Degradation of reinforced concrete: Some lessons from research and practice

This paper is based on an invited contribution to the International RILEM Workshop on Present and Future Durability Challenges of Reinforced Concrete Structures held in Zurich on 1718 April 2012. It records the author's experience of lessons learnt over the past 40 years from research and practical investigations that have been made into various problems associated with the degradation of reinforced and pre-stressed concrete structures. It highlights some of the main difficulties that are associated with accelerated testing and modelling of very long-term degradation phenomena such as those involved in corrosion of steel in concrete, alkalisilica reaction and the thaumasite form of sulphate attack.