ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: A significant increase of the permeability of concrete upon micro-cracking and a good correlation between the evolutions of damage (material stiffness) and permeability are observed experimentally. The present contribution investigates first this correlation theoretically, with the help of lattice analyses. Hydro-mechanical problems are considered with the construction of a hydraulic lattice, dual to the mechanical one. We observe that the average permeability upon micro-cracking is indexed on the evolution of the lattice compliance in the mechanical problem. Experimental results are reported in order to further quantify this growth of permeability due to damage.
