Efficient data generation for the determination of effective oxygen diffusion coefficients of cementitious materials

Abstract

To develop new cementitious materials with the goal of reducing the carbon footprint a rapid assessment of information about their resistance against damaging processes is of utmost importance to ensure long‐term durability. The Oxygen diffusion test is an efficient method to evaluate the ingress of gas in concretes and mortars without changing the porous structure of the specimen during testing. However, currently no standardized test method exists. We determined the effective Oxygen diffusion coefficient, De,O2 of mortar discs using a single diffusion cell method. Furthermore, we enhanced the procedure by extrapolating the oxygen saturation curves of the diffusion cells with a simple asymptotic function to identify a minimum required test duration where the extrapolated data still delivers reliable results and hence, shorten the overall required measurement time. In our case, we were able to significantly reduce the effort needed to obtain results that are within the range of the respective standard deviation of individual specimens. Our findings further strengthen the feasibility of time and cost efficient gas diffusion testing methods that could deliver complementary information for evaluating existing and designing new cementitious materials.