| Author: | Wen, Jinxing |
| Title: | A probabilistic approach for durability design of concrete structures in marine environments |
| Degree: | M.Sc. |
| Year: | 2011 |
| Subject: | Reinforced concrete construction. Concrete -- Corrosion. Offshore structures -- Design and construction. Marine engineering. Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Department of Civil and Structural Engineering |
| Pages: | 112 leaves : ill. (some col.) ; 30 cm. |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | For reinforced concrete (RC) structures exposed to marine environments, a major deterioration mechanism is corrosion of the embedded steel reinforcement due to penetration of chloride ions. In the past, a deterministic method was usually used for the service life prediction of RC structures subjected to chloride ingress. However, since both the material properties of concrete and environmental exposure conditions exhibit a large scatter, chloride penetration in concrete is a random process and the time when the chloride ion concentration at the steel surface reaches a threshold value leading to the initiation of steel corrosion, is a random variable, a probability-based life period prediction method is more reasonable and of a more scientific basis. This dissertation thereby aims to gain an in-depth understanding of the probability- based durability design of RC structures in marine environments and develop a probabilistic approach to predict their service life based on the Fick's Second Law and the Monte Carlo analytical method. The major work done in the dissertation includes: (1) the time-dependent behavior of those major factors influencing the durability design of RC structures in marine environments; (2) the probabilistic distribution of the influential design factors and their calibration through field test data; (3) a service life model based on the Fick's Second Law and the Monte Carlo analytical method to predict the probability of steel corrosion initiation to a given service time; (4) verification of the probabilistic model using the field test data; and (5) sensitivity analyses for the effects of all major influential design parameters on the probability of steel corrosion initiation based on the verified model. It was found that of the developed probability-based service life prediction model can predict well the chloride penetration in the concrete through comparison with the field exposure data. The analysis also showed that fly ash concrete is much more durable than ordinary Portland concrete (OPC) in marine environments. The sensitivity analysis showed how influential the change of each design parameter could be to the probability of the corrosion of the steel reinforcement, so that an optimized solution can be found for an expected service life. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
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| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b24629200.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 2.58 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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