A multi-scale method for modeling of moisture and chloride ion transport in concrete

Conference contribution, 2011

Modelling and simulation of moisture and chloride ion transport in concrete is carried out using a multi-scale approach due to the strongly heterogeneous structure of concrete. The macro-scale problem is solved using the finite element method (FEM) where the material response in each Gauss-point is obtained by setting up a new finite element problem on a representative volume element (RVE). The RVE, in turn, consists of the meso-scale constituents of concrete and the solution to the RVE problem is homogenized and sent back to the macro-scale domain. Hence, the RVE problem serves in this fashion as a constitutive model for the macro-scale problem.