Stochastic modeling of reinforced concrete structures exposed to chloride attack

For many reinforced concrete structures corrosion of reinforcement is an important problem since it can result in expensive maintenance and repair actions. Further, a significant reduction of the load-bearing capacity can occur. One mode of corrosion initiation is that the chloride content around the reinforcement exceeds a critical threshold value. In the present paper a stochastic model is described by which the chloride content in a reinforced concrete structure can be estimated. The chloride ingress is modeled by a 2-dimensional diffusion process and the diffusion coefficient, surface chloride concentration and reinforcement cover depth are modeled by stochastic fields. The paper contains a description of the parameters to be included in a stochastic model and a proposal for the information needed to obtain values for the parameters in order to be able to perform reliability investigations. The distribution of the time to initiation of corrosion is estimated by simulation. As an example a bridge pier in a marine environment is considered.