CORROSION INITIATION TIME OF REINFORCED CONCRETE STRUCTURES IN MARINE ENVIRONMENT - A PROBABILISTIC APPROACH

An approximate explicit method from literature to estimate the corrosion initiation time of steel reinforcement in concrete is developed to incorporate random variables which affect the diffusion rate. The method accounts for uncertainties of input parameters and predicate expected time of first corrosion for the chosen risk of corrosion and its variance. Method is also utilized to rank the sensitive parameters to initiate steel reinforcement corrosion. Corrosion is initiated when the chloride concentration on steel reinforcement exceeds a threshold value. Corrosion initiation time is useful for owner, designer, or to an organization to take decision in time of priority of repairs, repair strategy, corrosion protection in order to optimize maintenance planning and budgeting. Planned maintenance at the optimum time is the safest and most cost effective approach.