Lattice modeling of rapid chloride migration in concrete

Test methods which use external voltage are commonly used to assess resistance of concrete to chloride ion penetration. In order to facilitate fast chloride ingress, electrical voltage (typically 10–60 V) is applied across the concrete specimen. These methods have also been used on microcracked and cracked specimens in order to study the influence of cracking on chloride ingress. Chloride migration transport mechanism is fundamentally different from the diffusion process usually occurring in practice. To study the behavior during the test, a model is proposed, based on the transport lattice modeling framework. First, the accuracy and computational aspects of the proposed model are discussed. Then, the model is applied to study the transport in heterogeneous concrete (i.e. on the meso-scale). Also, chloride migration in microcracked, notched, and cracked concrete is simulated. The findings show that the proposed model can successfully reproduce experimentally observed behavior.