A Chemo-Mechanical Model For Biogenic Sulphide Corrosion Of Concrete
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This work proposes a chemo-mechanical model for the simulation of biogenic sulphide corrosion processes in concrete sewer pipes. The chemical model is formulated in terms of a system of coupled diffusion-reaction equations, which capture the processes of calcium hydroxide dissolution, calcium silicate hydrate dissolution and gypsum formation. The chemical model is two-way coupled with a mechanical model that describes the damage processes due to gypsum formation and mechanical deformations. Damage-enhanced diffusion is accounted for via a dependency of the diffusion parameter on the amount of mechanical damage. The chemical damage variable used in the damage model is prescribed by the concentration of calcium silicate hydrate, and a chemical growth strain is introduced to account for the material expansion caused by gypsum formation. The coupled chemo-mechanical model is numerically implemented in a finite element framework using a segregated incremental-iterative update scheme. A validation experiment is performed that mimics the chemical process of biogenic sulphide corrosion in in-situ concrete sewer pipes, by exposing cuboidal concrete samples to a sulphuric acid solution at different time durations. The comparison between the experimental and numerical results indicates that the chemo-mechanical model adequately simulates both the shape of the experimental corrosion profile and the time evolution of the corrosion depth.