Sensitivity Analysis of Damage in Cement Materials under Sulfate Attack and Calcium Leaching
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 24, Issue 4
Abstract
A numerical model developed in previous work by the authors is extended in this paper and used to evaluate the influence of several factors on the degradation of cementitious materials under the combined effects of external sulfate attack and calcium leaching. The previous model included (1) diffusion of ions in and out of the structure under concentration gradients and chemical activity gradients, (2) chemical reactions under local equilibrium condition assumption, and (3) damage accumulation using continuum damage mechanics. This paper extends the model by incorporating a continuum micromechanics based approach for assessing changes in elastic properties and strength of the structure attributed to chemical reactions. Two homogenization schemes combined with Eshelby’s equivalent inclusion method are used to estimate the mechanical properties of the structure that change with time because of dissolution and precipitation of solids. Sensitivity analysis is performed by using the improved numerical model to evaluate the effects of several external and internal factors (e.g., pH and composition of the external solution, and porosity and tortuosity of the material) on the degradation of the structure. It is found that the damage progression rate is mostly dependent on relative rates of sulfate ingress and calcium leaching. The relations between the factors and the damage progression rate are observed to be significantly nonlinear.
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Acknowledgments
This study was based on work supported by the U. S. Department of Energy, under Cooperative Agreement Number DE-FC01-06EW07053 entitled ‘The Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation III’ awarded to Vanderbilt University. This research was also carried out in part as part of the Cementitious Barriers Partnership supported by U.S. DOE Office of Environmental Management. The opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Energy or Vanderbilt University. The authors also thank Dr. Kevin G. Brown (Vanderbilt University), Dr. Christine Langton (Savannah River National Laboratory), and Dr. Eric Samson (SIMCO Technologies) for valuable discussions during this study.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 24 • Issue 4 • April 2012
Pages: 430 - 440
Copyright
© 2012. American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 2, 2011
Accepted: Oct 25, 2011
Published online: Oct 27, 2011
Published in print: Apr 1, 2012
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