Experimental and Simulation Study on Diffusion Behavior of Chloride Ion in Cracking Concrete and Reinforcement Corrosion

A chloride ion is a key factor affecting durability of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. In order to investigate chloride migration in cracked concrete, considering the mesoscopic heterogeneity of concrete, concrete modeled here is treated as a four-phase composite consisting aggregate, mortar, crack, and interfacial transition zone (ITZ). In this paper, two-dimensional finite element models of cracked concrete with different crack widths and crack quantity are established and the control parameters are determined based on the nonsteady-state chloride migration (NSSCM) test. In addition, based on the concrete finite element models, influences of crack width, crack quantity, and erosion time on chloride migration behaviors and characteristics are studied. Furthermore, a prediction model of chloride concentration on the simulated surface of a rebar in concrete influenced by different crack states is established. This model is used to derive the corrosion current density and corrosion depth prediction models of a rebar in this paper, which can be used by engineers to estimate the migration behaviors of chloride and rebar corrosion degree in RC structures in a short time and evaluate the duration of RC structures after knowing the status of cracks and chloride diffusion sources.