A Numerical Simulation of the Electrical Resistivity of Concrete Pavements Containing Steel Fibers

This paper investigates the application of surface electrical resistivity measures to assess the durability of concrete pavements containing steel fibers. Electrical resistivity testing has become a popular method to predict the service life of concrete with a good correlation with the chloride penetration testing results. The application of surface resistivity follows the same trends for in-service materials. However, the steel reinforcement in concrete elements, including pavements introduces sources of errors in such measure. Existing literature offers techniques to minimize such errors in conventional reinforcements with the orderly spatial distribution of steel bars. The presented investigation utilized numerical simulations to identify challenges introduced by randomly distributed steel fibers in concrete pavements. Results address expected errors in surface electrical resistivity caused by short steel fibers in standard specimens and analyze these errors with respect to properties and characteristics of steel fibers and their spatial distributions within the body of the concrete. Conclusions include an assessment of errors and offer modification factors for realistic conditions.