Modeling of the chloride diffusivity of ultra-high performance concrete with a multi-scale scheme

The chloride diffusivity of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) is the key parameter that determines the service life of UHPC structures in chloride environments. In this study, a multi-scale model, which considered the structural information at micro and meso-scale, was proposed to predict macro property, i.e. chloride diffusivity, of UHPC. At micro-scale, the chloride diffusivity of UHPC paste was predicted based on an extended HYMOSTRUC3D model and a finite element method. At meso-scale, Anm model and finite element method were applied to calculate the chloride diffusivity of UHPC mortar. At macro-scale, the chloride diffusivity of UHPC was determined with a two phase model. The chloride diffusivity at a lower scale was used as input to predict the chloride diffusivity at the higher scale. Non-steady chloride diffusion tests were performed to validate the proposed model. The results showed that the proposed multi-scale model gave a little higher chloride diffusivity of UHPC than experiment results. However, the proposed model is still helpful for the durability design of UHPC structure in chloride environments.