Resistivity and chloride diffusion coefficient of cement-based materials characterized by non-contact electrical resistivity method and resistivity model

Abstract

The present study involves the application of the non-contact electrical resistivity measurement (NC-ERM) as a non-destructive method to continuously and in-situ measure the resistivity changes of cement-based materials. The NC-ERM was enhanced and utilized to evaluate the resistivity of the materials, and the steady-state chloride diffusion coefficients of various types of cement-based materials were experimentally determined. The results revealed that the highest resistivity was observed in mortar with a sand-to-cement ratio of 1.0 and concrete with an aggregate-to-cement ratio of 0.6, and the steady-state chloride diffusion coefficient increased with the concentration of the pore solution. Furthermore, a novel multi-level series-parallel model was developed to predict the resistivity and steady-state chloride diffusion coefficient of cement-based materials, with calculated values differing by 5% or less. The calculated chloride diffusion coefficient closely matched the value obtained from NC-ERM, indicating the satisfactory accuracy of the non-destructive experiment and theoretical calculation model.