moisture and aggressive species. In this paper, the major and popular mathematical models of diffusion process in concrete are surveyed and investigated. Predominantly in these models, the coefficient of chloride diffusion into the concrete is assumed to be constant. Whereas, experimental records indicate that diffusion coefficient is a function of time. Subsequently, data analysis and comparisons between the existing analytical models for predicting the diffusion coefficient with the existing experimental database are carried out in this study. Clearly, these comparisons reveal that there are gaps between the existing mathematical models and previously recorded experimental results. Perhaps, these gaps may be interpreted as influence of the other affecting parameters on the diffusion coefficient such as temperature, aggregate size and relative humidity in addition to the water cement ratio. Accordingly, the existing mathematical models are not adequate enough to predict the diffusion coefficient precisely and further studies need to be performed.

Multi-scale Modeling of the Effective Chloride Ion Diffusion Coefficient in Cement-based Composite Materials

N-layered spherical inclusions model was used to calculate the effective diffusion coefficient of chloride ion in cement-based materials by using multi-scale method and then to investigate the relationship between the diffusivity and the microstructure of cement-basted materials where the microstructure included the interfacial transition zone （ITZ） between the aggregates and the bulk cement pastes as well as the microstructure of the bulk cement paste itself. For the convenience of applications, the mortar and concrete were considered as a four-phase spherical model, consisting of cement continuous phase, dispersed aggregates phase, interface transition zone and their homogenized effective medium phase. A general effective medium equation was established to calculate the diffusion coefficient of the hardened cement paste by considering the microstructure. During calculation, the tortuosity （n） and constrictivity factors （Ds/Do） of pore in the hardened pastes are n^3.2, Ds/Do=l.Ox 10-4 respectively from the test data. The calculated results using the n-layered spherical inclusions model are in good agreement with the experimental results; The effective diffusion coefficient of ITZ is 12 times that of the bulk cement for mortar and 17 times for concrete due to the difference between particle size distribution and the volume fraction of aggregates in mortar and concrete.

Convolutional Neural Network-Based Regression for Predicting the Chloride Ion Diffusion Coefficient of Concrete

The durability performance of reinforced concrete(RC)building structures is significantly affected by the corrosion of the steel reinforcement due to chloride penetration,thus,the chloride ion diffusion coefficient should be investigated through experiments or theoretical equations to assess the durability of an RC structure.This study aims to predict the chloride ion diffusion coefficient of concrete,a heterogeneous material.A convolutional neural network(CNN)-based regression model that learns the condition of the concrete surface through deep learning,is developed to efficiently obtain the chloride ion diffusion coefficient.For the model implementation to determine the chloride ion diffusion coefficient,concrete mixes with w/c ratios of 0.33,0.40,0.46,0.50,0.62,and 0.68,are cured for 28 days;subsequently,the surface image data of the specimens are collected.Finally,the proposed model predicts the chloride ion diffusion coefficient using the concrete surface image data and exhibits an error of approximately 1.5E−12 m^(2)/s.The results suggest the applicability of proposed model to the field of facility maintenance for estimating the chloride ion diffusion coefficient of concrete using images.

Probabilistic Assessment of Reinforcing Steel Depassivation in Concrete under Aggressive Chloride Environments Based on Natural Exposure Data

The probability distributions of the critical threshold chloride concentration Ccr, the chloride diffusion coefficient D, and the surface chloride concentration Cs are determined based on the collected natural exposure data, and the probability estimation of reinforcement depassivation in concrete is presented using Monte-Carlo simulation. From sensitivity analysis of mean value for ccr, cs, and D on the depassivation probability of reinforcement, it is found that ccr, cs, and D respectively has the greatest, smaller, and the lowest effect on the probability of depassivation. Finally the effect of stress state of concrete on the reinforcement depassivation probability is analyzed. It is found that the influence of stress state becomes apparent as exposure time increases.

