Reactive transport modelling of cement paste leaching in brines
Recently, scientists proposed and analysed a unified reactive transport model for leaching of cement paste in brines, with and without CO2.
The scientists investigated the impact of the boundary conditions on the rate of propagation of the reaction. In agreement with experiments, they observed distinct mechanisms as a function of the pH and the CO2 concentration of the leaching brine. In particular, clogging was observed at intermediate concentration of CO2 while higher concentration accelerates the reaction.
Exploring the impact of different models
In addition, they leveraged the flexibility of the simulator to explore the impact of different models on the simulations. In particular, aqueous species, phase assemblage and diffusion coefficient model were varied. The scientists demonstrated that in order to be able to obtain quantitative predictions, it is important to accurately capture the feedback between chemical reactions, microstructure and macroscopic transport parameters.
The study is published in: Cement and Concrete Research Volume 111, September 2018, Pages 183-196.
