Durability Deterioration of Reinforced Concrete under Combined Carbonation and Salt Attack

Abstract

This study investigates the deterioration mechanisms of reinforced concrete incorporating mineral admixtures under combined carbonation and salt erosion. Non-destructive electrochemical techniques were employed to monitor the durability degradation process, evaluated through carbonation depth, relative dynamic elastic modulus, and electrochemical parameters including polarization curves, corrosion current density, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Microscopic analyses via X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) were utilized to elucidate the underlying deterioration mechanisms. A stochastic Wiener process-based reliability model was developed to predict the service life of reinforced concrete under different exposure conditions. The results showed that the control group exhibited the highest carbonation resistance, followed by the fly ash (FA)+ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS)+silica fume (SF) group, while the FA group and the FA+GGBS group demonstrated the lowest resistance. In the carbonation-chloride environment, the corrosion current density of the FA+GGBS group exceeded 1.0 µA·cm⁻² after 120 d, indicating a high corrosion level. In the carbonation-composite salt environment, all groups except the control reached a high corrosion level within 120 days. The durability degradation of all four concrete types in both environments conformed to the stochastic Wiener process. The predicted service lives in the carbonation-chloride environment were 1 710, 1 570, 701, and 2 210 d for the control, FA, FA+GGBS, and FA+GGBS+SF systems, respectively. In the carbonation-composite salt environment, the corresponding service lives were 1 180, 747, 633, and 755 d.

Keywords

reinforced concrete / carbonation / salt erosion / Wiener process / service life prediction

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