Chloride-induced corrosion of reinforced concrete bridge decks

A closed-form solution is developed to predict the corrosion initiation time of reinforced concrete bridge decks using measured time varying surface chloride accumulations. The data base for the surface chlorides are core measurements at a shallow depth below the surface of 15 bridge decks in the snow belt region. The data base was collected during the bridges' biennial inspections over a period of 15 years. Regression analysis is used to represent the surface chlorides by an exponential variation with time. The time predicted to initiate corrosion is computed for different values of the effective diffusion coefficient and the concrete cover thickness. The results are compared to the constant surface accumulation model commonly used in the literature. As expected, the corrosion initiation based on constant chloride accumulation at the surface is faster (in some case by up to 100%) than the initiation time calculated from actual chloride concentration data. Such results arc useful for the realistic estimation of the service lives of bridge decks and for scheduling bridge deck maintenance and rehabilitation programs. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.