Modeling boundary and edge effect of chloride diffusion for durability design of concrete structures exposed in marine environment

Abstract

According to the Fick’s second law of diffusion, six analytical solutions of chloride profile in concrete were studied and discussed with regard to different boundary and initial conditions. In those analytical solutions, the most prevailing error-function solution which is based on semi-infinite assumption is the simple one, but may under-estimate the chloride content in concrete and over-rate the life time prediction of concrete structures. The experimental results show that compared with other solutions, the chloride content in concrete predicted by error-function model is the minimum, and the calculation difference produced by different analytical models should not be ignored. The influence of models on chloride content prediction is more than other environment and material coefficients in some time. In order to get a more realistic prediction model, modification to error-function model is suggested based on analysis and calculation examples concerning the boundary and edge effect.