Abstract:
In this paper we consider a drying and wetting process in porous medium
to create a mathematical model for concrete carbonation. The process is assumed to be
characterized by the growth of the air zone and a diffusion of moisture in the air zone.
Under the assumption we proposed a one-dimensional free boundary problem describing
adsorption phenomena in a porous medium. The free boundary problem it to find a curve
representing the air zone and the relative humidity of the air zone. For the problem we
also established existence, uniqueness and a large time behavior of solutions. Here, by
improving the method for uniform estimates we can show the existence of a periodic
solution of the problem. Also, the extension method is applied in the proof. This idea
is quite important and new since the value of the humidity on the free boundary is
unknown.
Keywords:free boundary problem, periodic solution, fixed point argument.