Reliability Evaluation of Concrete Cover for Buried Structures from Chloride-Induced Corrosion Perspective

Abstract

All design specifications for steel reinforced concrete structures provide guidelines for the thickness of minimum concrete cover over the reinforcing steel. The thickness of the concrete cover is a function of many considerations such as cracking, migration of deleterious substances that can cause corrosion of steel, or constructability concerns. This paper examines the current state of practice for concrete covers for buried steel reinforced concrete structures from the perspective of chloride-induced corrosion. The evaluation is performed using the fully probabilistic fib model for chloride-induced corrosion. Results of parametric analysis based on the Monte Carlo simulation procedure are presented. Correlation is made with a reliability index to permit an evaluation of the current codes based on reliability principles.