• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.29 no.1A
• /
• pp.75-84
• /
• 2009

The present study assesses the chloride threshold level for corrosion of steel in concrete by examining the properties of four different binders used for blended concrete in terms of chloride binding, buffering of cement matrix to a pH fall and the corrosion behaviour. As binders, ordinary Portland cement (OPC), 30% pulverised fuel ash (PFA), 60% ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) and 10% silica fume (SF) were used in a concrete mix. Testing for chloride binding was carried out using the water extraction method, the buffering of cement matrix was assessed by measuring the resistance to an artificial acidification of nitric acid, and the corrosion rate of steel in mortar with chlorides in cast was measured at 28 days using an anodic polarisation technique. Results show that the chloride binding capacity was much affected by $C_{3}A$ content and physical adsorption, and its order was 60% GGBS>30% PFA>OPC>10% SF. The buffering of cement matrix to a pH fall was varied with binder type and given values of the pH. From the result of corrosion test, it was found that the chloride threshold ranged 1.03, 0.65, 0.45 and 0.98% by weight of cement for OPC, 30% PFA, 60% GGBS and 10% SF respectively, assuming that corrosion starts at the corrosion rate of $0.1-0.2{\mu}A/cm^{2}$. The mole ratio of [$Cl^{-}$]:[$H^{+}$], as a new presentation of the chloride threshold, indicated the value of 0.008-0.009, irrespective of binder, which would be indicative of the inhibitive characteristic of binder.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.14 no.6
• /
• pp.883-891
• /
• 2002

The chloride penetration in concrete structures is influenced by many factors such as types of cement and admixture proportion. Therefore, the effects of these factors on chloride diffusion must be correctly considered. The conventional diffusion analysis also neglected the existence of reinforcing bar in concrete structures. The purpose of the present paper is therefore to investigate the effect of reinforcing bar on the chloride diffusion in concrete structures. For this purpose, a comprehensive finite element analyses have been conducted to obtain chloride penetration profile. The results indicate that the chlorides are accumulated in front of a reinforcing bar and that the accumulation is much larger for the case of large diameter bars. The higher accumulation of chloride at bar location causes much faster corrosion of reinforcing steel. It can be concluded from the present study that the effects of reinforcing bars must be considered in chloride diffusion analysis for more realistic prediction of durable life of concrete structures.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
• /
• 2008.04a
• /
• pp.549-552
• /
• 2008

Corrosion of reinforcing steel is prohibited under normal condition by the alkalinity of the pore water in the concrete. But the probability of steel corrosion becomes higher when the chloride ions are introduced into the concrete. Steel corrosion is decisive factor for the determination of service life of the marine concrete structures because chloride ions are abundant in the sea. In this paper, chloride penetration analysis for the rectangular pier in the marine environment is performed considering the diffusion movement of chlorides. Result reveals that the chloride concentration in the corner bar is higher than that of in the side bar with rectangular pier. Also the time to the specified accumulation of chloride in the corner bar is much shorter than that in the side bar. Because the corrosion initiation time of corner bar is half as much as that of side bar, service life for the rectangular pier in marine environment should be determined with respect to the coner bar.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.142-154
• /
• 2011

This study predicted the probability of corrosion initiation of reinforced concrete tunnel boxes structures using the Monte Carlo Simulation. For the inner wall and outer wall in the tunnel boxes, exposed to airborne chloride ion and seawater directly respectively, statistical values of parameters like diffusion coefficient D, surface chloride content $C_s$, cover depth c, and the chloride threshold level $C_{lim}$ were examined from experiment or literature review. Their average values accounted for $3.77{\times}10^{-12}m^2/s$, 3.0% by weight of cement, 94.7mm and 45.5mm for outer wall and inner wall, respectively, and 0.69% by weight of cement for D, $C_s$, c, and $C_{lim}$, respectively. With these parametric values, the distribution of chloride contents at rebar with time and the probability of corrosion initiation of the tunnel boxes, inner wall and outer wall, was examined by considering time dependency of chloride transport. From the examination, the histogram of chloride contents at rebar is closer to a gamma distribution, and the mean value increases with time, while the coefficient of variance decreases with time. It was found that the probability of corrosion initiation and the time to corrosion were dependent on the time dependency of chloride transport. Time independent model predicted time to corrosion initiation of inner wall and outer wall as 8 and 12 years, respectively, while 178 and 283 years of time to corrosion was calculated by time dependent model for inner wall and outer wall, respectively. For time independent model, the probability of corrosion at 100 years of exposure for inner wall and outer wall was ranged 59.5 and 95.5%, respectively, while time dependent model indicated 2.9 and 0.2% of the probability corrosion, respectively. Finally, impact of $C_{lim}$, including values specified in current codes, on the probability of corrosion initiation and corrosion free life is discussed.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.26 no.4A
• /
• pp.753-759
• /
• 2006

