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The service life of reinforced concrete structures in an extremely aggressive coastal city. Influence of concrete quality

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Abstract

Corrosivity category of the atmosphere in coastal regions is usually very high. Reinforced structures frequently show short service life if adequate measures are not applied. Determination of time-to-corrosion-initiation (ti) and time to corrosion with induced cracking (tcc) to calculate the service life in buildings located in coastal cities is not usually performed. Changes in ti and tcc, depending on the w/c ratio, and concrete covering thickness, were determined in extremely aggressive coastal outdoor exposure site located within 10 m of the shoreline in Havana, one of the most aggressive coastal sites in the world. The electrochemical corrosion rate was determined in the reinforced concrete specimens. It is a very important parameter to follow environmental degradation of concrete. Environmental parameters were determined at the site. Calculated Chloride deposition rate is over the maximum level established in ISO 9223 standard (S3). Effective capillary porosity, compressive strength and ultrasonic pulse velocity were determined for all specimens. An acceptable service life was obtained for w/c ratio 0.4. However, effective capillary porosity is an important parameter to determine the concrete quality assessment before building reinforced structures exposed to extreme corrosivity. It is recommended to consider this parameter to predict a service life in very aggressive coastal sites.

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Acknowledgements

The authors greatly acknowledge the support by Technological Develop Division of the Ministry of Building of Cuba for the execution of this research work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Material Protection Group, Environment Division, National Center for Scientific Research, Havana, Cuba

    Abel Castañeda-Valdés

  2. Corrosion Research Center (CICORR), Autonomous University of Campeche, Av. Agustin Melgar s/n, Col. Buenavista, San Francisco de Campeche, CP 24039, Campeche, Mexico

    Francisco Corvo

  3. Engineering School, Technological University of Havana, Havana, Cuba

    Rigoberto Marrero-Águila & Alejandro Fernández-Domínguez

  4. Academic Division of Architecture and Engineering, Universidad Juarez Autónoma de Tabasco, Villahermosa, Mexico

    Ebelia Del Angel-Meraz

Authors
  1. Abel Castañeda-Valdés
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  2. Francisco Corvo
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  4. Alejandro Fernández-Domínguez
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Correspondence to Francisco Corvo.

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Castañeda-Valdés, A., Corvo, F., Marrero-Águila, R. et al. The service life of reinforced concrete structures in an extremely aggressive coastal city. Influence of concrete quality. Mater Struct 56, 12 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-023-02100-4

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