Numerical analysis on water flow behavior through fracture surfaces of cement-based materials

The influence of surface roughness and opening width on water flow behaviors in cracks of cement-based materials is investigated numerically. The fracture surface is assumed to be inert to water and the water flow to be laminar in its steady state. The boundary for water flow is taken from the topographical measurement of material fractured surfaces. The topography of fractured surfaces was scanned by large-scale laser profilometer and the surface roughness is calculated by fractal dimension and projective length ratio. On the basis of numerical results, a linear relationship is observed between flow rates and cubic of crack opening width, the influence of surface roughness is important for flow rate but its importance is decreased with the crack opening width. (authors)