Effect of Damage on Moisture Transport in Concrete
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 27, Issue 9
Abstract
This paper presents the results of an experimental and analytical study on the effect of distributed cracks (damage) on moisture transport in concrete. Specifically, the writers investigate the following: (1) how damage affects the saturated and unsaturated transport and electrical resistivity, (2) whether one-dimensional (1D) analysis based on the sharp front (SF) theory can explain the relation between the saturated and unsaturated transport in damaged concrete, and (3) which transport mechanism is more sensitive to damage. Conceptual models are developed based on damage mechanics and fluid transport to explain the experimental data. Material constants are also provided for numerical modeling of unsaturated transport in damaged concrete. The results show that damage differently affects each of the transport mechanisms, and saturated hydraulic conductivity is more sensitive to damage as compared to sorptivity and electrical resistivity. The simplified 1D analysis, based on the sharp front theory, does not adequately describe the effect of damage on unsaturated transport. The developed conceptual models can be used to qualitatively describe the effect of damage on transport properties of concrete.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The research reported in this paper was conducted in the Materials and Sensor Development Laboratory (MSDL) and Constructed Facilities Laboratory (CFL) at North Carolina State University (NCSU). The writers would like to acknowledge the support which has made these laboratories and the research reported in this paper possible. The SEM imaging in this paper was performed in the Analytical Instrumentation Facility (AIF) at NCSU. The writers would like to acknowledge the contributions of the technical staff of CFL (Dr. Gregory Lucier, Mr. Jonothan McEntire, and Mr. Jerry Atkinson) as well as the contributions of technical staff of AIF (Mr. Chuck Mooney and Mr. Roberto Garcia).
References
Akhavan, A., and Rajabipour, F. (2013). “Evaluating ion diffusivity of cracked cement paste using electrical impedance spectroscopy.” Mater. Struct., 46(5), 697–708.
Akhavan, A., Shafaatian, S. M. H., and Rajabipour, F. (2012). “Quantifying the effects of crack width, tortuosity, and roughness on water permeability of cracked mortars.” Cement Concrete Res., 42(2), 313–320.
Aldea, C. M., Shah, S. P., and Karr, A. (1999a). “Effect of cracking on water and chloride permeability of concrete.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 181–187.
Aldea, C. M., Shah, S. P., and Karr, A. (1999b). “Permeability of cracked concrete.” Mater. Struct., 32(5), 370–376.
ASTM. (1999). “Standard specification for ready-mixed concrete.” C94/C94M-99, West Conshohocken, PA.
ASTM. (2004). “Standard test method for measurement of rate of absorption of water by hydraulic-cement concretes.” C1585-04, West Conshohocken, PA.
Barde, V., Radlinska, A., Cohen, M., and Weiss, W. J. (2009). “Relating material properties to exposure conditions for predicting service life in concrete bridge decks in Indiana.”, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN.
Bentz, D. P., Garboczi, E. J., Lu, Y., Martys, N., Sakulich, A. R., and Weiss, W. J. (2013). “Modeling of the influence of transverse cracking on chloride penetration into concrete.” Cement Concrete Compos., 38, 65–74.
Bentz, E., and Thomas, M. D. A. (2001). “Life-365 service life prediction model.”, Univ. of Toronto, Toronto.
Brooks, R. J., and Corey, A. T. (1964). “Hydraulic properties of porous media.”, Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO.
Castro, J., Bentz, D., and Weiss, J. (2011a). “Effect of sample conditioning on the water absorption of concrete.” Cement Concrete Compos., 33(8), 805–813.
Castro, J., Spragg, R., and Weiss, J. (2011b). “Water absorption and electrical conductivity for internally cured mortars with a W/C between 0.30 and 0.45.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 223–231.
Charbeneau, R. J. (2006). Groundwater hydraulics and pollutant transport, Waveland, Long Grove, IL.
Chung, C. W., Shon, C. S., and Kim, Y. S. (2010). “Chloride ion diffusivity of fly ash and silica fume concretes exposed to freeze-thaw cycles.” Constr. Build. Mater., 24(9), 1739–1745.
Chunsheng, Z., Li, K., and Pang, X. (2012). “Geometry of crack network and its impact on transport properties of concrete.” Cement Concrete Res., 42(9), 1261–1272.
Culligan, P. J., Barry, D. A., Parlange, J., Steenhuis, T. S., and Haverkamp, R. (2000). “Infiltration with controlled air escape.” Water Resour. Res., 36(3), 781–785.
Djerbi, A., Bonnet, S., Khelidj, A., and Baroghel-Bouny, V. (2008). “Influence of traversing crack on chloride diffusion into concrete.” Cement Concrete Res., 38(6), 877–883.
