Probabilistic approach for durability design of concrete structures in marine environments

Corrosion of steel reinforcement due to chloride penetration is a major deterioration mechanism of reinforced concrete (RC) structures exposed to marine environments. In the present paper, a probabilistic model is presented to predict the chloride penetration profile in concrete and the risk of steel corrosion considering the time dependence of both the diffusion coefficient and the surface chloride concentration of concrete. Abundant field data from two projects in China and Japan are respectively collected. The consistency between these field data and the model prediction verified the reliability of this probabilistic model, based on which further parametric analyses were carried out to investigate the effects of different design variables on the probability of steel corrosion.