Accelerated testing and modeling of concrete durability subjected to coupled environmental and mechanical loading

Abstract

This chapter focuses on studying chloride penetration in concrete for evaluating the corrosion of reinforcing bars in concrete. The corrosion of steel bars starts at a certain level of chloride concentration, which is called the critical chloride concentration. In the literature, the critical chloride concentration varies in a very broad range, due to random nature of related parameters. One of the important aspects of the present analysis is that the probabilistic feature of the critical chloride concentration at a given depth in concrete can be evaluated. More specifically, the probability of occurrence of the event that the location of the critical chloride concentration is lower than a given target location can be effectively determined. The given target location could be the depth of concrete cover on a steel bar. Similar to reliability analysis for structural failure, one can use the concepts of supply and demand. The present model calculates the probability for the corrosion to occur considering both the chloride penetration front and the critical value as random variables.