Modeling of Chloride Concentration Effect on Reinforcement Corrosion

The corrosion of reinforcement is one of the major causes of deterioration of reinforced concrete (RC) structures, considerably affecting their durability and reliability. The rate of reinforcement corrosion is governed by, among other factors, the presence of chlorides on the surface of the steel. The assessment of such deteriorating effects necessitates the development of relevant models and utilization of advanced simulation techniques to enable the probabilistic analysis of concrete structures. In this paper an approach for the assessment of RC structures’ durability and reliability under the attack of chlorides is introduced. The concentration of chlorides in time is modelled by a cellular automata technique. This simulation is utilized for the assessment of steel corrosion based on experimental results and on modification of models adopted from the literature. The