Electrically driven ionic transport in the RCM and RIM: Investigations based on experiments and numerical simulations

Abstract

In this work, the rapid chloride migration test (RCM) and the rapid iodide migration test (RIM) were utilized to investigate ionic transport in concrete with the aid of an externally applied electric field. Unlike most existing work, this study establishes computational models of ionic transport in chloride-contaminated and chloride-free concrete. The model is validated by the consistency between the numerical and experimental chloride profiles. It is found that the chloride migration depth in the RCM test is obviously affected, and the results for chloride-contaminated concrete are 50% larger compared with those for chloride-free concrete. However, the difference between the two kinds of concretes is only 5% when measured using the RIM test. Thus, the results of the RIM test are more accurate and provide a better choice for applications to characterization of chloride-contaminated concrete.