Service Life Prediction Of Reinforced Concrete Structures Exposed To Aggressive Environments

Summary: In this paper, the service life of structures exposed to aggre ssive environments is measured by the probability of cracking and spalling of concrete cover. The time to corrosion cracking/spalling is experimentally investigated from accelerated corrosion testing of RC slabs with the emphasis on trying to quantify the relationship between concrete quality (w/c ratio; or strength), concrete cover, crack propagation and time. The probability of cracking and spalling of concrete cover is calc ulated by using a structural deterioration life-cycle reliability model. The reliability model includes the random spatial variability of concrete compressive strength, concrete cover and the surface chloride concentration. The reliability model also includes a stochastic deterioration model that considers the random variability of chloride diffusion, threshold chloride concentration and corrosion rates. Therefore, the reliability model can be used to predict the proportion of a concrete surface likely to spall for any reference period. This is a useful criterion for predicting the service life of RC structures.