Influence of temporal resolution and processing of exposure data on modeling of chloride ingress and reinforcement corrosion in concrete

The impacts of temporal resolution and processing of exposure data on the long-term chloride ingress and reinforcement corrosion in concrete were studied. Exposure data from one simulated and two real climates was processed to create boundary conditions for a one-dimensional geometry studied using a numerical heat and mass transport model that includes full coupling of heat, moisture and ion transport.

Heat, moisture, and chloride concentration distributions were passed to a simplified reinforcement corrosion initiation and propagation model. The numerical study indicates that processing and temporal resolution of the exposure data has a considerable impact on long-term hygrothermal distribution, chloride ingress, and reinforcement section loss results.

Use of time-averaged exposure data in the heat and mass transport model reduces the rate of chloride ingress in concrete and affects prediction of reinforcement corrosion initiation and propagation. Randomly sampled exposure data at daily, weekly, or monthly resolution yields prediction of reinforcement corrosion initiation and propagation closer to original resolution results than time-averaged exposure data.