International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) - volume4 Issue5May 2013

ISSN: 2231-2803 http://www.ijcttjournal.org Page 1446

Analysis of the chloride ion erosion in flexural
cracked beam and its durability service life
CUI Zhao-wei
#1
, LU Chun-hua
#2
, LIU Rong-gui
#3
, HU Bai-xiang
#4
# Faculty of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China

AbstractBased on the influence of flexural crack on the chloride ion erosion of concrete beams, an equivalent chloride diffusion
model is built, which is verified by drying-wetting cycles and cracking load coupling test. Considering effects of crack, ash and time,
the advanced calculation model of equivalent diffusion coefficient of chloride ions is achieved. The service life of concrete structures is
predicted on basis of the Monte Carlo method, regarding steel corrosion starting as durability limit state of concrete structures.
Failure probability of different cracked concrete structures under chloride salt drying-wetting cycles are analyzed, and based on the
influence of steel corrosion starting under different concrete cover thickness and the ratio of concrete, the durability life prediction is
obtained, which could provide certain reference for service life assessment of actual projects.

Key words flexural cracked, chloride ion erosion, equivalent chloride diffusion coefficient, drying-wetting cycles, durability service
life prediction
I. INTRODUCTION
Steel corrosion is one of the most important reasons
which caused the durability problem of concrete structures,
and chlorine ion from the marine environment and deicing
salt mainly arouse steel corrosion [1]. Meanwhile, the
stress of RC structures is usually in different state, under
the common actions of the load and the environment. It is
necessary to study the durability of Marine cracked
concrete structures.
In recent years, domestic and foreign scholars have
carried out some experimental research and theoretical
analysis about chloride ion erosion mechanism of
cracked/damaged concrete, which has made
unprecedented development [2]. Djerbi et al [3], Kwon et
al [4], Zhang et al [5] studied the influence of penetrating
cracks to the chloride ion penetration in concrete
specimens, such as split crack, shrinkage crack and
pre-crack. They found that cracks (above 0.1 mm) would
speed up the diffusion rate of chloride ions, and approved
that for the surface of cracked concrete there is a function
relationship between the chloride diffusion coefficient and
crack width. Whereas the flexural crack, the main crack of
concrete members is different from these cracks, the width
of which is decreasing from the surface to the inside of
concrete. So the affection of the two types of cracks on
the chloride ion diffusion is distinguished, which has been
studied at present. Gowripalan et al [6] analyzed the
chloride diffusion in different stressed zones of concrete,
and found that the coefficient of chloride diffusion is
maximum. At the same time, literature [6, 7, and 8] put
forward that the mechanism of chloride transport in
cracked concrete should be further studied.
The objective of this paper is to develop an analytical
model considering effects of crack, ash and time, which is
verified by drying-wetting cycles and cracking load
coupling test. The service life of concrete structures is
predicted on basis of the Monte Carlo method, and the
durability life prediction is obtained, which could provide
certain reference for service life assessment of actual
projects.
II. MODELS FOUNDATION
Chlorides transport of structural concrete has been
widely discussed, which is supposed to a coupled action
of diffusion, convection, electromagnetic migration, and
so on. For a long time, scholars have adopted Ficks 2nd
law [9, 10] to express the chloride ion diffusion for the
sake of simplification to the form. In view of results of the
literature [11, 12], convention mainly occurs in the
surface of concrete under the chloride salt drying and
wetting cycles. Imitating Yu et al. [13], the
one-dimensional diffusion equation of chloride ion
transport within convection region is as follows:
( )
t t
C C
D x x x
t x x
c c c (
' = = A
(
' ' c c c


(1)
Where C
t
is the chloride ion concentration (expressed by
mass % of concrete), C
t
=C
f
+C
b
=(1+R) C
f
; R is chloride
International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) - volume4 Issue5May 2013

ISSN: 2231-2803 http://www.ijcttjournal.org Page 1447

binding ability coefficient [13]; x is the depth of
convection region; D is the chloride diffusion coefficient,
not considering the influence of the chloride ion
concentration, which is calculated according to type (2).
( )
0
0
m
t
D t D
t
| |
=
|
\ .

(2)
Where m is the attenuation index of diffusion coefficient,
associated with gelled material types and environmental
conditions [1, 10].
Based on the literature [4], comprehensive effect
coefficient K is introduced to describe the influence of
two factors (the width of crack and the content of ash) on
the equivalent chloride diffusion coefficient, D
eq
(t),
which can be expressed as follows:
( ) ( )
eq 0
t t D K D =
(3)
Where, D
0
(t) is the chloride diffusion coefficient for
sound concrete at time t.
Taking account of the binding ability, age exponent
and effect coefficient together and assuming C
0
to be zero,
fixed model of the chloride ion diffusion based on Ficks
2nd law can be expressed as:
( )
( )
( )( )
eq
, 1 erf
2
1 1
f s
x x
C x t C
D t
t
R m
( | |
( |
( | A
=
( |
( |
( |
+
\ .

