CORROSION INDUCED CRACKING OF REINFORCED CONCRETE

Abstract. In this work a hygro-mechanical approach to modelling corrosion induced cracking is pro-posed. A coupled transport and mechanical lattice model based on Delaunay and Voronoi tessellations is used to model the penetration of corrosion products into a concrete specimen. The penetration of the corrosion products into the concrete is described by constitutive laws developed for mass transport through porous materials. The cracking caused by the penetration of corrosion products is modelled by the mechanical lattice using a damage mechanics constitutive law. The coupled approach is ver-ified by comparison of the numerical results with the analytical solution of an elastic thick-walled permeable cylinder, which has been derived in the present work. Then, the coupled model is applied to the analysis of corrosion induced cracking. The results of the new approach are compared to those of a purely mechanical approach for an impermeable material.