Influence of weather and global warming in chloride ingress into concrete: a stochastic approach

Emilio Bastidas-Arteaga (1) , Alaa Chateauneuf (2) , Mauricio Sánchez-Silva (3) , Philippe Bressolette (2) , Franck Schoefs (4)

1 TRUST - Contrôle de santé fiabilité et calcul des structures
2 IP - Institut Pascal
3 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
4 GeM - Institut de Recherche en Génie Civil et Mécanique

Reinforced concrete (RC) structures are subject to environmental actions affecting their performance, serviceability and safety. Among these actions, chloride ingress leads to corrosion and has been recognized as a critical factor reducing the service life of RC structures. This paper presents a stochastic approach to study the influence of weather conditions and global warming on chloride ingress into concrete. The assessment of chloride ingress is carried out on the basis of a comprehensive model that couples the effects of convection, chloride binding, concrete aging, temperature and humidity. A simplified model of temperature and humidity including seasonal variations and global warming is also proposed in this work. Three scenarios of global warming are defined based on: gas emissions, global population growth, introduction of new and clean technologies and use of fossil sources of energy. The proposed approach is illustrated by a numerical example where it is found that the climate changes may yield to significant lifetime reductions. These results justify the implementation of countermeasures directed to (1) reduce and/or mitigate the action of global warming on weather and (2) minimize the impact of climate changes on RC structures.

Mots clés: Global warming; stochastic modeling; reliability; chloride ingress; corrosion; reinforced concrete

Domaines: Génie civil

Emilio Bastidas-Arteaga, Alaa Chateauneuf, Mauricio Sánchez-Silva, Philippe Bressolette, Franck Schoefs. Influence of weather and global warming in chloride ingress into concrete: a stochastic approach. Structural Safety, 2010, 32 (4), pp.238-249. ⟨10.1016/j.strusafe.2010.03.002⟩. ⟨hal-00796726⟩