A Comparison of Service Life Prediction of Concrete Structures Using Element-Free Galerkin (EFG) and Finite Element Method

摘要: 正 The reinforcement concrete structures exposed to sea environment suffer from corrosion of steel bars due to chloride ingress. It's generally assumed that the diffusion of chloride ions follows Fick's second low. Traditionally such partial differential equations are largely solved using numerical methods, such as Finite Element (FE) Method and Finite Difference (FD) Method. Although these methods are robust and efficient, but they exhibits some noises in the initial time steps results. In the present research, a detailed description of element-free Galerkin (EFG) method and its numerical implementation in one and two-dimensional models is presented. In this method, Moving Least Square (MLS) approximation is used to weak form the equation. So the independent variable, chloride content, and its gradient are continuous in the entire domain. By comparing EFG results with FE and FD and obtainable analytical solutions in special cases, it's seen some advantages in using this method such as fewer noises in the initial time steps results and smoother curves, increasing the rate of convergence. It also could be achieved to higher resolution in the interfaces such as coating on the surface of concrete.