Water Retention and Gas Migration of Two High-Performance Concretes after Damage
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 27, Issue 2
Abstract
In the context of long-term repository of high-level and long-lived nuclear waste, authors investigate different concrete properties related to fluid transport, in order to determine which is able to detect damage earliest. To this purpose, different protocols are tested, which impose progressive damage to two different Andra high-performance concretes (HPCs), based on pure portland (CEMI) or composed cement (CEMV)-type cements. The properties investigated are pore size distributions and porosity [by mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP)], water retention curves, relative gas permeability, and gas migration properties (gas breakthrough pressure). Gas breakthrough pressure (GBP) is assessed rather than gas entry, by accurately measuring gas presence on the downstream side of a confined sample subjected to slowly increasing gas pressure on its upstream side. From MIP data, authors show that CEMI concrete has smaller porosity but greater pore sizes than CEMV. For CEMI concrete, all damage procedures significantly affect water retention curves and gas breakthrough pressures, yet they have no effect upon the relationship between relative gas permeability and water saturation. For CEMV concrete subjected to low damage levels, gas breakthrough measurements detect damage, whereas water retention and gas permeability do not.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by Andra (Agence Nationale pour la Gestion des Déchets Radioactifs).
References
Abbas, A., Carcasses, M., and Ollivier, J.-P. (1999). “Gas permeability of concrete in relation to its degree of saturation.” Mater. Struct., 32(215), 3–8.
Baroghel-Bouny, V. (1994). “Caractérisation microstructurale et hydrique des pâtes de ciment et des bétons ordinaires et à très hautes performances.” Ph.D. thesis, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Ponts et Chaussées, France (in French).
Baroghel-Bouny, V., Mainguy, M., Lassabatere, T., and Coussy, O. (1999). “Characterization and identification of equilibrium and transfer moisture properties for ordinary and high-performance cementitious materials.” Cem. Concr. Res., 29(8), 1225–1238.
Brue, F., Davy, C. A., Skoczylas, F., Burlion, N., and Bourbon, X. (2012). “Effect of temperature on the water retention properties of two high performance concretes.” Cem. Concr. Res., 42(2), 384–396.
Camps, G. (2008). “Etude des interactions chemo-mécaniques pour la simulation du cycle de vie d’un élément de stockage en béton.” Ph.D. thesis, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France.
Carlier, J. P., Rougelot, T., and Burlion, N. (2012). “Evaluation comparative de modèles analytiques d’isothermes de sorption dans les matériaux cimentaires.” Colloque Transfert 2012, Ecole Centrale de Lille, France.
Chen, W. (2011). “Etude expérimentale de la perméabilité du béton sous conditiond thermiques et hydriques variables.” Ph.D. thesis, Ecole Centrale de Lille/Université de Lille 1, Lille, France.
Chen, W., et al. (2012). “Water retention and gas relative permeability of two industrial concretes.” Cem. Concr. Res., 42(7), 1001–1013.
Chen, X. T., et al. (2009a). “Experimental evidence of a moisture clog effect in cement-based materials under temperature.” Cem. Concr. Res., 39, 1139–1148.
Chen, X. T., Shao, J. F., Davy, C. A., and Skoczylas, F. (2009b). “Experimental study and constitutive modelling of elasto-plastic damage in heat-treated mortar.” Int. J. Numer. Anal. Meth. Geomech., 34(4), 357–382.
Choinska, M., Khelidj, A., Chatzigeorgiou, G., and Pijaudier-Cabot, G. (2007). “Effects and interactions of temperature and stress-level related damage on permeability of concrete.” Cem. Concr. Res., 37, 79–88.
Davy, C. A., Skoczylas, F., Barnichon, J. D., and Lebon, P. (2007). “Permeability of macro-cracked argillite under confinement: Gas and water testing.” Phys. Chem. Earth , 32(8–14), 667–680.
Davy, C. A., Skoczylas, F., Lebon, P., and Dubois, T. (2009). “Gas migration properties through an argillite/bentonite interface.” Appl. Clay Sci., 42(3–4), 639–648.
Drouet, E. (2010). “Impact de la température sur la carbonatation des matériaux cimentaires—Prise en compte des transferts hydriques.” Ph.D. thesis (Thèse de Doctorat), Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan, Cachan, France (in French).
Duveau, G., et al. (2011). “Gas entry through water-saturated argillite: Experimental and numerical approaches.” American Rock Mechanics Association’s 45th U.S. Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symp., American Rock Mechanics Association.
Gallé, C. (2000). “Gas breakthrough pressure in compacted Fo-Ca clay and interfacial gas overpressure in waste disposal context.” Appl. Clay Sci., 17, 85–97.
Gallé, C. (2001). “Effect of drying on cement-based materials pore structure as identified by mercury intrusion porosimetry—A comparative study between oven-, vacuum-, and freeze-drying.” Cem. Concr. Res., 31, 1467–1477.
Gregg, S. J., and Sing, S. W. (1982). Adsorption, surface area and porosity, 2nd Ed., Academic Press, New York, 121.
Horseman, S. T., Harrington, J. F., Sellin, P. (1999). “Gas migration in clay barriers.” Eng. Geol., 54, 139–149.
