Moisture diffusivity of early age concrete considering temperature and porosity

Abstract

A series of experiments and numerical analyses have been carried out to derive a model of the moisture diffusion coefficient in concrete structures. The moisture diffusion coefficient generally depends on the relative humidity and temperature as well as the age of concrete, because microstructures of concrete develop with aging, especially in the early stage of aging. Therefore, the modified model of the moisture diffusion coefficient proposed here takes these three parameters into consideration. Experiments on moisture diffusion were performed to investigate the variation of the moisture diffusion coefficient with age and temperature under three temperature conditions (20, 50, and 80A degrees C). Based on the experimental results, a new model of the moisture diffusion coefficient considering the aging and temperature was developed by a numerical inverse analysis. As it considers porosity, humidity, and temperature, beyond the existing model for hardened concrete, the suggested diffusion coefficient model is applicable to early age concrete.