Influence of weather and global warming in chloride ingress into concrete: A stochastic approach

Abstract

a b s t r a c tReinforced concrete (RC) structures are subjected to environmental actions affecting their performance, serviceability and safety. Among these actions, chloride ingress leads to corrosion and has been recognized as a critical factor reducing service life of RC structures. This paper presents a stochastic approach to study the influence of weather conditions and global warming on chloride ingress into concrete. The assessment of chloride ingress is carried out on the basis of a comprehensive model that couples the effects of convection, chloride binding, concrete aging, temperature and humidity. A simplified model of temperature and humidity including seasonal variations and global warming is also proposed in this work. Three scenarios of global warming are defined based on: gas emissions, global population growth, introduction of new and clean technologies and use of fossil sources of energy. The proposed approach is illustrated by a numerical example where the preliminary results indicate that climate changes may yield to significant lifetime reductions.

Impacts of Global Warming and Sea Level Rise on Service Life of Chloride-Exposed Concrete Structures

“…This original point of time can be taken into account by using Equation (14). In the numerator of Equation (14), the lower bound of the integral represents this original point of time period; therefore, a value of "0" refers to the year 2000.…”

“…Reductions in service life for different situations were calculated. Bastidas-Arteaga et al [14,15] modeled chloride-induced corrosion considering the coupling effect among chloride ingress, moisture diffusion, and heat transfer. Crack initiation and propagation for different global warming scenarios were calculated.…”

“…However, the previous studies [12][13][14][15][16][17] mainly focused on the effect of global warming on chloride ingress. The effect of sea level rise on chloride ingress was not considered in the studies [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. With the rise in sea level, the distance between the coast and structure decreases, the surface chloride concentration increases, and, consequently, the rate of chloride ingress and the rate of corrosion both increase as well.…”

“…Since the rise in sea level was not taken into account, previous models [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] underestimate the rates of chloride ingress and steel corrosion and overestimate the service life of coastal concrete. To address the weak points of previous studies [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17], this study considers the effect of sea level rise on service life.…”

“…To address the weak points of previous studies [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17], this study considers the effect of sea level rise on service life. A probabilistic model is proposed for evaluating the service life of coastal concrete structures resulting from global warming and sea level rise.…”