Chloride ingress in cracked concrete

First simulation of chloride penetration in cracked concrete has been performed. A specimen (top) has been subjected to tension (below it-cracked elements after 15000 steps). Subsequently, it has been subjected to chlorides from the left side. Below are the chloride profiles at 30, 90, 180, 365, and 730 days, respectively. Till next time!

RCM test

Rapid chloride migration testing is increasingly used in practice to assess the chloride resistance characteristics of a concrete mix. It is fast and simple, and can be performed with no fancy equipment whatsoever. Standardized as NT BUILD 492 in Scandinavia, it is also increasingly popular in the Netherlands. But, is there a faster way of testing? Well, of course there is: a numerical simulation! If we could simulate the test, different concrete mixes could be tried and the best one chosen. The first simulation of the test is here. Enjoy!

Here is the comparison of our simulations with some experimental data from the literature:

Wedge splitting test

Wedge splitting test is a simple test often used in fracture mechanics. Some trial tests were perfomed in the Microlab last week. Here is the result:

Courtesy of our very own (official Microlab) photography maestro CA:

Fracture simulation Brazilian splitting

Here is a video of (tensile) stresses which develop in a homogeneous specimen during the Brazilin splitting, predicted by the lattice model. Enjoy!