Predicting the life cycle durability and ecological performance of cementitious coatings with a fuzzy‐stochastics–based approach

Abstract

Cementitious coating effectively prevents chloride‐induced corrosion in offshore reinforced concrete (RC) structures. Strain hardening cementitious composites (SHCC) is a class of advanced cementitious composites with superior ductility and durability. Due to the lack of long‐term test data, the current probability‐based design guidelines may not be applicable to SHCC coating. This paper develops a fuzzy‐stochastic–based approach to assess the durability performance of coatings using cement mortar and engineered cementitious composites (ECC), a specific type of SHCC. The age factor and the mean of chloride diffusion coefficient are modeled as fuzzy variables, and the chloride diffusion coefficient follows Gaussian distribution. Based on limited test data and subjective opinion, membership functions are proposed for the mean of initial chloride diffusion coefficient and the age factor of cement and ECC. To achieve equivalent durability performance of cement mortar coating, the amount of uncracked and cracked ECC coating are estimated to be around 33% and 25%, respectively. Based on equivalent durability performance, life cycle assessment (LCA) is conducted to compare the ecological performance of the two coatings. A case study, based on a 25‐m‐long simply supported box girder in Shenzhen Bay, is given to elaborate the proposed approach and the evaluation results of durability performance and ecological impacts.