Assessment of liquid water and gas permeabilities of partially saturated ordinary concrete

• The evolution of the permeability of partially saturated ordinary concrete is studied as a function of degree of saturation.
• An experimental procedure is provided for the measurement of liquid water permeability of concrete partially saturated.
• The sample size is a parameter which can influence on the assessment of the permeability of concrete.
• Existing models to predict the relative permeability fits imperfectly the experimental results for different sample sizes.
• The preconditioning applied has a great influence on measurement of the permeability of concrete.

The durability of concrete depends on its ability to prevent the ingress of aggressive chemical species. Transport properties of concrete, mainly permeability, play a key role in assessing and predicting the durability of reinforced concrete structures. The hydric state affects the transport parameters like permeability which has a large influence on the penetration of aggressive agents and so on durability of concrete. This paper presents an experimental study on relative gas and water permeabilities of ordinary concrete versus its saturation degree. The experimental results give the measurements of liquid water and gas permeabilities of concrete samples with different sizes as well as those of the degree of saturated liquid water obtained by mass weighing. The analysis shows the influence of the saturation degree of concrete on the variation of water and gas permeabilities. Validation of Van Genuchten–Mualem law for porous media has been verified for ordinary concrete (OC). Moreover, this study highlights the effect of drying temperatures on the intrinsic gas permeability of concrete.