Analytical Solutions of Ionic Diffusion and Heat Conduction in Multilayered Porous Media

Abstract

Ionic diffusion and heat conduction in a multiple layered porous medium have many important engineering applications. One of the examples is the chloride ions from deicers penetrating into concrete structures such as bridge decks. Different overlays can be placed on top of concrete surface to slowdown the chloride penetration. In this paper, the chloride ion diffusion equations were established for concrete structures with multiple layers of protective system. By using Laplace transformation, an analytical solution was developed first for chloride concentration profiles in two-layered system and then extended to multiple layered systems with nonconstant boundary conditions, including the constant boundary and linear boundary conditions. Because ionic diffusion in saturated media and heat conduction are governed by the same form of partial differential equations with different materials parameters, the analytical solution was further extended to handle heat conduction in a multiple layered system under nonconstant boundary conditions. The numerical results were compared with available test data. The basic trends of the analytical solution and the test data agreed quite well.