Modelling the leaching kinetics of cement-based materials -: influence of materials and environment

The leaching of cement-based materials in aggressive water is studied according to several protocols of accelerated or non-accelerated tests. The paper analyses international experimental published data on leaching concerned with several parameters, like material parameters as water-to-binder ratio and silica fume content, and environmental parameters, like pH and temperature. Then, a simplified model based on this analysis is developed to predict the kinetics of leaching. This model assumes that the rate of leaching follows a square root of time. Each parameter is introduced as a weight function. Particularly, the paper introduces the coupling between the built database and the model. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.