Concrete Durability
Concrete Durability
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com
TOPICS HIGLIGHTED
DEFINITION
CONCLUSION
AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com
DURABILITY OF CONCRETE
DEFINITION
a) Permeability
- high permeability will decrease durability
- water/cement ratio less than 0.45 and continuous curing improve durability
Cement content
Mix must be designed to ensure cohesion and prevent segregation and bleeding.
If cement is reduced, then at fixed w/c ratio the workability will be reduced
leading to inadequate compaction. However, if water is added to improve
workability, water/cement ratio increases and resulting in highly permeable
material.
Compaction
Curing
AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com
Cover
Permeability
It is considered the most important factor for durability. It can be noticed that
higher permeability is usually caused by higher porosity .Therefore, a proper
curing, sufficient cement, proper compaction and suitable concrete cover could
provide a low permeability concrete
AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com
Concrete is resistant to wind-driven rain and moist outdoor air in hot and
humid climates because it is impermeable to air infiltration and wind-driven
rain. Moisture that enters a building must come through joints between concrete
elements. Annual inspection and repair of joints will minimize this potential. More
importantly, if moisture does enter through joints, it will not damage the concrete.
Good practice for all types of wall construction is to have permeable materials
that breathe (are allowed to dry) on at least one surface and to not cover
concrete between two impermeable surfaces. Concrete will dry out if not
covered by impermeable treatments.
Ultraviolet Resistance
The ultraviolet portion of solar radiation does not harm concrete. Using colored
pigments in concrete retains the color in concrete long after paints have faded
due to the sun’s effects.
Inedible
Pests and insects cannot destroy concrete because it is inedible. Some softer
materials are inedible but still provide pathways for insects. Due to its hardness,
pests and insects will not bore through concrete. Gaps in exterior insulation to
expose the concrete can provide access for termite inspectors.
Chemical Resistance
Abrasion Resistance
Concrete, like most materials, will shrink slightly when it dries out. Common
shrinkage is about 1/16 of an inch in a 10-foot length of concrete. The reason
contractors place joints in concrete pavements and floors is to allow the
concrete to crack in a neat, straight line at the joint, where concrete cracks due
to shrinkage are expected to occur. Control or construction joints are also placed
in concrete walls and other structures.
Concrete spalling (or flaking) can be prevented. It occurs due to one or more of
the following reasons.
2.) Too much water in the concrete mix will produce a weaker, more
permeable and less durable concrete. The water-cementitious ratio should
be as low as possible (0.45 or less).
3.) Concrete finishing operations should not begin until the water sheen
on the surface and the excess bleed water on the surface has
evaporated. If this excess water is worked into the concrete because
finishing operations have begun too soon, the concrete on the surface will
have too high of a water content and this surface will be weaker and less
durable.
AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com
Surface Repair
Waterproofing
Strengthening
Strengthening with FRP composites Structural support using steel bracing to reduce the span length
Section enlargement
External post-tensioning
force is provided by deviation blocks, fastened at the high or low points of the
structural element.
Protection
More recent developments in the use of low permeability concrete mixes, proper
use of air-entrainment, epoxy-coated reinforcement, protective coatings, and
corrosion-reducing admixtures have greatly increased the service life of concrete
structures beyond 30 years. But some concrete structures being built today may
require repairs after as few as five years of service because of improperly use of
repair materials are some of the reasons for short service life of structures. More
efficient designs may have a lower tolerance for workmanship and design errors,
and fast-track construction methods may make it more difficult to incorporate the
quality needed for a long service life. As a result, some new structures, in spite of
durability enhancements, undergo early-age deterioration and require repair
(Figure 1).
It is estimated that the total cost for repair, rehabilitation, strengthening and
protection (including waterproofing) of the concrete structures in the U.S. is $18-
21 billion/year (See Table 1). Assuming there are 9 billion cy of concrete in
these structures, concrete, the annual cost is between $2.00 and $2.33 per cy of
in-place concrete!
AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com
22%
43%
11%
5%
1%
5% 1% TOTAL : 18.5 BILLION US DOLLAR
5% 3% 2% 2%
The figures above show the graph of the Cost of Concrete Repair Versus
Time. This figure illustrates the three observed phases describing the natural
evolution of the concrete deterioration process and the influence of maintenance
on this process:
In this phase, the owner may spend a fixed annual maintenance cost to install
systems such as protective coatings to slow down the deterioration process.
Money spent in this phase will delay the ingress of aggressive materials, thus
Figure 2: Typical repair cost history diagram delaying the start of active
deterioration
Repair Phase:
In this phase, the concrete deterioration has begun, and the repair cost curve
increases exponentially over time. The reason for the rapid increase in cost is
that once aggressive materials that cause deterioration have sufficiently
permeated into the concrete (a process that may take 20 to 30 years), the
deterioration rate is rapid and irreversible.
Replacement Phase:
Major cracking in the Middle Ring Road 2 highway had cause outburst among the
citizens in Kepong. When this matter was highlighted in newspaper, the case was
brought to Parliament for debate. Soon, the Ministry of Work directed a
consultant, Halcrow from United Kingdom to look into the matter. In their report it
had pinpointed that the cracking occurred on the bridge was caused by error
during the design process which had caused D.E.F. (delayed ettringite
formation) in the concrete. DEF is caused by different temperature occurred
inside the concrete. Halcrow proposed a RM 18 million cost for the repair
works on the cracked pier crosshead. In the same time, the government engaged
another expert from Germany, Leonhardt Andre & Friend.
They too submitted a design for repair work that will be done. The total cost for
their method was RM 49.9 million. After reviewing both methods by the Board of
Engineers, Malaysia, the methods from Leonhardt Andre was adopted. The cost
of rehabilitation work will first be borne by the government and the initial
contractors, Konsortium Sukmim-Bumi Hiway and Kontraktor Bumiputera
Wilayah Persekutuan who responsible for the design error will cover the cost at a
later stage. Even though design error is the main culprit for this problem, one
thing to bear in mind is the fact that how concrete durability is being affected
by man-made mistake, which in this case was in the form of delayed
ettringite formation.
AUTHOR: AU YONG THEAN SENG
www.madisonvelocity.blogspot.com
Microscopic appearance
CONCLUSION
Much is left to be seen that such allocation will be enough to warrant another
major rehabilitation work of current concrete structure in Malaysia. Even though
there is allocation properly prepared, it will normally exceed the budget
considering the fact the hazard of problematic structure posed to the citizens.
Based on this priority, the checkbook needs to be slashed out to tackle the
problem. From what had been discussed, it is noticeable that concrete
durability issue can be prevented by taking the appropriate measures.
However, there are times where even with precaution measure taken, no one
can boldly predict the durability of the structure. Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu was
quoted explaining the question on the lesson learnt from the Middle Ring Road 2
debacle. He said that in the world there are at least five or six out of thousand
bridges built that faced problem. Sometimes, even though we provide a good
design, we still encounter other factors that can ruin it. Everybody wants a
design without any problem. But that doesn’t happen always.