Generic Corrosion Damage Modeling Frameworks for Traditional and Alternative Cementitous Matrices

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Corrosion of steel reinforcement is one of the most prevalent deterioration mechanisms in concrete structures, and the annual cost of corrosion of civil infrastructure in the United States is estimated to be around $25 billion. Therefore, development of innovative, inexpensive, and ubiquitously effective corrosion mitigation strategies in the form of new corrosion-resistant steels, corrosion inhibitors, and alternative cements, is important. Although the development of these materials have been gaining attention, their widespread adoption has been limited due to uncertainties associated with their long-term durability and performance concerns. Trial-and-error procedures to produce new and affordable materials to resist steel corrosion in concrete have been, to a large degree, ineffective. In this work, the PIs will establish a computer-modeling framework that will evaluate these uncertainties and intelligently predict the corrosion behavior of new materials. This research will have far-reaching social and economic impacts by enabling researchers and material developers with a modeling framework to design, optimize, and assess new materials to mitigate issues associated with steel corrosion in reinforced concrete structures in a cost effective way. The PI will continue outreach through the university's Summer Experience in Science and Engineering for Youth program.The objective of this research is to establish a fully coupled generic reaction-transport-corrosion-damage modeling framework for simulating corrosion-induced deterioration of reinforced concrete structural components. The unique feature of the study is the coupling of thermodynamic calculations to model reactions that can take place in concrete with transport, corrosion and damage phenomena. The formation of corrosion products and their distribution within the porous microstructure will be simulated in concrete with and without corrosion induced cracks. The generic nature of thermodynamic calculations to model reactions allows the simulation of corrosion-induced damage in structural components produced with traditional and alternative binders. These models are also important for existing structural systems since they help early identification of damage due to steel corrosion so that pre-emptive mitigation actions can be pursued and necessary repairs can be prioritized. This research requires a multi-disciplinary approach to make the modeling framework public so that researchers from these different backgrounds in the general engineering community can use, expand or apply it in related fields of investigation.