Hildenbrand, A., Schömer, S., and Krooss, B. M. (2002). “Gas breakthrough experiments on fine-grained sedimentary rocks.” Geofluids, 2, 3–23.
Kim, J., Kim, J., Jung, H., and Ha, J. C. (2013a). “Experiment on gas entry pressure and gas permeability of concrete silo for a low- and intermediate-level waste disposal facility in Korea.” Nucl. Eng. Des., 265, 841–845.
Kim, J., Kim, J., Jung, H., Ha, J. C., and Kim, E. H. (2013b). “Gas threshold pressure and gas permeability of silo concrete specimens for a low- and intermediate-level waste disposal facility in Korea.” Ann. Nucl. Energy, 55, 1–8.
Loosveldt, H., Lafhaj, Z., and Skoczylas, F. (2002). “Experimental study of gas and liquid permeability of a mortar.” Cem. Concr. Res., 32, 1357–1363.
Marschall, P., Horseman, S., and Gimmi, T. (2005). “Characterisation of gas transport properties of the opalinus clay, a potential host rock formation for radioactive waste disposal.” Oil Gas Sci. Technol., 60(1), 121–139.
McDonald, P. J., Rodin, V., and Valori, A. (2010). “Characterisation of intra- and inter-C–S–H gel pore water in white cement based on an analysis of NMR signal amplitudes as a function of water content.” Cem. Concr. Res., 40(12), 1656–1663.
Medjigbodo, S., Darquennes, A., Aubernon, C., Khelidj, A., and Loukili, A. (2013). “Effects of the air–steam mixture on the permeability of damaged concrete.” Cem. Concr. Res., 54, 98–105.
Mindess, S., Young, J. F., and Darwin, D. (2002). Concrete, 2nd Ed., Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Monlouis-Bonnaire, J. P., Verdier, J., and Perrin, B. (2004). “Prediction of the relative permeability to gas flow of cement-based materials.” Cem. Concr. Res., 34, 737–744.
Mualem, Y. (1976). “A new model for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated porous media.” Water Resour. Res., 12(3), 513–522.
Neville, A. M. (2000). Propriétés des bétons, Éditions Eyrolles, Paris, France, 516.
Perlot, C. (2005). “Influence de la décalcification de matériaux cimentaires sur les propriétés de transferts, application au stockage profond de déchets radioactifs.” Ph.D. thesis, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France.
Picandet, V., Khelidj, A., and Bellegou, H. (2009). “Crack effects on gas and water permeability of concretes.” Cem. Concr. Res., 39(6), 537–547.
Pihlajavaara, S. E. (1991). “Long-term gas permeability properties of concrete in wet repository conditions.” Nucl. Eng. Des., 129(1), 41–48.
Pusch, R., and Forsberg, T. (1983). “Gas migration through bentonite clay.”, Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKBF-KBS), Stockholm, Sweden, 15.
Ramachandran, V. S., Feldman, R. F., and Beaudoin, J. J. (1981). Concrete science: A treatise on current research, Heyden & Son, London, 428.
Ranaivomanana, H. (2010). “Tranferts dans les milieux poreux réactifs non saturés: Application à la cicatrisation de fissure dans les matériaux cimentaires par carbonatation.” Ph.D. thesis, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France.
Ranaivomanana, H., Verdier, J., Sellier, A., and Bourbon, X. (2011). “Toward a better comprehension and modeling of hysteresis cycles in the water sorption–desorption process for cement based materials.” Cem. Concr. Res., 41, 817–827.
Robinet, J. C., et al. (2012). “Effects of mineral distribution at mesoscopic scale on solute diffusion in a clay-rich rock: Example of the Callovo-Oxfordian mudstone (Bure, France).” Water Resour. Res., 48(7), W05554.
Rossen, W. R. (2000). “Snap-off in constricted tubes and porous media.” Colloids Surf., A, 166, 101–107.
Scrivener, K. L., and Nemati, K. M. (1996). “The percolation of pore space in the cement paste/aggregate interfacial zone of concrete.” Cem. Concr. Res., 26(1), 35–40.
Sellier, A., Buffo-Lacarrière, L., El Gonnouni, M., Bourbon, X. (2011). “Behavior of HPC nuclear waste disposal structures in leaching environment.” Nucl. Eng. Des., 241(1), 402–414.
Van Genuchten, M. T. (1980). “A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 44, 1892–1898.
Vernet, C. (1992). Petit mémento de chimie: La durabilité des bétons, Presses de l’Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, France, 100–106.
Vichot, A., and Ollivier, J. P. (2008). La durabilité des bétons, Presses de l’Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, France, 394.
Winslow, D. N., Cohen, M. D., Bentz, D. P., Snyder, K. A., and Garboczi, E. J. (1994). “Percolation and pore structure in mortars and concrete.” Cem. Concr. Res., 24(1), 25–37.
Yang, K., Basheer, P. A. M., Magee, B., and Bai, Y. (2013). “Investigation of moisture condition and Autoclam sensitivity on air permeability measurements for both normal concrete and high performance concrete.” Constr. Build. Mater., 48, 306–314.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 27 • Issue 2 • February 2015
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 19, 2013
Accepted: Jan 8, 2014
Published online: Jan 10, 2014
Discussion open until: Dec 8, 2014
Published in print: Feb 1, 2015
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.