Moisture Transfer in Concrete: Numerical Determination of the Capillary Conductivity Coefficient

• Main Authors: Simo Elie, Dzali Mbeumo Pascal Durant, Mbami Njeuten Jeanne Claude
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sciendo 2017-03-01
• Series: Slovak Journal of Civil Engineering
• Subjects: Concrete; Moisture content; Diffusion; Coefficient of the capillary conductivity; DOPRI5 integrator
• Online Access: http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/sjce.2017.25.issue-1/sjce-2017-0002/sjce-2017-0002.xml?format=INT

We numerically investigated moisture transfer in buildings made of concrete. We considered three types of concrete: normal concrete, pumice concrete and cellular concrete. We present the results of a 1-D liquid water flow in such materials. We evaluated the moisture distribution in building materials using the Runge-Kutta fourth-and-fifth-order method. The DOPRI5 code was used as an integrator. The model calculated the resulting moisture content and other moisture-dependent physical parameters. The moisture curves were plotted. The dampness data obtained was utilized for the numerical computation of the coefficient of the capillary conductivity of moisture. Different profiles of this coefficient are represented. Calculations were performed for four different values of the outdoor temperature: -5°C, 0°C, 5°C and 10°C. We determined that the curves corresponding to small time intervals of wetting are associated with great amplitudes of the capillary conductivity . The amplitudes of the coefficient of the capillary conductivity decrease as the time interval increases. High outdoor temperatures induce high amplitudes of the coefficient of the capillary conductivity.