Modeling of chloride diffusion in a hydrating concrete incorporating silica fume

Abstract

Silica fume has long been used as a mineral admixture to improve the durability and produce high strength and high performance concrete. And in marine and coastal environments, penetration of chloride ions is one of the main mechanisms causing concrete reinforcement corrosion. In this paper, we proposed a numerical procedure to predict the chloride diffusion in a hydrating silica fume blended concrete. This numerical procedure includes two parts: a hydration model and a chloride diffusion model. The hydration model starts with mix proportions of silica fume blended concrete and considers Portland cement hydration and silica fume reaction respectively. By using the hydration model, the evolution of properties of silica fume blended concrete is predicted as a function of curing age and these properties are adopted as input parameters for the chloride penetration model. Furthermore, based on the modeling of physicochemical processes of diffusion of chloride ion into concrete, the chloride distribution in silica fume blended concrete is evaluated. The prediction results agree well with experiment results of chloride ion concentrations in the hydrating concrete incorporating silica fume.