Non-Destructive Testing of Concrete Materials from Piers: Evaluating Durability Through a Case Study

Concrete is currently the most used construction material, mainly due to its mechanical strength, chemical stability, and low cost. This material is affected by wear processes caused by the environment, which lead to a reduction in the useful life of the infrastructure in the long term. These wear processes can cause cracks, corrosion of reinforcing steel, loss of load capacity, and loss of concrete section, among other problems. Considering the above, it is necessary to carry out durability studies on concrete to determine the integrity conditions in which the infrastructure is found, the reasons for its deterioration, the environmental factors that affect it, and its useful life under these conditions, and develop restoration or protection plans. Generally, the durability studies include non-destructive testing such as ultrasonic pulse velocity, electrical resistivity, porosity measurement, and capillary absorption rate. These techniques make it possible to characterize the concrete and obtain information such as the total volume of pores, susceptibility to corrosion of the reinforcing steel, decrease in mechanical resistance, cracks, presence of humidity, and aggressive ions inside the concrete. In this work, two durability studies are presented with non-destructive tests carried out on active piers that are 20 and 40 years old. These are located in coastal areas in southern Mexico on the Gulf of Mexico side, with 80% average annual relative humidity, temperatures above 33 °C on average, high concentrations of salts, load handling, vibrations, flora and fauna typical of the marine ecosystem, etc. The results obtained reveal important information about the current state of the piers and the damage caused by the environment over time. This information allowed us to make decisions on preventive actions and develop appropriate and specific restoration projects for each pier.