Numerical Simulation of the Interaction Between Chemical and Mechanical Damage for Cementitious Materials

Abstract

The degradation of the existing cementitious material infrastructures subject to aggressive aqueous solutions is simulated by a numerical method, which consists of two main mechanisms: chemical and mechanical degradation. The reactive transport model is adopted to simulate the diffusion and reaction of aggressive ion species within cement matrix. The process of chemical degradation is described as the dissolution of cement minerals, and subsequently reflected in the porosity change. The residual mechanical performance of the degraded cementitious material is evaluated by a non-local displacement damage model. The interaction between the chemical degradation and mechanical properties is demonstrated by a simple 1D example in a staggered manner.