Reliability-based durability design and service life assessment of reinforced concrete deck slab of jetty structures

Reinforced concrete (RC) structures in a marine environment deteriorate with time due to chloride-induced corrosion of reinforcing bars. Since the RC deck slabs of jetty structures are exposed to a very aggressive environment, higher deterioration rates can develop. In this paper, a reliability-based durability design and service life assessment of RC jetty structures are presented. For new RC jetty structures, the concrete quality and concrete cover necessary to prevent the chloride-induced reinforcement corrosion causing the deterioration of structural performance during the whole lifetime could be determined. Based on the airborne chloride hazard depending on the vertical distance from the sea level surface to the RC deck slab, the probability associated with the steel corrosion initiation is estimated. The water to cement ratio and concrete cover to satisfy the target reliability level are provided. For evaluating the service life of existing structures, the condition state based on the visual inspection of RC structure can be provided. The deterioration process of the RC jetty structure can be modelled as a Markov process. Therefore, the transition probability matrix at time t after construction can be updated by visual inspection results. A procedure to update the transition probability matrix by the Sequential Monte Carlo Simulation method is indicated. In an illustrative example, the effect of the updating on the life-cycle reliability estimate of existing RC deck slab in a jetty structure subjected to the chloride attack is presented.