Permeability Characteristics of Cracked Concrete Systems
Summary
Cracked concrete exhibits a dual network of pore spaces and fracture pathways that govern its overall permeability. Microcracks arising from shrinkage, thermal cycles or chemical reactions coalesce into macro-cracks under mechanical or environmental loading. Fluid transport in cracked concrete is highly sensitive to crack width, roughness and connectivity, with flow regimes ranging from capillary suction in fine fissures to channel flow in larger openings. External factors such as confining pressure, saturation level, freeze-thaw cycling and chemical exposure further modulate crack aperture and tortuosity, altering transport rates of water, ions or gases. Reliable prediction of crack permeability is essential for assessing durability of hydraulic structures, marine infrastructure and underground tunnels, and for designing self-healing or fibre-reinforced composites to mitigate ingress of deleterious agents.
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Permeability Characteristics of Cracked Concrete Systems publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in permeability characteristics of cracked concrete systems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Macro-crack: A visible fracture in concrete, typically >100 µm wide, that forms under loading.
Confining pressure: External stress applied uniformly to a specimen to simulate in-situ stress conditions.
Double-porosity model: A conceptual framework treating concrete as two interconnected continua: the solid matrix pores and the crack network.
Poiseuille flow: Fluid motion in a narrow channel or crack described by a parabolic velocity profile and dependent on the cube of crack aperture.
Tortuosity: A dimensionless measure of the complexity of flow paths relative to a straight line.
References
- Hybrid Fiber Influence on the Crack Permeability of Cracked Concrete Exposed to Freeze–Thaw Cycles. Materials (2024).
- Fracture Surface Fractal Characteristics of Alkali‐Slag Concrete under Freeze‐Thaw Cycles. Advances in Materials Science and Engineering (2017).
- Permeability of a Macro-Cracked Concrete Effect of Confining Pressure and Modelling. Materials (2021).
- Water Transport in Unsaturated Cracked Concrete under Pressure. Advances in Civil Engineering (2019).
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