Procedure to Interpret Electrical Conductivity Measurements in Cover Concrete during Rewetting

Abstract

This paper discusses the interpretation of electrical conductivity measurements in concrete to assess water penetration. Specifically, a series of finite element simulations were performed to develop an analytical function that relates the measured electrical conductivity to the position of the moisture front inside a concrete specimen. The effects of specimen size and electrode location were considered in the simulations. An approach is demonstrated whereby the measured conductivity was used to determine the position of the moisture front after rewetting thereby enabling the sorption properties of the cover concrete to be evaluated. The method described in this paper improves on previous approaches in that it enables resolving the position of moisture front based on only one electrical measurement and properties of the saturated and unsaturated concrete. This allows the use of one electrode pair to detect the position of moisture front at any time a measurement is performed.