ENRP20003: Engineering Research Project Implementation - Degradation Mechanisms - Moisture Transportation - Engineering Assessment Answer

Subject Code: ENRP20003 Internal Code: 1AICFI

Engineering Research Project Implementation Assessment Answer

Assignment Task: Numerical Investigation on Moisture Transportation in Cementitious Material using Ansys Software Aim: To check the effects of moisture transportation properties in cementitious material such as concrete and mortar in both saturated and unsaturated conditions. The aim is to avoid early degradation processes and to achieve long term durable structures. Objective: The main objective of this project is to evaluate the moisture ingress rate in cementitious material, which helps in determining design data for the structural component in order to achieve durable structures for the long term. In this research, the Ansys is used to analyse degradation mechanisms under different conditions using the finite element method. This main centre of this research is to compare experimental results with finite element modelling using Ansys software in which that could simulate the water penetration process and internal distribution of moisture in the concrete. In this research, the ability of Ansys software to input numerous functions in any conditions to analyse failure pattern had led to more attraction. Scope: Early occurrence of defects in the durability of concrete structures has attracted more and more attention in this research. In the past few decades, it has been realized that moisture transportation and aggressive ion transport are two key issues that influence the durability of concrete structures in the long term. In each of these degradation processes, water is either the principal agent responsible for the deterioration of concrete or the principal medium by which aggressive agents are migrated in concrete; therefore, it is important to predict the water movement into concrete in order to avoid early disorders in structures. Many attempts have been made to study the water transport mechanisms in cementitious materials, which can be categorized into three types, such as experimental tests, analytical method and numerical simulation. To monitor the moisture transportation in construction porous material there are several experimental methods available. The easiest and commonly used test in order to find permeability is the gravimetric method, in which the specimen is initially dried to a controlled saturation degree and one surface is exposed to the free water source. However, this experiment method is not useful because it cannot provide the information about the internal distribution of water within the sample and it is also difficult to determine the position and movement of wetting and drying sides of the sample. To predict diffusion in mortar matrix and internal distribution in interfacial transitional zones (ITZ) between the mortar matrix and aggregates can be computationally possible. In computer modelling, concrete a composite cement paste with randomly distributed coarse and fine aggregates is modelled in three-dimension in presence of ITZ which are extremely thin and made the model more complicated. The past studies state that most of the aggregates used in concrete are dense compared to cement paste, assumed zero conductivity or diffusivity. But the study of (Li et al. 2016; Wang and Ueda 2014) says the inclusion of these non-conductive aggregates has an inverse effect on diffusivity and conductivity of concrete structures. To overcome the above-mentioned problems in modelling, From the study of (Li et al. 2016), the interfaces between mortar and aggregates are modelled with interface elements instead of solid elements using Ansys for finite element analysis.

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