The gas permeability is an important indicator to assess the material's ability to prevent the ingress of aggressive chemical species. The presence of aggressive fluids and their transport is by far the most important factor controlling the durability of cement…
The gas permeability is an important indicator to assess the material's ability to prevent the ingress of aggressive chemical species. The presence of aggressive fluids and their transport is by far the most important factor controlling the durability of cement based composites. This paper presents an experimental study of gas permeability of ordinary concrete according to its saturation, because the hydric state of concrete conditions the transfer parameters such as permeability. Thus the world of aggressive penetration varies significantly depending on moisture content and its evolution over time. The experimental results concerning the measurement of gas permeability of concrete samples with different sizes and that of the degree of saturation by weighing and therefore mass loss measurements were performed. The analysis highlights the effect of saturation on the variation of the relative gas permeability of concrete stressing the specific attention to sample size (scale effect). Validation of the law of Van Genuchten based on Mualem’s model for porous media has been verified for our ordinary concrete (OC).