Coupled mechanical and chemo-transport model for the simulation of cementitious materials subjected to external sulfate attack

We propose in this study to develop a chemo-transport-mechanical model for the simulation of external sulfate attack in cementitious materials. This degradation mainly consists in the hydrate decalcification/dissolution due to leaching, and in the reaction between the sulfate ions migrating within the material and mono-sulfate initially present to precipitate into ettringite. It may generate macroscopic expansions leading to severe microcracking. The key point in this study is the use of the integration numerical platform ALLIANCES which couples a code solving the chemical equations, the diffusion of ionic species into the porosity and the mechanical problem. The crystallization pressures resulting from the interaction between growing mono-sulfate crystals and the surrounding C-S-H matrix are assumed to cause the observed macroscopic swelling. A macroscopic bulk strain tensor calculated from the volume of formed ettringite is introduced for directly reproducing these expansions. Explicit up-scaling techniques applied on a simplified representation of the materials allow estimating both mechanical and diffusive properties of the evolving microstructure. The calculated macroscopic free expansions are in quite good agreement with experimental data, provided a correct calibration of the parameter involved in the expression of the bulk strain tensor. However, it is asserted that the model would lead to very high stress levels in the structures in the particular case of restrained displacements at its boundaries