Water and salts strongly influence the durability of porous materials. One of the most adverse phenomena which is related to the salt and moisture presence in the pore system of building materials is salt crystallization. The process is associated with the supersaturation ratio. The salt phase change kinetics is taken into account during the modeling of coupled moisture, salt, and heat transport. To solve the set of governing, differential equations the finite element and the finite difference methods are used. Three different rate laws are assumed in modeling the salt phase change. The drying, cooling, and warming of the cement mortar sample, during which the salt phase change occurs, have been simulated using the developed software. The changes of salt concentration in the pore solution and the amount of precipitated salt due to variation of boundary conditions are presented and discussed. The results obtained in the numerical simulation assuming the first, second, and fourth order rate low indicate that the higher order of the rate law the longer time delay between the change of boundary conditions and the salt precipitation. Such an analysis might be very useful during the determination of the material parameters by solving the inverse problem.
List of SymbolsA Supersaturation parameter (−) C p Effective specific heat of porous medium (J/(kg K)) D d Tensor of hydrodynamic dispersion (m 2 /s) D g v Effective diffusivity tensor of vapor in the air (m 2 /s) D mol Molecular diffusivity (m 2 /s) g Acceleration of gravity (m/s 2 ) 123 58 M. Koniorczyk, D. Gawin H vap Enthalpy of vaporization per unit mass (J/kg) H prec Enthalpy of crystallization per unit mass (J/kg) I identity matrix (−) J dysp Dispersive flow of salt (kg/(m s)) J a g Diffusive flux of dry air (kg/(m s)) J v g Diffusive flux of water vapor (kg/(m s)) j ws = [ j ws 1 , j ws 2 ] Darcy velocity of water (m/s) j gs Darcy velocity of air (m/s) K Rate constant (rate law) (−) kIntrinsic permeability tensor (m 2 ) kIntrinsic permeability scalar (m 2 ) k rπ Relative permeability of π-phase (π = w, g-liquid, gas) (−) M π Molar mass of π = a, w, g-dry air, water, gas (kg/kmol) m vap Rate of mass due to evaporation (kg/(m 3 s)) m prec Rate of mass due to crystallization (kg/(m 3 s)) N π