Service Life Modeling of Chloride Ingress

Corrosion of reinforcement related to the ingress of chlorides is responsible for damage and degradation of reinforced concrete all over the world. In Europe, the exposure to chlorides is categorized into six exposure classes, depending on the origin of the chlorides (deicing agents, marine environment) and the severity of the environment. At present, the Eurocode for concrete structures is under revision and the possibility of introducing performance-based exposure resistance classes instead of deemed-to-satisfiy prescriptive requirements is being investigated. This work includes the use of service life modeling by means of the fib Model Code probability-based approach. The paper presents a novel and versatile methodology for carrying out modeling of chloride ingress and predicting the initiation period for depassivation with a certain safety level. The main input parameters are discussed and the challenges to be overcome are presented together with examples of the proposed model.