Numerical Solutions for Capillary Absorption by Cementitious Materials

Abstract

Capillary absorption is essential to mass migration in cementitious materials. Based on previous studies, capillary rise involving gravity effects is of much greater interest in porous building materials because equilibrium is attained at the wetting front when gravitational force balance the capillary force. In this paper, two different solution forms, semi-analytical and numerical, are presented to account for the gravity effect for realistical prediction of water penetration process. The former is stable against small perturbation proved by Stepanyants [1]. The comparison of predicted results by the two methods confirms the reliability of the technique in estimating water transport.