2D/3D Numerical Analyses of Corrosion Initiation in RC Structures Accounting Fluctuations of Chloride Ions by External Actions

Abstract

The diffusion of chloride ions in reinforced concrete (RC) varies in space and time, depending on many uncertain factors as material properties, temperature, aging, humidity and external loadings. In this paper, the goals are to provide different scenarios to probabilistic assessing of the corrosion initiation time and chloride ions content inside concrete considering different fluctuations. For the former, stochastic analyses helps to estimate the service life in RC; for the latter, the focus is on the nature of loading variation due to location and structural constraints that usually are not considered. The approach consist in studying the trend of chloride ion particles regarding the action of the external loadings by incorporating a function with random values. The governing equations are modified to account for the non-constant diffusivity under transient conditions. Results show that the chloride content for random diffusivity assumes lower values than for constant diffusivity. Moreover, in 2D analysis the chloride content is lesser of 78% than in 3D analysis.