Numerical Simulation of Corrosion-Induced Cracking of Concrete Considering Rust Penetration into Cracks
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 33, Issue 8
Abstract
Evaluation of the concrete cracking induced by rebar corrosion is necessary for accurately clarifying the durability and predicting the service life of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. The fact that rust penetration into cracks might decrease corrosion expansion has been realized but not sufficiently investigated. In this paper, a numerical approach in terms of the mesoscopic structure of concrete is used to simulate the corrosion-induced concrete cracking, and the lattice network model to account for rust penetration into cracks is developed by assuming that the movement of rust is driven by moisture convection. The total rust amount is calculated based on Faraday’s law, and the rust expansion is transformed to a radial displacement boundary condition for both uniform and nonuniform conditions. Rust penetration is assumed to be a convection process governed by Darcy’s law. The proposed model is confirmed by comparing cracking pattern, corrosion pressure, surface crack width, mass ratio of penetrated rust to total rust (), and volume ratio of cracks occupied by rust to total cracks () with available experimental and numerical results. It is found that the distribution and the amount of penetrated rust are closely related to the volume of cracks and the connection of crack networks. Besides, through sensitivity analysis of influencing factors for rust penetration, it is found that a higher dissolved degree of rust in moisture induces a higher , but it doesn’t influence . A larger relative water content at the concrete-steel interface will induce higher and , while the initial relative water content in concrete has no significant difference on either or .
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Data Availability Statement
Most data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article, and more detailed data are available from the corresponding author on request.
Acknowledgments
This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51378090), the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, No. 2015CB057703) and the Opening Project of State Key Laboratory of Green Building Materials (2018). Their supports are gratefully acknowledged.
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Received: Sep 27, 2018
Accepted: Nov 25, 2020
Published online: May 24, 2021
Published in print: Aug 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Oct 24, 2021
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