This paper presents experimental and numerical results to study the effect of chloride binding and the crack width on the chloride transport in reinforced concrete beams subjected to flexure load. Reinforced concrete beams loaded in flexure to generate cracks were…
This paper presents experimental and numerical results to study the effect of chloride binding and the crack width on the chloride transport in reinforced concrete beams subjected to flexure load. Reinforced concrete beams loaded in flexure to generate cracks were exposed to 8% of NaCl solution for three months. A crack influence function (F ) was developed to correlate the w crack width (w) and the ratio of chloride diffusion coefficient in the crack D to the chloride cr diffusion coefficient in sound concrete D . Results of numerical simulation using COMSOL was e seen to be in good agreement with the experimental results and thee mechanical behavior as well as the transport of the chloride in damaged RC beams was well predicted.