Cementitious and ceramic material engineering

EX_1 PREVENTION

1. Concrete structure under carbonation

A reinforced concrete structure has to be built in Milan. The requested service life is 50 years.
a) Determine the concrete cover and the W/C ratio in order to assure the requested service
life (for practical reasons, concrete cover has to be lower than 30 mm), being corrosion
rate equal to 5 m/y and the maximum corrosion penetration equal to 100 m.
b) Due to error during the casting of a concrete pillar, in some areas the real cover is 10 mm,
in some others is 40 mm. Estimate the different durability of the pillar (use the same
concrete selected in a). After how many years a repair is mandatory ? Where?
c) How does service life change, if, during casting, the concrete at the bottom of the pillar is
not well constipated?

0
1
2
3
4
5
6
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Time (y)
D
e
p
t
h

(
c
m
)
porous - W/C 0.6
medium quality - W/C 0.5
compact - W/C 0.4

Carbonation profile for concretes with different quality



2. Concrete structures exposed to seawater

A jetty is cast with the following concrete mixture proportion: W/C ratio 0.45, cement
360 kg/m
3
and cover 35 mm (as suggested by standards).
a) Estimate the service life, being the chloride surface content equal to 3% vs cement weight,
diffusion coefficient 10
8
cm
2
/s, critical chloride content 0.5% vs cement weight.
Comment on the results. How the mixture proportion has to be modified to match the 50 years
service life? Which preventative techniques you may consider to use to increase service life?


0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
depth (cm)
C
h
l
o
r
i
d
e
s

(
%

v
s

c
e
m
)
10 y
20 y
50 y

Chlorides profile (D =10
8
cm
2
/s)

0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
depth (cm)
C
h
l
o
r
i
d
e
s

(
%

v
s

c
e
m
)
OPC (D =1 cm2/s)
OPC +low W/C (D =0,4 cm2/s)
Cem IV (D =0,1 cm2/s)
50 years

Chlorides profile after 50 years for concrete with different diffusion
coefficient