In situ measurement of the intrinsic permeability of concrete

Abstract

In this paper test methods that could be used on in situ concrete are used to obtain values for the permeability of concrete. The permeability is of interest because it significantly affects the ability of the concrete to prevent corrosion of embedded reinforcement. The important feature of the tests in this paper is that they yield values for permeability that are expressed in fundamental units and therefore have a better foundation in materials science than tests which only yield comparative data. The two in situ tests used are a new vacuum-air test using drilled holes 1 and a surface absorption test. Results from these tests are compared with direct measurements of permeability obtained in a high pressure through flow cell. The results show strong correlations but some differences in absolute values are noted.

Applicability of Diffuse Ultrasound to Evaluation of the Water Permeability and Chloride Ion Penetrability of Cracked Concrete

“…Both constant-head [30] and falling-head [27,28,29] water permeability tests were applied for lab-scale cracked concrete specimens. In this study, a constant-head test apparatus, shown in Figure 8a, was used to evaluate the water permeability of the disk-shaped specimens with a penetrating crack; the water flow rate was determined by measuring the amount of water that passed through the crack when maintaining a constant water head over a certain duration [44].…”

“…Some researchers focused on water permeation characteristics of concrete in both uncracked and cracked conditions [26,27,28,29,30]. In general, the permeability of water is extremely low without external pressure in uncracked concrete [27], while the amount of water permeation is strongly related to crack width in cracked concrete [28,29,30]. Aldea et al [28,29] investigated the effects of crack width on water permeability and self-healing performance by comparing water permeability and elastic wave transmission tests.…”

A Method for In-Situ Permeability Testing of Loose Porous Media Based on Vacuum Extraction

“…In the in-situ permeability test, the method of in-situ pressure water test was carried out by Mohammad, and the permeability data of different depths was obtained [3][4][5]. The method of sealing holes at both ends in-situ permeability test method was proposed by Niu, which can be applied to the soil or the solid rock formation [6][7][8].…”