A probabilistic interpretation of corrosion state through half-cell potential and electrical resistivity measures: The Flaminio Bridge in Rome

Abstract

During the last decades, non-destructive investigation approaches have played an essential role in preserving structural integrity, capacity, and finding early defects in reinforced concrete (RC) heritage affected by time-dependent degradation. One of the most widespread structural RC damages belongs to corrosion phenomena. Electro-chemical approaches stand out among the non-destructive techniques presently available for identifying corrosive problems in-situ. The latter gives some knowledge in terms of physical quantities aiming to evaluate structural conditions by collecting indirect measures. Nevertheless, results are correlated to strong interpretative scale codes, which may not always provide appropriate interpretation of the defect's identity. In the paper a probabilistic degradation model, based on a statistical interpretation of the in situ electro-chemical measurements, has been proposed with the aim to give a contribution for structural diagnosis. Finally, results are validated through structural visual inspection.