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

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.