To predict service life of concrete structures exposed to chloride attack, surface chloride concentration, diffusion coefficient of chloride ion, and chloride corrosion threshold value in concrete, are used as important factors. Of these, as the diffusion coefficient of chloride ion for concrete is strongly influenced by concrete quality and environmental conditions of structures and may significantly change the service life of structures, it is considered as the most important factor for service life prediction. The qualitative factors affecting the penetration and diffusion of chloride ion into concrete are water-cement (W/C) ratio, age, curing conditions, chloride ion concentration of given environment, wet and dry conditions, etc. In this paper the influence of W/C ratio and curing conditions on the diffusion characteristics of chloride ion in concrete was investigated through the chloride ion diffusion test. In the test, the voltages passing through the diffusion cell were measured by accelerated test method using potential difference, and then with the consideration of IR drop ratio the diffusion coefficient of chloride ion for concrete with different W/C ratios were estimated by Andrade's model. Furthermore, under different curing conditions formulas for the estimation of the diffusion coefficient of chloride ion have been proposed by the regression analysis considering the effect of W/C ratio and age.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.223-230
• /
• 2006

In this paper the method for repair LCC evaluation of reinforced concrete structures deteriorated by chloride attack was constructed. Also, the FEM analysis for chloride ion penetration into concrete was conducted to evaluate the repair LCC which was decided by the number of repair times including early stages of construction and repair construction during the service life of structures. As a result, the number of repair times is obtained from the comparing the concentration of the chloride ion in a rebar position, and the critical chloride ion concentration of rebar corrosion through the FEM analysis considering the kind of repair materials and methods. Also, the repair LCC could be calculated by the number of repair times during the service life of structures.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.19 no.5
• /
• pp.585-593
• /
• 2007

This paper presents a model for durability evaluation of concrete structures exposed to marine environment, considering mainly a build-up of surface chloride $(C_s)$ as well as diffusion coefficient (D) and chloride threshold level $(C_{lim})$. In this study, time dependency of $C_s$ and D were extensively studied for more accurate evaluation of service life of concrete structures. An analytical solution to the Fick's second law was presented for prediction of chloride ingress for time varying $C_s$. For the time varying $C_s$, a refined model using a logarithm function for time dependent $C_s$ was proposed by the regression analysis, and averaging integrated values of the D with time over exposed duration were calculated and then used for prediction of the chloride ingress to consider time dependency of D. Durability design was also carried out for railway concrete structures exposed to marine environment to ensure 100 years of service life by using the proposed models along with the standard specification on durability in Korea. The proposed model was verified by the so-called performance-based durability design, which is widely used in Europe. Results show that the standard specification underestimates durability performances of concrete structures exposed to marine environment, so the cover depth design using current durability evaluation in the standard specifications is very much conservative. Therefore, it is found that utilizing proposed models considering time dependent characteristics of $C_s$ and D can evaluate service lift of concrete structures in marine environment more accurately.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.206-213
• /
• 2024

The present study concerns the inhibition of Calcium Nitrite Inhibitor(Ca(NO₂)₂) in mortar contaminated by chloride ions. Thus, the corrosion resistance and chloride transport were measured for the mortar containing calcium nitrite inhibitor. As a result, an increase in the dosage of calcium nitrite inhibitor resulted in an increase in the chloride threshold concentration for reinforcement corrosion, while the rate of chloride transport was accelerated. However, the calcium nitrite inhibitor could not guarantee the time to corrosion, due to the increased mobility of chlorides. To ensure the passivity of steel, the dosage of calcium nitrite inhibitor must exceed a certain dosage, ranging from 2.0~3.0 % by cement weight.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.193-203
• /
• 1999

The corrosion of steel reinforcements in concrete is of great concern in recent years. This study is focused on the corrosion behavior of steel bars induced by internal chlorides in concrete at early ages. The main objective of this study is to determine the chloride thresholds causing depassivation and active corrosion of steel reinforcement in concrete. To examine the threshold concentration of chloride ion, the half-cell potential, chemical composition of expressed pore solutions of concrete and the rate of corosion area of the specimens were measured. Major variables include the added amount of chlorides in concrete, types of binders, and water-to-binder ration. From the present comprehensive experimental results, the factors influencing chloride-induced corrosion are investigated, and the chloride thresholds causing active corrosion of steel bars are proposed. The present study will enable to specify the realistic chloride limit in concrete which can be used in the future technical specification.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
• /
• 2008.04a
• /
• pp.497-500
• /
• 2008

In order to prevent deterioration of reinforced concrete structures exposed to marine environment, performance based durability design than the design by conventional deemed-to-satisfy rule should be concerned. For example, even though chloride threshold level, which is a major parameter for durability design, is defined as a 1.2 $kg/m^3$ in the Korean concrete specification, it shows that the chloride threshold level leads to over design in its real application so that realistic value should be determined for the performance design. In this paper, not only the probabilistic properties of chloride threshold level obtained from published data are taken into account, but also the experimental results of the probabilistic properties using surface chloride content, diffusion coefficient, cover depth are considered in the assessment utilizing the concept of performance based durability design. In computation, the Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) is used to perform an assessment due to chloride attack for a target submerged tunnel box. This study found that the specification on current chloride threshold level should be modified for more rational and accurate assessment and design.