Numerical modelling on coupled behavior of calcium leaching and chloride transport in cement-based materials by considering ion desorption

Abstract

Concrete structures serving in water environment with rich chloride ions are subjected to the coupling action of calcium leaching and chloride corrosion. In this paper, a transport model of calcium and chloride ions coupled with the calcium solid-liquid equilibrium equation is proposed to simulate the behavior of calcium leaching and chloride penetration in concrete. In the model, the effect of free chloride ions bound by solid calcium and the release of bound chloride ions caused by the dissolution of solid calcium is considered. Secondly, the model is numerically solved by using the finite difference method of Crank-Nicolson scheme. Then, the experimental data of porosity and calcium silicon ratio, chloride concentration are compared to the calculated results to validate the model. Finally, a numerical simulation is conducted to analyze the evolution of ion concentration, solid calcium content and porosity of cement paste slice exposed to deionized water and accelerated dissolution solution. The results show that, the concentration of calcium ion decreases with corrosion time, while that of chloride ion increases. There are concentration gradient distributions of calcium and chloride ions in the slice. The higher the concentration of accelerated dissolution solution, the larger the porosity of cement paste and the higher the concentration of chloride ions in the paste. It indicates that, the calcium leaching accelerates the chloride penetration into concrete. In addition, the dissolution process of solid calcium, i.e. calcium hydroxide first dissolves followed by C-S-H gel, are presented.