Water Content of Concrete in Natural Atmospheres and its Impact in the Corrosion Parameters

Title: Water Content of Concrete in Natural Atmospheres and its Impact in the Corrosion Parameters
Author(s): C. Andrade, A. Castillo
Paper category : conference
Book title: International RILEM Conference on Material Science
Editor(s): W. Brameshuber
Print-ISBN: 978-2-35158-108-7
e-ISBN: 978-2-35158-109-4
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Publication year: 2010
Pages: 43 - 51
Total Pages: 9
Nb references: 14
Language: English

Abstract: Concrete moisture is the most important parameter controlling the risk of degradation in spite of which, there are very scarce works in which the water content of concrete has been monitored. There have been very numerous studies on concrete moisture and its evolution when changing the external conditions in controlled chambers in isothermal conditions. However, the exposure to natural atmospheres subjected to climate changes induce permanent non steady-state situations due to the evolution of temperature and events such as snow and rain which make the water content very difficult to be predicted as it is necessary first to have the prediction of the climate itself. In present paper the monitoring of external and internal relative humidity, RH, temperature, T, and rain amount have been measured together with the weight of several concretes submitted to different climates, in order to model the concrete water content and the internal RH which is very much dependent on the temperature regime. A set of equations are proposed as an algorithm for predicting the water content in any climate. In parallel to the water content, the corrosion parameters were monitored in embedded bars. The corrosion potential, resistivity and corrosion rate show their strong dependence on the temperature and water content. Expressions were fitted to relate degree of saturation and the corrosion parameters. The energy of activation of them results not constant as was previously detected.

Online publication: 2010-12-02
Publication type : full_text
Public price (Euros): 0.00