MULTISCALE MODELLING SCHEME FOR PREDICTING SERVICE LIFE OF REINFORCED CONCRETE STRUCTURES-A CASE STUDY

摘要

Service life prediction with respect to chloride-induced corrosion of reinforcing steel is one of main concerns in the design or cost-efficient repair of reinforced concrete structures exposed to marine environments.This paper presents a multiscale modelling scheme for estimating the chloride diffusivity in cementitious materials and the service life of concrete structures that accounts for both changing microstructure of the concrete due to cement hydration and chloride binding, and environmental conditions.A case study is presented to demonstrate the potential of the proposed multiscale modelling scheme for service life prediction.The simulation results are compared with those obtained using the DuraCrete model.The comparison indicates the predicted service life based on DuraCrete model is generally substantially shorter than that estimated using the approach in this study.