• Computers and Concrete
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.315-325
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• 2023

Calcium leaching is one of the main deterioration factors in concrete structures contact with water, such as dams, water treatment structures, and radioactive waste structures. It causes a porous microstructure and may be coupled with various harmful factors resulting in mechanical degradation of concrete. Several numerical modeling studies focused on the calcium leaching depth prediction. However, these required a lot of cost and time for many experiments and analyses. This study presents an artificial neural network (ANN) approach to predict the leaching depth quickly and accurately. Totally 132 experimental data are collected for model training and validation. An optimal ANN model was proposed by ANN topology. Results indicate that the model can be applied to estimate the calcium leaching depth, showing the determination coefficient of 0.91. It might be used as a simulation tool for engineering problems focused on durability.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.16-25
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• 2018

Concrete is a suitable construction material for long-term structure, however, it is needed to understand the calcium leaching damage caused by exposure to underground pure water for a long time. In this paper, it is experimentally investigated that the characteristics of flexural behavior in RC member damaged by calcium leaching degradation. From the test results, when calcium leaching is happened, yielding load and flexural rigidity is reduced, neutral axis depth and displacement is increased. That is, calcium leaching degradation adversely affects RC member performance. And, when the mineral admixture is used in the calcium leaching environment, it is considered that the optimal replacement ratio should be prepared according to the type of mineral admixture.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.86 no.6
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• pp.779-791
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• 2023

Long-termly used in water supply, an underground concrete pipe is easily subjected to the coupled action of pressure loading and flowing water, which can cause the chemo-mechanical damage of the pipe, resulting in its premature failure and lifetime reduction. Based on the leaching characteristics and damage mechanism of concrete pipe, this paper proposes a coupled chemo-mechanical damage and failure model of underground concrete pipe for water supply, including a calcium leaching model, mechanical damage equation and a failure criterion. By using the model, a numerical simulation is performed to analyze the failure process of underground concrete pipe, such as the time-varying calcium concentration in concrete, the thickness variation of pipe wall, the evolution of chemo-mechanical damage, the distribution of concrete stress on the pipe and the lifetime of the pipe. Results show that, the failure of the pipe is a coupled chemo-mechanical damage process companied with calcium leaching. During its damage and failure, the concentrations of calcium phase in concrete decrease obviously with the time, and it can cause an increase in the chemo-mechanical damage of the pipe, while the leaching and abrasion induced by flowing water can lead to the boundary movement and wall thickness reduction of the pipe, and it results in the stress redistribution on the pipe section, a premature failure and lifetime reduction of the pipe.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.131-150
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• 2004

We present in this work a coupled phenomenological chemo-mechanical model that represents the degradation of concrete-like materials. The chemical behaviour is described by the nowadays well known simplified calcium leaching approach. And the mechanical damage behaviour is described by a continuum damage model which involves the gradient of the damage quantity. The coupled nonlinear problem at hand is addressed within the context of the finite element method. For the equation governing the calcium dissolution-diffusion part of the problem, special care is taken to treat the highly nonlinear calcium conductivity and solid calcium functions. The algorithmic design is based on a Newton-type iterative scheme where use is made of a recently proposed relaxed linearization procedure. And for the equation governing the damage part of the problem, an augmented Lagrangian formulation is used to take into account the damage irreversibility constraint. Finally, numerical simulations are compared with experimental results on cement paste.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.59-67
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• 2016

Concrete is a very useful construction material for the sealing disposal of hazardous substances. In general, mass concrete is applied to these structures. And, the mineral admixtures are recommended for the long term performance. Calcium leaching could be happened due to the contact with pure water in underground structures. Thus, it is needed to evaluate the resistance of calcium leaching for concrete mixed with mineral admixtures. From the test results, the mineral admixtures are effective to the improvement of long term compressive strength and chloride diffusion coefficient in concrete members. When calcium leaching is happened, however, the reduction of compressive strength and chloride penetration resistance is severe than OPC case, the micro pore distribution is adversely affected. Consequently, when the mineral admixtures are applied to underground structures which is exposed to calcium leaching environment, it is desirable to reduce water-to-binder ratio, to expose after the sufficient pozolanic reaction, and to use BFS than FA.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.295-306
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• 2015

Simulating natural leaching process for cementitious materials is essential to perform long-term safety assessments of repositories for nuclear waste. However, the current test methods in literature are time consuming, limited to crushed material and often produce small size samples which are not suitable for further testing. This paper presents the results from the study of the physical (gas permeability as well as chloride diffusion coefficient) and mechanical properties (tensile and compressive strength and elastic modulus) of solid cementitious specimens which have been depleted in calcium by the use of a newly developed method for accelerated calcium leaching of solid specimens of flexible size. The results show that up to 4 times increase in capillary water absorption, 10 times higher gas permeability and at least 3 times higher chloride diffusion rate, is expected due to complete leaching of the Portlandite. This coincides with a 70 % decrease in mechanical strength and more than 40 % decrease in elastic modulus.

