Hydraulic diffusivity, a parameter of the Fickian model of moisture transport in concrete has been conventionally represented as a function of moisture content - of exponential form in case of wetting (liquid water ingress) and a S-shaped curve for drying. These functions comprise of various parameters which have not yet been co-related to concrete properties and ambient parameters of temperature and humidity. Has there been any research lately in this direction ?......Please share your inputs.
Hi. An alternative may be to use another approach, including both permeability and diffusivity concepts instead of trying to capture all the transport phenomena in a single diffusivity. You will find a lo of scientific references considering this point, such as in "Coussy O., Eymard R., Lassabatère T., ‘Constitutive Modelling of Unsaturated Drying Deformable Materials’, ASCE Journal of Engineering Mechanics, June 1998, 658-667" or "Coussy, Mechanics of Porous Media, Wiley, 1995"
I know that these references are rather old, but I hope this small contribution can help you. Best regards
Thank you Alexis. Yes, there are a number of refined (also more complicated) models available in scientific literature which address the problem of moisture transport in concrete and other porous materials. These models though dependent on the estimation of various material properties are specially helpful for creep and shrinkage studies.
The problem which I am presently dealing with requires only the determination of moisture evolution profiles for which the Richard's/Fickian model offers simplicity.
Thank you once again for your response.
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