The service life of reinforced concrete structures in an extremely aggressive coastal city. Influence of concrete quality

Corrosivity category of the atmosphere in coastal regions is usually very high. Reinforced structures frequently show short service life if adequate measures are not applied. Determination of time-to-corrosion-initiation (t(i)) and time to corrosion with induced cracking (t(cc)) to calculate the service life in buildings located in coastal cities is not usually performed. Changes in t(i) and t(cc), depending on the w/c ratio, and concrete covering thickness, were determined in extremely aggressive coastal outdoor exposure site located within 10 m of the shoreline in Havana, one of the most aggressive coastal sites in the world. The electrochemical corrosion rate was determined in the reinforced concrete specimens. It is a very important parameter to follow environmental degradation of concrete. Environmental parameters were determined at the site. Calculated Chloride deposition rate is over the maximum level established in ISO 9223 standard (S3). Effective capillary porosity, compressive strength and ultrasonic pulse velocity were determined for all specimens. An acceptable service life was obtained for w/c ratio 0.4. However, effective capillary porosity is an important parameter to determine the concrete quality assessment before building reinforced structures exposed to extreme corrosivity. It is recommended to consider this parameter to predict a service life in very aggressive coastal sites.