Comparison of Resistance to Chloride Penetration of Different Types of Concrete through Migration and Ponding Tests

Abstract

Recently, performance-based methods using probabilistic approaches have been proposed to allow a quantitative evaluation of the service life of a structure with respect to reinforcement corrosion. In these models the resistance of concrete to chloride penetration is evaluated by means of accelerated tests that provide specific parameters, e.g. an apparent chloride diffusion coefficient. These parameters can be used to predict the chloride penetration in a structure only if they are corrected through coefficients that take into account the real environmental exposure conditions. However there is a lack of information about the relationship between long term performance of concrete and results of short term tests. Data on concretes of different compositions from accelerated tests should be compared to data from real structures or, at least, with results of medium term tests on specimens exposed to conditions more similar to that of real structures. In this work the resistance to chloride penetration of different types of concrete was measured by means of the rapid chloride migration test and 1-year ponding test. The role of concrete composition on the resistance to chloride penetration was assessed and the correlation between results of the two tests was investigated.