Chloride diffusivity in flexural cracked Portland cement concrete and fly ash concrete beams

In order to examine the effect of load-induced transverse cracks on the chloride penetration in flexural concrete beams, two different concretes, Portland cement concrete(PCC) and fly ash concrete(FAC), were tested with various crack widths. Total 14 reinforced concrete(RC) beams, ten of which were self-anchored in a three-point bending mode, were immersed into a 5% NaCl solution with the condition of dry-wet cycles. Then, the free chloride ion contents were determined by rapid chloride testing(RCT) method. Based on the proposed analytical models of chloride penetration in sound and cracked concrete subjected to dry-wet cycles, the apparent chloride diffusion coefficient and chloride diffusivity of concrete were discussed. It can be found that the performance of chloride diffusivity in both concretes will be improved with the increase of crack width, and that the influence of convection action will also be augmented. Based on the two samples obtained in sound concrete after 15 and 30 cycles, the time-exponent, m, for chloride diffusion coefficient was determined to be 0.58, 0.42, 0.62 and 0.77 for PCC1, PCC2, FAC1 and FAC2 specimens, respectively. Finally, two influencing factors of fly ash content and crack width on chloride diffusivity were obtained by regression analysis of test data, and it can be seen that factors kf and kw can be expressed with quadratic polynomial functions of fly ash content, f, and crack width, w, respectively.

Effect of Chloride Type on Penetration of Chloride Ions in Concrete

The influence of chloride type on the diffusivity of chloride ions in concrete was studied by experiment. The result shows that the glectric resistance of concrete and the chloride diffusion coefficient are influenced by chloride type. For the same water/cement ratio (W/C), the diffusion coefficient D in KCl solution is larger than that in NaCl solution; however, the concrete resistance in KCl solution is smaller than that in NaCl solution. The experimental result is analyzed with theory of diffusion.

Durability of sea-sand containing concrete:Effects of chloride ion penetration

This paper describes an orthogonal experiment on the effect of water/cement ratio,water consumption per cubic meter,curing time,and type of sand on the response＂resistance to chloride ion penetration＂.A sea-sand containing concrete was used for the trials.An analysis of chloride ion diffusion coefficients at different factor levels was performed.A predictive model of chloride ion diffusion in concrete is developed through regression analysis.The experimental results show that when the water/cement ratio varies from 0.45 to 0.60,and the water consumption per cubic meter varies from 185 to 215 kg,and the curing time varies from 30 to 180 d then the size of the effects fall in the order（most significant first）： curing time,type of sand,water consumption per cubic meter,and water/cement ratio.Chloride ion penetration is reduced,and better durability of the concrete is observed,with longer curing times,less water consumption per cubic meter,and a smaller water/cement ratio.

Sensitivity Study on Durability Variables of Marine Concrete Structures

In order to study the influence of parameters on durability of marine concrete structures, the parameter＇s sensitivity analysis was studied in this paper. With the Fick＇s 2nd law of diffusion and the deterministic sensitivity analysis method （DSA）, the sensitivity factors of apparent surface chloride content, apparent chloride diffusion coefficient and its time dependent attenuation factor were analyzed. The results of the analysis show that the impact of design variables on concrete durability was different. The values of sensitivity factor of chloride diffusion coefficient and its time dependent attenuation factor were higher than others. Relative less error in chloride diffusion coefficient and its time dependent attenuation coefficient induces a bigger error in concrete durability design and life prediction. According to probability sensitivity analysis （PSA）, the influence of mean value and variance of concrete durability design variables on the durability failure probability was studied. The results of the study provide quantitative measures of the importance of concrete durability design and life prediction variables. It was concluded that the chloride diffusion coefficient and its time dependent attenuation factor have more influence on the reliability of marine concrete structural durability. In durability design and life prediction of marine concrete structures, it was very important to reduce the measure and statistic error of durability design variables.

Corrosion life of artificial reef under natural seawater conditions

Corrosion of steel bars with chloride salt erosion is one of the main reasons for the deterioration of the performance of reinforced concrete structures.The key to the service life of concrete members is the transport rate of chloride ions and the time for rusting of steel bars.In this paper,the artificial reef concrete member is taken as the research object,and the diffusion coefficient of seawater chloride ion in C30,C35 and steel slag composite artificial reef concrete is analyzed.The critical chloride ion concentration of steel corrosion in concrete is used as the boundary condition for life prediction.The chloride ion diffusion model predicts the corrosion life of C30,C35 and steel slag composite artificial reefs in seawater.The results show that the diffusion law of chloride ions in concrete artificial reefs basically meets Fick's second law.The corrosion life of C30,C35 and steel slag composite concrete reefs was calculated by the model to be 51.6,54.8 and 56.8 years,respectively.