Diffusion of Multi-Ionic Species in Recycled Aggregate Concrete

In recent years, recycled aggregate concrete has been used in reinforced concrete structures. Concrete structures exposed to chloride environment often encounter a premature deterioration due to corrosion of steel reinforcement. In order to avoid unplanned maintenances or repairs, it is necessary to develop a reliable prediction model for the chloride diffusion in concrete. The basic formulation of the transport theory will be presented first and then its application to Recycled Aggregate Concrete (RAC) will follow. Chloride diffusion in RAC is different from the diffusion in regular concrete, because the material parameters of RAC such as chloride diffusion coefficient are different from those of regular concrete. In this paper, a multi-scale and multi-phase model will be developed to characterize the internal structure of the recycled aggregate with a layer of residual cement paste on the surface of natural aggregate and another layer of surface treatment material on the surface of the residual cement paste. The multi-scale and multi-phase model will also be used to characterize the chloride diffusion coefficient of RAC. The numerical analysis of the diffusion equations is performed by using finite element method.