International Conference on Microstructure Related Durability of Cementitious Composites

Abstract

A sensitivity analysis of the parameters involved in a multiionic reactive transport model that can be used, among other applications, to predict chloride ingress in concrete structures is presented. The analysis is based on the calculation of the elasticity of each parameter using a rigorous mathematical method. It was performed for two different test cases. The first concerns the penetration of chloride ions in saturated concrete during a simple ponding experiment while the second one involves the influence of wetting and drying cycles on chloride ingress. The analysis indicates that porosity and tortuosity (i.e. ionic diffusion coefficients) are the material parameters which have the most important impact on the model predictions. Boundary conditions were also found to have a significant influence on the output of the model. On the other hand, simulations were found to be much less affected by parameters such as the initial pore solution chemistry and the initial solid phase content of the hydrated cement paste