Durability Performance of a Structure Made with High-Performance Concrete and Prefabricated Elements in a Marine Environment

Abstract

Structural failures attributable to corrosion of reinforcement cause enormous damages to marine structures in the severe condition of the Persian Gulf. In this study, a comprehensive set of destructive and nondestructive tests was employed to examine the durability performance of different elements of a 20-year-old jetty located in the marine environment of the south of Iran. The purpose of the research project was the evaluation of the level of damage in the jetty structure which was constructed using prefabricated post-tensioned high-performance concrete (HPC) box beams. The results revealed negligible corrosion level in most elements of the jetty especially those with a sufficient concrete cover on the reinforcement. However, despite the use of HPC in the construction of the jetty structure, insufficient cover thickness for some reinforced concrete elements have intensified the rate of corrosion, and caused some early age corrosion problems. Therefore, based on the test results, a rehabilitation strategy was proposed to repair the jetty. A stochastic model based on Fick’s law was utilized to predict time for the initiation of the corrosion in the current condition and the repaired structure.