Modeling of chloride penetration into concrete under airborne chloride environmental conditions combined with washout effects

Abstract

In marine environments, deterioration of concrete infrastructures under airborne chloride attack is a common problem, which raises the need for a reliable prediction model of airborne chloride penetration into concrete structures to evaluate the service life of concrete structures. This study proposes a time-dependent computational model for predicting the amount of airborne chloride ingress into concrete under actual environmental conditions. The proposed model calculates the amount of chloride penetration by considering the amount of advection and diffusion of airborne chloride on the concrete surface. To compute the amount of airborne chloride penetration, the proportion of dry and wet sections on the concrete surface is assumed, and to ensure accurate prediction of chloride penetration into concrete structures under actual environment conditions, the washout effect of rainfall is taken into account in the calculation. The proposed model was verified through comparison of the experimental and on-site measurement results.