3 - Impact of climate change on the service life of concrete structures

Abstract

Information concerning the degradation processes of concrete structures is essential for the design of optimized projects and the execution of more durable structures and also for the development of maintenance and rehabilitation actions in existing structures. Many of these processes are closely related to the climate variables of the external environment. The main climate variables that interfere with the concrete degradation mechanisms are temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, wind, waves, and tides. The knowledge about the performance of the environmental variables in the degradation mechanisms needs constant updating, mainly due to climatic changes. In general, climate change is any change in weather over time that remains for a long time. The main concern of modern society is, however, the human-induced climate change caused by unsustainable energy use, land use, lifestyle, and patterns of consumption and production, which corresponds to more than a century of greenhouse gas emissions. This issue has become of great concern in practically all sectors of society since the consequences of climate change are already present on the planet Earth. Extreme hydrological events are closely related to climate change and the extent and number of regions affected by these weather events have been growing significantly in recent years. This chapter discusses some effects of climatic variables on concrete durability. Some scenarios of climate change were analyzed. These scenarios describe adjustment actions to reduce impacts related to climate change, strategically assessing the responses and implications of limiting emissions of anthropogenic origin, mainly from a global perspective, but also from the perspective of individual nations. The influence of climate change on the penetration of chloride ions into concrete structures was studied from a numerical application about the corrosion of reinforcements in the marine environment on the Brazilian coast climate. This chapter shows that, especially in the long term, climate change can contribute to reducing the service life of concrete structures.