Optimization of experiment methodology based on identification of parameters in concrete drying

The water transport especially drying process in concrete has a significant influence on its structural durability and stability. However, the inconsistent values of parameters in drying model studies increases the difficulty in predicting the drying process of cementitious materials. In this work, an experimental-numerical-identification coupling approach is developed, based on the non-linear diffusion model, in order to optimize the parameters in drying model, and find out the optimal experiment methodology of concrete drying. Two different geometries of concrete samples are involved, which represent for two drying patterns (prismatic lateral drying and cylindrical radius drying). In the experiment test, both global (mass loss) and local (relative humidity) information are monitored, and the corresponding simulation results are obtained by CAST3M with finite element method. At last, an identification process is performed based on Levenberg-Marquart algorithm, and the optimization combination of parameters are obtained. The analysis of the relative variation of parameters allows to find out the optimization of experiment approach, including test duration and numbers and positions of humidity sensors.