Trade Journals for the Concrete Industry

The corrosion of embedded steel reinforcement in concrete due to the penetration of chloride ions from deicing salts, ground water or sea water is the most prevalent form of premature concrete deterioration worldwide and costs billions of dollars a year in terms of infrastructure repair and maintenance. A large part of these expenses can be related to problems of lack of durability of the structure, thus stressing the need to design for the duration of the service life of a structure. Furthermore, structures are also ageing and the owners need an estimation of their remaining service life. During the last twenty years numerous studies have concerned chloride ingress into concrete, which is often the prevailing cause of reinforced concrete deterioration. The paper discusses service life prediction models commonly used in different parts of the world.