Experimental study on gas and water relative permeability of cementitious materials and numerical simulation of water transport of concrete
This dissertation was devoted to study gas and water relative permeability and transfer of water in partially saturated cementitious materials. The gas relative permeability of a reference mortar and a concrete, which is used in the low and intermediate level waste storage center in Soulaines, has been measured. A method to measure water relative permeability of two concretes CEM I and CEM V, which will be used in the building of a underground disposal, has been proposed. But the diﬃculty of isolating the part due to the permeation in the unsaturated ﬂow shows that the ﬂow of capillarity is predominant in unsaturated ﬂow. The capillary adsorption of concretes CEM I and CEM V has been measured. At the same level of water saturation, the gas relative permeability of sample pre-treated by capillary adsorption is less than that of sample pre-treated by adsorption in relative humidity. A double retention model has been proposed and it can describe the sorption isotherm of two concretes CEM I and CEM V. The curves of gas and water relative permeability are deducted. The hysteresis of sorption leads to the hysteresis of water relative permeability while there is not notable hysteresis of gas relative permeability. With double-retention model and water relative permeability expression, we can simulate sorption process under relative humidity by using a proper value of water intrinsic permeability which is in the domain of measured values