Stochastic evaluation of active corroding areas in concrete structures

The service life of reinforced concrete structures strongly depends on the durability of the used materials. The reinforcement often deteriorates due to chloride-induced corrosion. Nowadays, fully probabilistic design models are available that allow prediction of service life of new structures as well as condition assessment of existing structures. The initiation time, i.e. the time span until the chloride content surrounding the reinforcement reaches a critical level below which depassivation takes place and the degradation period with active corrosion begins. At the point in time when the corrosion process is initiated, corroding areas can only be detected non-destructively with the aid of potential mapping measurements. Hereby, the spatial information gained in executing potential mapping can be used for updating the service life prediction with consideration of the spatial variability of the corrosion process. A more accurate condition assessment of the structure can therefore be provided. This paper presents a case study for spatial updating of the service life prediction with potential mapping.     «

The service life of reinforced concrete structures strongly depends on the durability of the used materials. The reinforcement often deteriorates due to chloride-induced corrosion. Nowadays, fully probabilistic design models are available that allow prediction of service life of new structures as well as condition assessment of existing structures. The initiation time, i.e. the time span until the chloride content surrounding the reinforcement reaches a critical level below which depassivat...     »