Electrolyte transport in fracturing porous materials such as concrete is strongly influenced by the complex and random topological structure of the pore space, the state of distributed micro- cracks inevitably caused by autogenous and drying shrinkage of concrete and finally…
Electrolyte transport in fracturing porous materials such as concrete is strongly influenced by the complex and random topological structure of the pore space, the state of distributed micro- cracks inevitably caused by autogenous and drying shrinkage of concrete and finally by propagating cracks caused by various loading conditions. Information on macroscopic diffusion properties of the intact concrete requires up-scaling of transport processes within nano- and micro-pores over sev- eral spatial scales. The macroscopic transport coefficients are computed using a cascade continuum micromechanics model. The cascade continuum micromechanics model recursively embeds shape information in the form of the ESHELBY matrix-inclusion problem to obtain the homogenized ef- fective diffusivity as a function of a perturbation index and the porosity. The effects of the micro- structure on the transport properties are characterized by porosity dependent short range and long range inter-phase interactions. To take into consideration the effects of oriented, diffusely distributed micro-cracks on electrolyte diffusion properties, the homogenization scheme for electrolyte diffusion in intact concrete is enhanced by representing micro-cracks as additional ellipsoidal inclusions within the aforementioned homogenized porous matrix. Finally, the effect of propagating macro-cracks on thediffusionprocessistakenintoconsiderationbyweaklycouplingthediffusionmodelandafracture energy based staggered phase-field model to simulate brittle fracture.