Concrete permeability size effect

Title: Concrete permeability size effect
Author(s): S. Dal Pont, M. Brocato, and A. Feraille
Paper category : conference
Book title: International RILEM Conference on Advances in Construction Materials Through Science and Engineering
Editor(s): Christopher Leung and K.T. WAN
ISBN: 978-2-35158-116-2
e-ISBN: 978-2-35158-117-9
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Publication year: 2011
Pages: 502 - 506
Total Pages: 5
Nb references: 5
Language: English

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to put forward the possibility that concrete permeability depends on the size of the specimen, i.e. intrinsic permeability measurements exhibit a size effect. It is well known that heterogeneity and size effect are aspects which are strictly correlated and which are usually taken into account when dealing with the mechanical behaviour of concrete. To the authors' knowledge, the possibility that the intrinsic permeability depends on the volume of the material is usually neglected or even ignored.
In this paper, a number of experimental test is presented in order to explore this possibility. Experiments were carried out on specimens of different sizes of an ultra high strength concrete heated at 523.15 K for 30 days. A first campaign was performed using a Cembureau permeameter, with silicon masks put on the sample's flat surfaces to reduce the percolated areas, while a second campaign was made on concrete hollow cylinders of 265 mm height and 350 mm external diameter. Further Cembureau tests were made to correlate the two campaigns. An inverse analysis is then exploited to estimate permeability starting from boundary data measured in experiments. A general analysis, based on the extreme value theory, supported the idea that a Frechet law should be adopted to describe the growth of permeability with the size of the crosssection of the flow. Though explorative in principle, our results lead to the conclusion that a size effect was observed.

Online publication: 2011-10-31
Publication type : full_text
Public price (Euros): 0.00