Gas leakage rate through reinforced concrete shear walls: Numerical study

Unlined reinforced concrete shear walls are often used as ‘tertiary boundaries’ in the United States Department of Energy (DOE) to house dangerous gases. An unanticipated event, such as an earthquake, may cause gases stored inside the walls to disperse into the environment resulting in excess pollution. To address this concern, in this paper, a methodology to numerically predict the gas leakage rate through these shear walls under lateral loading conditions is proposed. This methodology involves finite element and flow rate analysis. Strain distributions are obtained from the finite element analysis, and then used to simulate the crack characteristics on the concrete specimen. The flow rate through the damaged concrete specimen is then estimated using flow rate formulas available from the literature. Results from an experimental specimen are used to evaluate the methodology, and particularly its robustness in the flow rate estimation.