Modeling and Experimental Validation of MCI Transport Involving Pore-Blocking Effect in Cement-Based Materials

Abstract

A mathematical model for the transport process of migrating corrosion inhibitor (MCI) in cement-based material and a two-dimensional numerical solution method using commercially-available software are proposed. The numerical analysis results are in a good agreement with experimental data obtained from the two-dimensional absorption tests for nonreactive MCI but do not coincide with the data for reactive MCI. The reason behind may be that the latter reacted with calcium hydroxide (CH) in cement mortar and hindered the transport process. Therefore a modified transport model involving the pore-blocking effect of reactive MCI in cement-based materials is established according to the chemometrics method. The numerical and test results prove that the amendatory model is reasonable to understand the mass transfer of reactive MCI in cement mortar. Variance analyses of the factors in the model are also performed to find the key factor affecting the MCI transport process. A basic transport model and numerical analysis method of MCI in concrete is proposed. The model is corrected involving pore-blocking effect for reactive MCI based on chemical metrology. The numerical calculation results of the proposed model have a fine agreement with experimental results.