Simulation of chloride ion transport in concrete under wetting–drying cycle

Abstract

In the corrosive environment of chloride, the drying–wetting alternating zones are most seriously eroded by harmful media. Firstly, based on the new porosity and tortuosity model, considering the interaction between the transport of water and the tortuosity in the concrete microstructure, a nonlinear diffusion–convection model of water is established. Secondly, a two-dimensional variable coefficient model of chloride ion transport in concrete under the coupled effects of drying–wetting cycles is established based on Fick’s second law. The main parameters influencing transport in the proposed model such as porosity, tortuosity, saturation of concrete and hydration degree of cement are fully considered. Finally, the model is numerically solved by the alternating direction implicit (ADI) method. The results show that the values predicted agree with those of experiments.

Keywords:

• concrete
• tortuosity
• porosity
• moisture diffusion coefficient
• two-dimensional variable coefficient
• chloride ion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundations of China (Nos. 51478278 and 51778378).