• Environmental Sciences Bulletin of The Korean Environmental Sciences Society
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• v.10 no.S_2
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• pp.89-95
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• 2001

The solidification and leaching characteristics of cyclone ash collected from an industrial incineration plant were investigated. Cement and calcium hydroxide were used as the solidifying materials. The leaching characteristics of the solidified cyclone ash were found to vary depending on both the quantitative and the qualitative aspects of the solidifying materials. Except for copper and lead, all the heavy metal ions in the leachate of the solidified material composed of 10~20 % cement or 10~20 % calcium hydroxide were found to be within their standard limit. Moreover, all the heavy metal ions were also observed to be within satisfactory limits in the leachate obtained from the solidified material composed of 30 % cement or 30 % calcium hydroxide. Therefore, to satisfy the standard compressive intensity and permissible limits of heavy metal ions leached from solidified material, it would appear that a 30 % proportion of either additive in the solidification product can meet the required standard for the leachate. The cost of solidifying cyclone ash per ton for ash-30 % cement and ash-30 % lime was calculated as 26,750 and 26,070 won, respectively. Accordingly, significant reduction in the waste toxicity and mobility as well as an improvement in the engineering properties of the solidified products were successfully achieved.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.526-531
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• 2001

LD slag, that is, a by-product of steel making process, has been mainly used as land construction materials. Recently, the seashore application of LD slag was tried in Japan and Korea tut the reaction between LD slag and seawater was not studied yet. We tried to clarify the leaching reaction and/or mechanism of LD slag and the reaction between seawater and LD slag. We tried to apply these results to the decarbonization of seawater for seawater magnesia process. At first, LD slag was milled and classified into 5 grades, that is, (ⅰ)45${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ under, (ⅱ)0.25~0.5mm (ⅲ)0.5~1mm(ⅳ)1~2mm, (ⅴ)2.36~3.35mm. These slags were leached in the distilled water. In case of 45${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ under, the pH of the leached solution was over 12. The chemical analysis of leached solution showed that the $Ca^{+}$$^2$was main component and the S $i^{+}$$^4$was very low. On the other hand, the content of S $i^{+}$$^4$in leached solution was decreased with the increase of pH of this solution. The nearly pure calcium solution was made and the ultra high purity MgO could be made with this calcium solution. The leaching behavior of LD slag was different between the fine particle and coarse particle. The calcium was leached by bulk dissolution in the coarse particle and by surface controlled reaction in fine particle. The leaching rate was slow in coarse particle and fast in fine particle. Therefore, the high pH solution, that is, over 12, was obtained in fine particle.cle.e.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.12
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• pp.4033-4041
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• 2021

To better understand the permeability of uranium sandstone, improve the leaching rate of uranium, and explore the change law of pore structure characteristics and blocking mechanism during leaching, we systematically analyzed the microstructure of acid-leaching uranium sandstone. We investigated the variable rules of pore structure characteristics based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The results showed the following: (1) The uranium concentration change followed the exponential law during uranium deposits acid leaching. After 24 h, the uranium leaching rate reached 50%. The uranium leaching slowed gradually over the next 4 days. (2) Combined with the regularity of porosity variation, Stages I and II included chemical plugging controlled by surface reaction. Stage I was the major completion phase of uranium displacement with saturation precipitation of calcium sulfate. Stage II mainly precipitated iron (III) oxide-hydroxide and aluminum hydroxide. Stage III involved physical clogging controlled by diffusion. (3) In the three stages of leaching, the permeability of the leaching solution changed with the pore structure, which first decreased, then increased, and then decreased.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.427-437
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• 2013

Generation rate of construction wastes in Korea has occupied preponderantly in recent years. To understand chemical properties of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA), RCA samples were tested for their leaching characteristics. Leaching tests were conducted according to Korean Standard Leaching Test (KLT) and Toxicity Characteristics Leaching Procedure (TCLP) respectively. The RCA samples were characterized using X-ray fluorescence (XRF). Alkalinity of the leachate was determined using a pH meter titration method. The XRF analysis result shows that the calcium oxide (CaO) content in the RCA sample is 25.3~50.4 %. When the RCA sample was mixed with water in a batch reactor, pH in the solution was rapidly increased, and 70% of the total pH change was found in 1 hour. The TCLP showed slightly higher efficiency for leaching heavy metals than the KLT. The leaching efficiency was also higher as the particle size of RCA sample was smaller. The leaching test results suggest that RCA can be generally classified as nonhazardous waste.