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ABSTRACT: In the present work, a large number of publications in connection with critical chloride content
in reinforced concrete has been evaluated. The reported results scatter over more than two orders of magnitude
when expressed as total chloride content by cement weight and over three orders of magnitude when expressed
as Cl/OH ratio. This large scatter is partly the result of different definitions and experimental techniques, but
also due to many factors affecting critical chloride content. Dominating influences have been identified as follows: 1) The steel-concrete interface, 2) the pH value of the pore solution and 3) the electrochemical potential
of the steel. Experimental investigation of the issue of critical chloride content is possible in a wide variety of
procedures. At present, there exists no generally accepted or standardized procedure for the determination of
the critical chloride content.
INTRODUCTION
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2
2.1
DEFINITIONS
Critical chloride content
Table 1.
content.
Aggressive species
Inhibitive property
Expressed as
Total chloride
by binder weight
by concrete weight
by binder weight
by concrete weight
% by weight
% by weight
% by weight
% by weight
by OH concentration
mol/l
Cl/OH
Free chloride
Free Cl
Figure 1. Different definitions for critical chloride content
based on Tuuttis model.
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concentration
3.1
EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH
TO CRITICAL CHLORIDE CONTENT
IN CONCRETE
Test setups
To achieve a setup that fulfils these four requirements, a lot of possibilities exist. A variety of options
are available only for selecting a steel electrode: Different steel types exist (normal carbon steel, stainless
steel, galvanized steel, etc) in different shapes such
as smooth or ribbed bars and they can be prepared
in several ways, e.g. polished, sandblasted, pre-rusted,
etc. Also with regard to the chlorides, several possibilities are available: The type of chloride salt (NaCl,
CaCl2, etc) and a method by which the chloride is
introduced at the steel surface must be selected. In
case of cement paste, mortar or concrete, chloride
might be added directly to the mix or introduced later
into the hardened material by capillary suction and/
or diffusion or accelerated by migration; in solution
experiments, the dynamic increase of chloride concentration with time is easily done by adding chloride to the solution. Also for point 3, the detection
of depassivation or acceptable degree of corrosion,
several techniques are available. Last but not least,
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LITERATURE EVALUATION
Reference
Cl
Cement type
Reported
value
Richartz 1969
Gouda et al.
1970
Stratfull et al.
1975
Locke et al. 1980
Elsener et al.
1986
Hope et al. 1987
Hansson et al.
1990
A
A
OPC
OPC, GGBS
0.4
1.03.0
various
0.21.4
A
A
OPC
OPC
0.40.8
0.250.5
A
D
OOPC
various cements
0.10.19
0.41.37
Schiessl et al.
1990
Lambert et al.
1991
Thomas 1996
Alonso et al.
2000
Alonso et al.
2002
Castellote et al.
2002
Trejo et al. 2003
Manera et al.
2008
minmax
0.52.0
1.52.5*
D
A
OPC, FA
OPC
0.20.7
1.243.08*
various cements
0.73
D/M SRPC
0.150.23
M
A
0.020.24
0.62.0
OPC
OPC, SF
0.023.08
314
4.1
Table 2 shows a selection of published chloride threshold values reported in the form of total chloride content per weight of binder. Generally, a large scatter
was found with results from 0.02 to 3.08% chloride by
binder weight (over two orders of magnitude). Details
about the experimental procedures (according to Figure 2) were evaluated but no systematic trends with
regard to characteristics such as cement type, rebar
type (smooth, ribbed) or chloride introduction method
were identified from the totality of the data. Obviously,
the effect of a single parameter on the critical chloride
content is not pronounced enough to be globally apparent. The only factor that appears to have an overall
effect is the electrochemical potential of the steel: In
many studies, this was higher than 200 mV vs. SCE;
in some publications, no potentials were measured
or reported, but in most cases the described exposure
conditions indicate that the potentials presumably were
in the same range. Only in two references (Lambert
et al. 1991, Alonso et al. 2000) steel potentials below
200 mV vs. SCE were reported. The corresponding
critical chloride contents are on a clearly higher level
than in the majority of the other publications.
4.2
Experimental procedures
Figure 3. Reported chloride threshold values expressed as Cl/OH ratios. As the values span a large range, they are divided
into two separate plots with different scaling on the ordinate.
315
CONCLUSIONS
From this literature review on critical chloride content, the following conclusions can be drawn:
The results available in literature scatter in a wide
range. The reported values span from 0.02 to 3.08%
total chloride by binder weight and thus over two
orders of magnitude. Published Cl/OH threshold
ratios even range from 0.03 to 45, which is over
three orders of magnitude.
No unique chloride threshold value exists. It
depends on various factors which are interconnected and variable with time. Major parameters
have been identified to be 1) the quality of the
steel-concrete interface, 2) the pH of the pore solution and 3) the electrochemical potential of the
steel. The quality of the steel-concrete interface
depends on compaction (voids) and on the presence of a lime rich layer of hydration products;
however, it cannot be quantified. Other influencing factors are the moisture content in the concrete,
type of cement, w/c ratio, temperature, etc.
Experimental investigation of critical chloride contents can be performed in a wide variety of possible test setups. The multiplicity of parameters
includes rebar type (smooth or ribbed), steel surface condition (polished, sandblasted, etc), matrix
(cement paste, concrete, solutions, etc), chloride
introduction techniques (mixed-in, diffusion, etc),
depassivation detection techniques, etc.
The numerous experimental possibilities lead to poor
comparability of the reported results. At present, no
accepted or standardized procedure for the determination of the critical chloride content exists.
Many used test setups are not practice-related.
Although the steel-concrete interface is recognized
as a major influencing factor, smooth and/or prepared rebars (polished, sandblasted, etc) have been
used in many studies. Also, often chlorides have
been mixed-in.
REFERENCES
Alonso, C. et al. 2000. Chloride threshold values to depassivate reinforcing bars embedded in a standardized OPC
mortar. Cement and Concrete Research 30: 10471055.
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