Influence of Mechanically Induced Cracking on Chloride Ingress in Concrete
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 29, Issue 9
Abstract
While significant research has been performed to assess the transport properties of concrete, a vast majority of previous research has focused on behavior in undamaged concrete. This paper describes an investigation to assess the influence of a mechanically induced crack on chloride ingress. Tapered cracks were generated in specimens using a wedge splitting test. The specimens were then used to assess: (1) the chloride ingress, and (2) the physical size of the crack using fluorescent epoxy impregnation. This paper describes the results of concretes that were made with three water-to-cement ratios (w/cs) (0.30, 0.42, and 0.50) and three different maximum aggregate sizes (4, 8, and 16 mm). The results indicate that chloride transport in relatively small cracks can be influenced by the mixture composition (w/c and aggregate size) because this influences the tortuosity of the crack. However, as the width of the crack increases the crack begins to behave as a free surface and the influence of w/c is much less important.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the Knud Højgaard Foundation, Denmark and the National Science Foundation (Grant No. 0134272) for the financial support of J. Weiss during his stay at the Technical University of Denmark in 2004/2005. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
References
ASTM. (2004). “Standard test method for compressive strength of cylindrical concrete specimens.” ASTM C39-04, West Conshohocken, PA.
Audenaert, K., De Schutter, G., and Marsavina, L. (2007). “The influence of cracks on chloride penetration in concrete structures. I: Experimental evaluation.” Transport mechanisms in cracked concrete, Acco Leuven, Ghent, Belgium, 35–43.
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.” Cem. Concr. Compos., 38, 65–74.
Blagojevic, A., Koleva, D. A., and Walraven, J. C. (2014). “The influence of cracks on chloride induced corrosion of reinforced concrete structures—Development of experimental setup.” Young Researchers Forum II: Construction Materials, Univ. College London, London.
Djerbi, A., Bonnet, S., Khelidj, A., and Baroghel-Bouny, V. (2008). “Influence of traversing crack on chloride diffusion in concrete.” Cem. Concr. Res., 38(6), 877–883.
Ehlen, M. A., and Anthony, N. K. (2014). “Life-365 service life prediction model and computer program for predicting the service life and life-cycle cost of reinforced concrete exposed to chlorides.” Concr. Int., 36(5), 41–44.
Fagerlund, G. (1997). “On the service life of concrete exposed to frost action.” Freeze and thaw durability of concrete, J. Marchand, M. Pigeon, and M. Setzer, eds., E & FN Spon, London, 23–41.
Farnam, Y., Geiker, M. R., Bentz, D., and Weiss, J. (2015). “Acoustic emission waveform characterization of crack origin and mode in fractured and ASR damaged concrete.” Cem. Concr. Compos., 60, 135–145.
fib (International Federation for Structural Concrete). (2013). Model code for concrete structures 2010, Wiley, Weinheim, Germany.
François, R., and Arliguie, G. (1998). “Influence of service cracking on reinforcement steel corrosion.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 14–20.
Hall, C., and Hoff, W. D. (2002). Water transport in brick, stone and concrete, Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FL.
Ismail, M., Toumi, A., Francois, R., and Gagne, R. (2008). “Effect of crack opening on the local diffusion of chloride in cracked mortar samples.” Cem. Concr. Res., 38(8–9), 1106–1111.
Marsavina, L., Audenaert, K., De Schutter, G., Faur, N., and Marsavina, D. (2009). “Experimental and numerical determination of the chloride penetration in cracked concrete.” Constr. Build. Mater., 23(1), 264–274.
Østergaard, L. (2003). “Early age fracture mechanics and cracking of concrete: Experiments and modeling.”, Univ. of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Pease, B., Geiker, M., Stang, H., and Weiss, J. (2011). “The design of an instrumented rebar for assessment of corrosion in cracked reinforced concrete.” Mater. Struct., 44(7), 1259–1271.
Pour-Ghaz, M., Rajabipour, F., Couch, J., and Weiss, J. (2009). “Numerical and experimental assessment of unsaturated fluid transport in saw-cut (notched) concrete elements.” Spec. Publ., 266, 73–86.
Qi, C., Weiss, J., and Olek, J. (2003). “Characterization of plastic shrinkage cracking in fiber reinforced concrete using image analysis and a modified Weibull function.” Mater. Struct., 36(6), 386–395.
Raoufi, K., and Weiss, W. J. (2012). “Corrosion and service life estimates for internally cured concrete.” Spec. Publ., 290, 1–16.
Reinhardt, H. W. (1997). “Penetration and permeability of concrete.”, E & FN Spon, London.
Rodriguez, O. G., and Hooton, R. D. (2003). “Influence of cracks on chloride ingress into concrete.” ACI Mater. J., 100(2), 120–126.
Schiessl, P., and Raupach, M. (1997). “Laboratory studies and calculations on the influence of crack width on chloride-induced corrosion of steel in concrete.” ACI Mater. J., 94(1), 56–61.
Skoček, J., and Stang, H. (2010). “Application of optical deformation analysis system on wedge splitting test and its inverse analysis.” Mater. Struct., 43(S1), 63–72.
STADIUM [Computer software]. SIMCO Technologies, Quebec.
Tang, L., Nilsson, L.-O., and Basheer, P. A. M. (2011). Resistance of concrete to chloride ingress: Testing and modeling, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.
Walter, R., Østergaard, L., Olesen, J. F., and Stang, H. (2005). “Wedge splitting test for a steel-concrete interface.” Eng. Fract. Mech., 72(17), 2565–2583.
Wang, K., Jansen, D. C., Shah, S. P., and Karr, A. F. (1997). “Permeability study of cracked concrete.” Cem. Concr. Res., 27(3), 381–393.
Weiss, W. J., Geiker, M. R., and Hansen, K. K. (2015). “Using X-ray transmission/attenuation to quantify fluid absorption in cracked concrete.” Int. J. Mater. Struct. Integrity, 9(1–3), 3–20.
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 Univ., Lund, Sweden, 193–208.
Yang, Z., Weiss, J., and Olek, J. (2007). “Water absorption in partially saturated fracture concrete.” RILEM Workshop: Transport Mechanisms in Cracked Concrete, RILEM, Paris.
Yang, Z., Weiss, W. J., and Olek, J. (2005). “Using acoustic emission for the detection of damage caused by tensile loading and its impact on the freeze-thaw resistance of concrete.” Int. Conf. on Construction Materials: ConMat 2005, UBC Press, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Yang, Z., Weiss, W. J., and Olek, J. (2006). “Water transport in concrete damaged by tensile loading and freeze-thaw cycling.” J. Mater. Civil Eng., 424–434.
Yoon, S., Schlangen, E., de Rooij, M. R., and van Breugel, K. (2007). “The effect of cracks on chloride penetration into concrete.” Key Eng. Mater., 348–349, 769–772.
Yoon, S., Wang, K., Weiss, W. J., and Shah, S. P. (2000). “Interaction between loading, corrosion, and serviceability of reinforced concrete.” ACI Mater. J., 97(6), 637–644.
Zhang, R., Casel, A., and Francois, R. (2010). “Concrete cover cracking with reinforcement corrosion of RC beam during chloride induced corrosion process.” Cem. Concr. Res., 40(3), 415–425.
Zhou, Y., Cohen, M. D., and Dolch, W. L. (1995). “Effect of external loads on the frost-resistant properties of mortar with and without silica fume.” ACI Mater. J., 91(6), 595–601.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 29 • Issue 9 • September 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 4, 2014
Accepted: Dec 22, 2016
Published online: May 16, 2017
Published in print: Sep 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Oct 16, 2017
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.