Determination of diffusivities of dissolved gases in saturated cement-based materials

Quoc Tri Phung, Norbert Maes, Diederik Jacques, Elke Jacops, Arno Grade, Geert De Schutter, Guang Ye

Research outputpeer-review

Abstract

This work describes a method to determine the diffusion coefficients of dissolved gases in saturated cement-based materials in order to study the effects of degradation on the transport properties. The method is based on a through-diffusion methodology and allows simultaneous determination of diffusivi-ties of two dissolved gases diffusing in opposite directions. A cement plug is mounted between two water reservoirs pressurized by two different gases at equal pressure (∼1 MPa) to avoid advection. The changes in the dissolved gas concentration (at the opposite sides) are measured indirectly via gaseous phases which are in equilibrium with aqueous phases according to Henry's law. Additionally, a simple 1-D diffusive transport model is developed to interpret the experimental data. Experiments were performed on intact and carbonated cement (CEM I) paste samples with a gas com-bination: He and Xe. The results showed that the proposed method is providing reliable results within a reasonable experimental time and is useful to study the effects of degradation on the transport properties of cementitious materials. Carbonation resulted in a lower diffusivity.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationConcrete Repair, Rehabilitation and Retrofitting IV
Place of PublicationLondon, United Kingdom
Pages1019-1027
StatePublished - Jan 2016
EventICCRRR 2015 - International Conference on Concrete Repair, Rehabilitation and Retrofitting - MFPA Leipzig, Leipzig
Duration: 5 Oct 20157 Oct 2015

Conference

ConferenceICCRRR 2015 - International Conference on Concrete Repair, Rehabilitation and Retrofitting
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityLeipzig
Period2015-10-052015-10-07

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