Fagerlund, G. (1973). “Determination of pore-size distribution from freezing-point depression.” Matériaux et Constr., 6(3), 215–225.
Fagerlund, G. (1977). “The international cooperative test of the critical degree of saturation method of assessing the freeze/thaw resistance of concrete.” Mater. Struct., 10(4), 231–253.
Fagerlund, G. (1996). “Predicting the service life of concrete exposed to frost action through a modelling of the water absorption process in the air-pore system.” The modeling of microstructure and its potential for studying transport properties and durability, H. Jennings, J. Kropp, and K. Scrivener, eds., Springer, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 503–537.
Fagerlund, G. (1997). “On the service life of concrete exposed to frost action.” Freeze-thaw durability of concrete, J. Marchand, M. Pigeon, and M. J. Setzer, eds., E & FN Spon, London, 23–42.
Fagerlund, G. (2012). “Effect of water-cement ratio, air content and age on the risk of frost damage of concrete.”, Lund Institute of Technology, Lund Univ., Lund, Sweden.
Farnam, Y., Bentz, D., Sakulich, A., Flynn, D., and Weiss, J. (2014). “Measuring freeze and thaw damage in mortars containing deicing salt using a low-temperature longitudinal guarded comparative calorimeter and acoustic emission.” Adv. Civ. Eng. Mater., 3(1), 23.
Green, W. H., and Ampt, G. A. (1911). “Studies on soil physics, 1. The flow of air and water through soils.” J. Agric. Sci., 4(1), 1–24.
Hall, C. (1994). “Barrier performance of concrete: A review of fluid transport theory.” Mater. Struct., 27(5), 291–306.
Hall, C., et al. (1995). “Water anomaly in capillary liquid absorption by cement-based materials.” J. Mater. Sci. Lett., 14(17), 1178–1181.
Hall, C., and Hoff, W. D. (2011). Water transport in brick, stone and concrete, CRC, Boca Raton, FL.
Hanžič, L., Kosec, L., and Anžel, I. (2010). “Capillary absorption in concrete and the Lucas-Washburn equation.” Cement Concrete Compos., 32(1), 84–91.
Helmuth, R. A. (1960). “Capillary size restrictions on ice formation in hardened portland cement pastes.” Proc., Int. Symp. on Chemistry of Cement, Portland Cement Association, Skokie, IL, 855–869.
Henchi, K., Samson, E., Chapdelaine, F., and Marchand, J. (2007). “Advanced finite-element predictive model for the service life prediction of concrete infrastructures in support of asset management and decision-making.” Proc., Computing in Civil Engineering, ASCE, Reston, VA, 870–880.
Jacobsen, S., Marchand, J., and Boisvert, L. (1996). “Effect of cracking and healing on chloride transport in OPC concrete.” Cement Concrete Res., 26(6), 869–881.
Jakobsen, U. H. (1998). “Understanding the features observed in concrete using various fluorescence impregnation techniques.” Proc., Int. Conf. on Cement Microscopy, International Cement Microscopy Association (ICMA), Guadalajara, Mexico, 281–301.
Langton, C. (2012). Transport through cracked concrete: Literature review, U.S. Dept. of Energy, Washington, DC.
Lemaitre, J., and Lippmann, H. (1996). A course on damage mechanics, Springer, Berlin.
Li, W., Pour-Ghaz, M., Castro, J., and Weiss, J. (2011). “Water absorption and critical degree of saturation relating to freeze-thaw damage in concrete pavement joints.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 299–307.
Lockington, D., Parlange, J. Y., and Dux, P. (1999). “Sorptivity and the estimation of water penetration into unsaturated concrete.” Mater. Struct., 32(5), 342–347.
Neithalath, N. (2004). “Development and characterization of acoustically efficient cementitious materials.” Ph.D. thesis, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN.
Neuman, S. P. (1976). “Wetting front pressure head in the infiltration model of Green and Ampt.” Water Resour. Res., 12(3), 564–566.
Parrott, L. J. (1991). “Factor influencing relative humidity in concrete.” Mag. Concrete Res., 43(154), 45–52.
Parrott, L. J. (1994). “Moisture conditioning and transport properties of concrete test specimens.” Mater. Struct., 27(8), 460–468.
Picandet, V., Khelidj, A., and Bellegou, H. (2009). “Crack effects on gas and water permeability of concretes.” Cement Concrete Res., 39(6), 537–547.
Pour-Ghaz, M. (2011). “Detecting damage in concrete using electrical methods and assessing moisture movement in cracked concrete.” Ph.D. thesis, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN.
