Quantification and Modeling of the Interactions of Gamma Radiation with Concrete from Bulk-Scale Observations

The exposure of concrete to gamma radiation gives rise to a set of physical and chemical processes over multiple length scales, from molecular to bulk. The literature includes a number of bulk-scale studies which report the radiogenic heating of concrete and the loss of water (unbound, physically-bound, and/or chemically-bound) due to irradiation. This paper mechanistically quantifies observations by these studies, and presents a continuum framework to model the effects of gamma photons on concrete. A basis is presented for comparing otherwise disparate results in the literature for radiolysis rates. The Stefan–Boltzmann Law, adapted to include a gamma heat source term, reasonably describes radiogenic heating in concrete specimens. In multiple studies, the primary mechanism for dehydration is the loss of liquid water in the pore network of the cement product, rather than of water which is physically or chemically bound in a solid state.