Title:
Predicting Concrete Permeability for Service Life Models
Author(s):
Bruno Fong Martinez
Publication:
Web Session
Volume:
ws_F23_BrunoFongMartinez.pdf
Issue:
Appears on pages(s):
Keywords:
DOI:
Date:
10/29/2023
Abstract:
Concrete permeability is a key input in service life models. Rapid and industry-wide changes to cementitious materials pose challenges in accurately predicting this property, as default values from decades of literature are no longer reliable. Critical infrastructure projects now often require 100-year or greater service lives to address sustainability and resiliency concerns. Qualifying and modeling a new 100-year concrete mixture typically takes 3-4 months, significantly shorter than its intended service life. This presentation will showcase permeability data from large-scale construction projects, highlighting changing patterns, disparities between measured and expected values, risks of accelerated and alternate testing, and a new systematic approach to predict permeability. The figure below includes sample permeability values at various ages. The data are used to calculate aging exponents (a), estimating the rate of permeability reduction over time. The observed variability between measured and expected aging exponents has a profound effect on the predicted service life.