Chloride Ingress and Microstructure

This lecture explores the impact of microstructure parameters on chloride ingress in concrete, focusing on the relationship between transport properties and the durability of cement paste. The instructor discusses the use of the mini-migration method to estimate effective diffusion coefficients and investigates the influence of porosity, pore connectivity, and pore solution conductivity on chloride migration. Various blended-cement systems are analyzed to understand the resistance against chloride ingress, highlighting the importance of bulk conductivity in predicting diffusion coefficients. The lecture also delves into the role of different supplementary cementitious materials in improving chloride resistance and outlines future research directions in evaluating the durability of blended cement pastes against deleterious ions.