Experimental and numerical determination of the chloride penetration in cracked mortar specimens

Abstract

The presence of cracks in reinforced concrete structures added to the chloride-induced steel corrosion is worldwide one of the major causes of deterioration of reinforced concrete structures, producing loss of structural strength and stability. This study deals with the influence of artificial cracks on chloride penetration in mortar specimens by presenting both the experimental and the numerical results. The experimental results were obtained using chloride penetration tests on mortar specimens of different sizes, with and without artificial cracks, subjected to chloride exposure. Numerical results were obtained using transient finite element analysis by simulating chloride mass diffusion. Comparisons between the results on chloride penetration concluded that the numerical ones obtained using the mass transfer modulus agrees fairly well with the experimental ones. In addition, the influence of certain crack parameters such as crack length, crack depth and also time exposure on chloride ingress was considered.

Comparative study of probabilistic modeling approaches for chloride ingress in concrete structures with macro‐cracks

“…28 In this study, this approach is referred to as d cr -adaption. Similar approaches are often used in numerical simulations, 29,30 in which the chloride concentration of the concrete surface is applied at the crack surface and the crack tip.…”

Effects of load-induced micro-cracks on chloride penetration resistance in different types of concrete

“…The studies in literature are characterized by several different cracking procedures, different methods to characterize crack geometrical parameters and different testing procedures. Cracks have been either simulated with artificial notches [4][5][6][7] or induced with mechanical loading procedures [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Artificial notches are controlled (known width and depth) and repeatable, anyway the smooth and parallel crack walls are far from reality.…”

Sources of uncertainties for total chloride profile measurements in concrete: quantization and impact on probability assessment of corrosion initiation

“…Some profiles of concrete cores extracted from the quay have been analyzed using a probabilistic study, which pinpointed problems relating to the lack of measurement uncertainty model (Rosquoët et al 2006). The total chloride profiles obtained on field are difficult to analyze with regards to their uncertainty measurement and to the many parameters they are depending on: cement type, environmental parameters and concrete quality and damaging (Ben Fraj et al 2012;Castro et al 2001;Costa and Appleton 1999;Djerbi et al 2008;Lindvall 2007, Sosdean et al 2016. The determination of the chloride profiles, indeed, is a manual procedure (Chaussadent and Arliguie 1999;RILEM 2002;Vennesland et al 2012), in which the experimenter plays a key role.…”