ABSTRACT
The accurate knowledge of the concrete permeability is crucial for the assessment of durability of concrete, since liquid transport into the material is a determining key factor. The penetration of liquids may initiate several damage processes, such as frost damage, corrosion, chemical degradation and salt damage, etc. Damage in the form of cracks significantly modifies the permeability of the material and allows a preferential transport along the crack network into the material several orders of magnitude faster compared to the transport in sound concrete (Roels et al. 2006). Therefore, when designing durable concrete constructions, not only the prediction of cracking is needed, but also the estimation of the permeability of cracked concrete is necessary. The permeability of cracks highly depends on the average crack width, the crack tortuosity and connectivity (Carmeliet et al. 2004). Therefore, we present in this paper a model taking into account these important crack aspects.
