RAAC panels can suddenly collapse before any warning of corrosion-induced surface cracking

Abstractś The collapse of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) panels has attracted considerable public and academic interest. As detailed experimental data are not yet available and replicating the natural corrosion process requires years or decades, computational modelling is essential to...

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Main Authors: Evžen Korec, Peter Grassl, Milan Jirásek, Hong S. Wong, Emilio Martínez-Pañeda
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-05-01
Series:npj Materials Degradation
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41529-025-00596-5
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author Evžen Korec
Peter Grassl
Milan Jirásek
Hong S. Wong
Emilio Martínez-Pañeda
author_facet Evžen Korec
Peter Grassl
Milan Jirásek
Hong S. Wong
Emilio Martínez-Pañeda
author_sort Evžen Korec
collection DOAJ
description Abstractś The collapse of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) panels has attracted considerable public and academic interest. As detailed experimental data are not yet available and replicating the natural corrosion process requires years or decades, computational modelling is essential to understand under which conditions corrosion remains concealed. The very high porosity of RAAC is widely suspected to be a major contributing factor. However, current corrosion-induced cracking models are known to struggle with capturing the role of concrete porosity. To remedy this critical deficiency, we propose to enrich corrosion-induced cracking modelling with the analytical solution of reactive transport equations governing the precipitation of rust and a porosity-dependent description of diffusivity. With this, the corrosion concealment in RAAC panels is studied computationally for the first time, revealing that RAAC panels can suddenly collapse before any warning of corrosion-induced surface cracking and allowing to map the conditions most likely to result in sudden collapse.
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institution DOAJ
issn 2397-2106
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publishDate 2025-05-01
publisher Nature Portfolio
record_format Article
series npj Materials Degradation
spelling doaj-art-def691c1ebf347c580a5dfad3ab4b6972025-08-20T03:09:20ZengNature Portfolionpj Materials Degradation2397-21062025-05-01911810.1038/s41529-025-00596-5RAAC panels can suddenly collapse before any warning of corrosion-induced surface crackingEvžen Korec0Peter Grassl1Milan Jirásek2Hong S. Wong3Emilio Martínez-Pañeda4Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, Exhibition RoadJames Watt School of Engineering, Rankine BuildingDepartment of Mechanics, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Czech Technical University in PragueDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, Exhibition RoadDepartment of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Parks RoadAbstractś The collapse of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) panels has attracted considerable public and academic interest. As detailed experimental data are not yet available and replicating the natural corrosion process requires years or decades, computational modelling is essential to understand under which conditions corrosion remains concealed. The very high porosity of RAAC is widely suspected to be a major contributing factor. However, current corrosion-induced cracking models are known to struggle with capturing the role of concrete porosity. To remedy this critical deficiency, we propose to enrich corrosion-induced cracking modelling with the analytical solution of reactive transport equations governing the precipitation of rust and a porosity-dependent description of diffusivity. With this, the corrosion concealment in RAAC panels is studied computationally for the first time, revealing that RAAC panels can suddenly collapse before any warning of corrosion-induced surface cracking and allowing to map the conditions most likely to result in sudden collapse.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41529-025-00596-5
spellingShingle Evžen Korec
Peter Grassl
Milan Jirásek
Hong S. Wong
Emilio Martínez-Pañeda
RAAC panels can suddenly collapse before any warning of corrosion-induced surface cracking
npj Materials Degradation
title RAAC panels can suddenly collapse before any warning of corrosion-induced surface cracking
title_full RAAC panels can suddenly collapse before any warning of corrosion-induced surface cracking
title_fullStr RAAC panels can suddenly collapse before any warning of corrosion-induced surface cracking
title_full_unstemmed RAAC panels can suddenly collapse before any warning of corrosion-induced surface cracking
title_short RAAC panels can suddenly collapse before any warning of corrosion-induced surface cracking
title_sort raac panels can suddenly collapse before any warning of corrosion induced surface cracking
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41529-025-00596-5
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