Concrete deterioration in Colombian urban atmospheres

Abstract

The combination of atmospheric pollutants, such as carbon dioxide and chlorides has a synergistic effect accelerating the degradation process of concrete. However, in Colombia it has not been carried out field tests inreal urban environments to assess the deterioration of concrete and its relation to both, carbonation and chloride content. In this work, cylindrical concrete probes were exposed in different urban atmospheres with the aim of establishing correlations between the concrete deterioration and the type of atmosphere. To evaluate the corrosion rate on the rebar and the percentage of carbonated probe, Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) and physicochemical tests with phenolphthalein were used, respectively.

Keywords

• concrete
• atmospheric deterioration
• carbon dioxide
• chlorides
• EIS