Modeling of the Influence of Transverse Cracking on Chloride Penetration into Concrete

Published

April 23, 2013

Author(s)

Dale P. Bentz, Edward J. Garboczi, Yang Lu, Nicos Martys, Aaron R. Sakulich, William J. Weiss

Abstract

Concrete service life models have proliferated in recent years due to increased interest in designing infrastructure elements with at least a 75-year service life, along with greater emphasis on life cycle costing in general. While current models consider a variety of concrete material and environmental factors, at varying levels of complexity, in predicting the time until the onset of chloride-induced corrosion of the steel reinforcement, the influence of cracking is generally beyond their current scope. This paper presents a preliminary strategy for examining the influence of transverse cracking on chloride ion penetration into concrete that includes a graphical approach for adjusting the predicted service life provided by current models to reflect this influence. Comparison to experimental data indicates that the contributions of binding of the chloride ions by the cement paste play a significant role in slowing the ingress of chlorides and should be accounted for in any modeling efforts.

Citation

Cement and Concrete Composites

Volume

38

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2013.03.003

Keywords

Binding, chloride diffusion, corrosion, service life, transverse cracking.

Citation

Bentz, D. , Garboczi, E. , Lu, Y. , Martys, N. , Sakulich, A. and Weiss, W. (2013), Modeling of the Influence of Transverse Cracking on Chloride Penetration into Concrete, Cement and Concrete Composites, [online], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2013.03.003 (Accessed October 17, 2025)