Abstract

" This investigation presents some of the results from an Iberoamerican project called ""Effect of the environment on reinforcement durability"" (DURACON) in its six years period. This project correlates the influence of urban and marine meteorochemical parameters on the performance of reinforced concrete structures. The present paper presents the results from 16 test sites distributed among nine countries (Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Spain, Uruguay, Portugal and Venezuela). The environment was evaluated using ISO Standard 9223 and the concrete was characterized physically by measuring compressive strength, elastic modulus, total and effective porosity, as well as the effective porosity and resistance to water absorption using the Fagerlund method. To that effect, concrete specimens (with and without reinforcement) were prepared for electrochemical and physical/mechanical/chemical tests using the existing materials in each participating country, following strict procedures which enabled the preparation of similar concrete specimens. Two water/cement (w/c) ratios (0.45 and 0.65) were selected, where 0.45 w/c ratio concrete had a minimum cement content of 400 kg/m 3 and the one with 0.65 w/c ratio a minimum 28-day compressive strength of 210 kg/cm 2. Type I Portland cement, siliceous sand, and crushed rock as coarse aggregates (13-mm maximum nominal size) were used. After a one-year exposure period, the results of the corrosion potentiality and probability analysis of the reinforcement in the different test stations show that the concrete prepared in Venezuela is the one that has the greatest probability of carbonation-induced corrosion of the reinforcement, with the test site at Cali, Colombia being the one that would induce least corrosion. These results are comparable with those found using electrochemical measurements, after a six-year exposure period. The results also showed high carbonation aggressiveness of the tropical environments, being Venezuela one of the countries in Iberoamerica, with the most aggressive ones. "