The Application of Monte Carlo Method
in the Modeling of Concrete Cover
Damage in Reinforced Concrete
T. Krykowski
Abstract This paper presents the application of the Monte Carlo method to evaluate
the cracking time of cover in concrete specimens subjected to accelerated corrosion
testing. The distribution of probability density of some material parameters was
assumed to comply with the Gaussian distribution. The process of cover cracking
was analyzed for extreme values of volume strains resulting from corrosion in f
ε
V
i j
and sup
ε
V
i j
values determined with the Monte Carlo method.
Keywords Corrosion · Cover cracking · Monte-Carlo · Elastic-plastic-fracturing ·
FEM
1 Introduction
Cracking time of reinforced concrete elements caused by corrosion of the reinforcement has been widely analyzed in scientific papers. The difficulty in modeling cracks
caused by corrosion of the reinforcement was connected with second and third stages
of the structure degradation (the first stage refers to transport of aggressive substances,
carbon dioxide and chloride ions [1, 2]). A three-stage model of degradation assumes
that the initiation of electrode process [3–5] is not equivalent to the formation of the
strains and stress fields in the cover. At first, filling was observed for voids in the
steel-concrete interface characterized by higher porosity (the so called interface transition zone, ITZ [5]) and voids created by solubilisation of reinforcing steel during
the process of reinforcement corrosion [6]. As corrosion progressed, micro-damage
in the interfacial transition zone in concrete [7] occurred as the effect of increased
volume strains caused by electrochemical reactions after filling pore structures, which
retarded the formation of cracks in the cover.
T. Krykowski (B)
Department of Mechanics and Bridges, Silesian University of Technology, Akademicka 5, 44-100
Gliwice, Poland
e-mail: tomasz.krykowski@polsl.pl
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Z. Zembaty et al. (eds.), Environmental Challenges in Civil
Engineering, Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering 122,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63879-5_6
77
in the Modeling of Concrete Cover
Damage in Reinforced Concrete
T. Krykowski
Abstract This paper presents the application of the Monte Carlo method to evaluate
the cracking time of cover in concrete specimens subjected to accelerated corrosion
testing. The distribution of probability density of some material parameters was
assumed to comply with the Gaussian distribution. The process of cover cracking
was analyzed for extreme values of volume strains resulting from corrosion in f
ε
V
i j
and sup
ε
V
i j
values determined with the Monte Carlo method.
Keywords Corrosion · Cover cracking · Monte-Carlo · Elastic-plastic-fracturing ·
FEM
1 Introduction
Cracking time of reinforced concrete elements caused by corrosion of the reinforcement has been widely analyzed in scientific papers. The difficulty in modeling cracks
caused by corrosion of the reinforcement was connected with second and third stages
of the structure degradation (the first stage refers to transport of aggressive substances,
carbon dioxide and chloride ions [1, 2]). A three-stage model of degradation assumes
that the initiation of electrode process [3–5] is not equivalent to the formation of the
strains and stress fields in the cover. At first, filling was observed for voids in the
steel-concrete interface characterized by higher porosity (the so called interface transition zone, ITZ [5]) and voids created by solubilisation of reinforcing steel during
the process of reinforcement corrosion [6]. As corrosion progressed, micro-damage
in the interfacial transition zone in concrete [7] occurred as the effect of increased
volume strains caused by electrochemical reactions after filling pore structures, which
retarded the formation of cracks in the cover.
T. Krykowski (B)
Department of Mechanics and Bridges, Silesian University of Technology, Akademicka 5, 44-100
Gliwice, Poland
e-mail: tomasz.krykowski@polsl.pl
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Z. Zembaty et al. (eds.), Environmental Challenges in Civil
Engineering, Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering 122,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63879-5_6
77