Phase-field method for modeling non-uniform corrosion-induced cracking in concrete

Abstract

Non-uniform corrosion of rebar leads to the cracking of the concrete cover, which reduces the reliability of structures and increases maintenance costs. In this paper, we present a coupled phase-field model at the mesoscale to investigate the time-dependent process of non-uniform corrosion-induced cover cracking. This model couples chloride and oxygen diffusion, electrochemical reaction, and concrete cover cracking. A time-dependent non-uniform corrosion model is established based on chloride diffusion and electrochemical theory by considering the cracking effect. The cracking behavior of the concrete cover is described using a phase-field regularized cohesive zone model. The model was verified against several experiments available in the literature. Parametric studies were conducted to observe the effects of the crack and chloride diffusion coefficient, the interaction between the corrosion of multiple rebars, and the crack characteristics in three dimensions.