Temperature Effect on Service Life of Reinforced Concrete (RC) Structure Under Chemical Erosion: Deterministic and Probabilistic Approach

With increasing exterior temperature, steel corrosion and concrete disintegration in RC (reinforced concrete) are severe due to the increased transport of harmful ions. A durability design for the intended service life should be ensured for the changing exterior conditions. In this study, for the concrete used in a UAE (United Arab Emirates) nuclear power plant structure, the diffusion coefficient of sulfate ions affected by temperature was evaluated through a natural diffusion cell test, and the service life in the structure was calculated through deterministic and probabilistic methods. As the temperature increased from 20 °C to 50 °C, the results decreased rapidly due to an enlarged diffusion coefficient, and its variation significantly increased with unstable ion transport. In the probabilistic method, the effect of the mean and COV (coefficient of variation) for each design parameter on service life was analyzed, which suggested the importance of enough cover depth design with COV under 0.2.