(4)
Where, C
s
is the surface chloride ion concentration of
diffusion area; erf is the error function; According to
CCES 01-2004[14], for Portland cement m=0.37; for fly
ash m=0.93; According to the literature [14], for Mixed
mineral admixture of concrete R=3~5; for ordinary
concrete R =2~4.
III. EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
Ordinary Portland (grade 42.5) cement and fly ash
(grade II) were used, and the crushed coarse aggregate
and river sand were adopted in this experiment. The
maximum size of coarse aggregate was 25 mm and the
fineness modulus of sand was 1.62. The concrete grade is
C30.Their detailed mixtures of standard blocks are listed
in Table 1.
150 mm180 mm1000 mmRC beams with cover
thickness of 30 mm were prepared. The layout of beams is
shown as Fig.1. Two beams were self-anchored mutually
through adjusting the bolts step by step, and then cracks of
the surface gradually appeared, which were measured by
the BJ QF-A crack apparatus as shown in Fig. 2. Then put
the cracked beams into the solution pool with 5% NaCl, in
order to imitate the splash zone of marine concrete. After
15 cycles, concrete powders at the sound and cracked
sections were obtained and determined the free chloride
concentration by rapid chloride testing (RCT) method.
TABLE 1 MIXTURES AND PROPERTIES OF CONCRETES (kgm
-3
)
w/c Water
Cement materials
Sand
Coarse
aggregate Cement Fly ash f
0.43 185 429 0 0 536 1250
0.385 185 408 72 15% 635 1100
0.385 185 336 144 30% 635 1100


Fig.1 Layout of the RC beams (mm)

Fig.2 Specimens with flexural cracks
IV. MODIFIED EQUIVALENT CHLORIDE ION DIFFUSION
COEFFICIENT MODEL
According to the formula (4), the equivalence
diffusion coefficient of ordinary concrete and fly ash
concrete are obtained with Matlab data fitting tool. Here,
exponential function has been chosen to fit the
relationship between K and w and f, as shown in Fig.3.
International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) - volume4 Issue5May 2013

ISSN: 2231-2803 http://www.ijcttjournal.org Page 1448

( ) ( )
2.757 6.834
eq
6.83e
w f
D t D t

=

(5)


Fig.3 Fitting results
V. ANALYSIS OF DURABILITY SERVICE LIFE
Regarding starting of steel corrosion as durability limit
state of concrete structures, the limit state function Z (t)
can be expressed as:
cr,
( ) ( , )
f f
z t C C x t = (6)
Where, C
cr,f
is the threshold of chloride concentration near
steel; C
f
(x,t) is calculated according to the formula(4) and
(5). Exposed to a certain time, the probability of starting
corrosion P
i
(t) and the time T
i
are obtained from the
formula (7) and (8) respectively.
,
( ) [ ( , )]
i cr f f
P t P C C c t = s (7)
] ) ( [
max , i i i
P t P T > =

(8)
The service life of marine concrete exposed in dry-wet
cycles has been forecasted with the aid of Matlab adopting
the Monte Carlo method. This article takes the failure
probability 10% as the predictive value, specific described
as follows.
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
t/years
P
i (
t
)
w=0mm w=0.05mm w=0.1mm w=0.2mm w=0.3mm

Fig 4 Probability of corrosion initiation of
reinforcement in cracked concrete
(1) Choose cover thickness 65 mm, content of fly ash
15% .The life prediction is analyzed under different crack
width, which can be seen from Fig.4. Cracks make the
time of corrosion initiation in advance clearly. When the
crack width is less than 0.2 mm, the time is brought
forward to 70.8%, but still above 35 years; if more than
0.2 mm, less than a decade.
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
t/years
P
i (
t
)
w=0mmc=70mm w=0.2mmc=70mm w=0mmc=65mm
w=0.2mmc=65mm w=0mmc=60mm w=0.2mmc=60mm

Fig.5 Probability of corrosion initiation in
cracked different cover concrete
(2) Choose crack width 0.2mm, content of fly ash
15%.With the development of crack width to 0.20 mm,
and the cover thickness from 70 mm to 60 mm, the
prediction of service life will reduce from 40 years to 25
years, corresponding to failure probability from69.2% to
75.0%.So the minimum cover thickness should kept
65mm when crack width is greater than 0.20 mm and the
design service life is more than 50 years.
International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) - volume4 Issue5May 2013

ISSN: 2231-2803 http://www.ijcttjournal.org Page 1449

0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
t/years
P
i (
t
)
w=0mmf=0% w=0.2mmf=0% w=0mmf=15%
w=0.2mmf=15% w=0mmf=30% w=0.2mmf=30%

Fig.6 Probability of corrosion initiation in
cracked different cover concrete
(3) Choose cover thickness 65 mm, crack width
0.2mm.According to the Fig.6, the right amount of fly ash
(0%~30%), can effectively extend the time of corrosion
initiation.
In order to meet the requirements of durability
performance for marine concrete, some suggestions based
on the prediction results using Monte Carlo method for its
durability design are as follows:1) The least cover
thickness should be more than 60mm; 2) the fly ash
content can be controlled between 15%~30%; 3) the
average crack width should be controlled to 0.2 mm.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
(1) Considering effects of crack, ash and time, the
advanced calculation model of equivalent diffusion
coefficient of chloride ions is achieved.
(2) The service life of concrete structures is predicted
on basis of the Monte Carlo method, regarding steel
corrosion starting as durability limit state of concrete
structures.
(3) The durability life prediction is obtained, which
could provide certain reference for service life assessment
of actual projects.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful to the finical supports from the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.
51278230), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No.
2012M511215) and High-grade Talent Programof J iangsu
University (No. 11J DG132).
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