Pour-Ghaz, M. (2014). “Modelling behaviour of infrastructure materials.”, Dept. of Civil Construction and Environmental Engineering, North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC.
Pour-Ghaz, M., Castro, J., Kladivko, E. J., and Weiss, J. (2011). “Characterizing lightweight aggregate desorption at high relative humidities using a pressure plate apparatus.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 961–969.
Pour-Ghaz, M., Rajabipour, F., Couch, J., and Weiss, J. (2009a). “Modeling fluid transport in cementitious systems with crack-like (notch) geometries.” Proc., Int. RILEM Workshop on Concrete Durability and Service Life Planning, Bagneux, France.
Pour-Ghaz, M., Rajabipour, F., Couch, J., and Weiss, J. (2009b). “Numerical and experimental assessment of unsaturated fluid transport in saw-cut (notched) concrete elements.”, Farmington Hills, MI, 73–86.
Rajabipour, F. (2006). “In situ electrical sensing and material health monitoring in concrete structures.” Ph.D. thesis, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN.
Reinhardt, H. W., and Jooss, M. (2003). “Permeability and self-healing of cracked concrete as a function of temperature and crack width.” Cement Concrete Res., 33(7), 981–985.
Rodriguez, O. G., and Hooton, R. D. (2003). “Influence of cracks on chloride ingress into concrete.” ACI Mater. J., 100(2), 120–126.
Saito, M., Ohta, M., and Ishimori, H. (1994). “Chloride permeability of concrete subjected to freeze-thaw damage.” Cement Concrete Compos., 16(4), 233–239.
Shimada, H., Sakai, K., and Litvan, G. G. (1991). “Acoustic emissions of mortar subjected to freezing and thawing.”, Farmington Hills, MI.
Spragg, R. P., Castro, J., Nantung, T. E., Paredes, M., and Weiss, W. J. (2011). “Variability analysis of the bulk resistivity measured using concrete cylinders.”, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN.
Syml, D., Ghasemzadeh, F., Hallaji, M., and Pour-Ghaz, M. (2014). “Modeling unsaturated flow in damage concrete.” Rep. Prepared for the Materials and Sensor Development Laboratory, North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC.
Thomas, M. D. A., and Bentz, E. C. (2000). Life-365 computer program for predicting the service life and life-cycle costs of reinforced concrete exposed to chlorides, American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, MI.
Tognazzi, C., Ollivier, J.-P., Carcasses, M., and Torrenti, J.-M. (1998). “Coupling chemical - cracking degradation of cementitious materials: First outcomes on transfer properties.” Ouvrages, ge´omate ´riaux et interactions, C. Petit, G. Pijaudier-Cabot, and J. M. Reynouard, eds., Herme´s, Paris, 69–84 (in French).
Torquato, S. (2002). Random heterogeneous materials: Microstructure and macroscopic properties, Vol. 16, Springer, New York.
Van Genuchten, M. T. (1980). “A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils.” Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 44(5), 892–898.
Wang, K., Jansen, D. C., Shah, S. P., and Karr, A. F. (1997). “Permeability study of cracked concrete.” Cement Concrete Res., 27(3), 381–393.
Wang, Z., Feyen, J., Genuchten, M. T., and Nielsen, D. R. (1998). “Air entrapment effects on infiltration rate and flow instability.” Water Resour. Res., 34(2), 213–222.
Weiss, W. J. (1999). “Prediction of early-age shrinkage cracking in concrete elements.” Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL.
Wiens, U., Meng, B., Schroeder, P., and Schiessl, P. (1997). “Micro-cracking in high-performance concrete-from model to the effect on concrete properties.” Self-desiccation and its importance on concrete technology, B. Persson and G. Fagerlund, eds., Lund Institute of Technology, Lund Univ., Lund, Sweden, 193–208.
Witherspoon, P. A., Wang, J. S. Y., Iwai, K., and Gale, J. E. (1980). “Validity of cubic law for fluid flow in a deformable rock fracture.” Water Resour. Res., 16(6), 1016–1024.
Wittke, W. (1990). Rock mechanics: Theory and applications, with case histories, Springer, New York.
Yang, Z. (2004). “Assessing cumulative damage in concrete and quantifying its influence on life cycle performance modeling.” Ph.D. thesis, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN.
Yang, Z., Weiss, W. J., and Olek, J. (2006). “Water transport in concrete damaged by tensile loading and freeze-thaw cycling.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 424–434.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 27 • Issue 9 • September 2015
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 6, 2014
Accepted: Sep 30, 2014
Published online: Nov 5, 2014
Discussion open until: Apr 5, 2015
Published in print: Sep 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.