The Impact of Tropical Urban Environment on the Durability of RC in Iberoamerican Countries

This investigation presents some of the results from an Iberoamerican project called DURACON in a five-year period (nine countries, 16 sites). This project correlates the influence of urban and marine meteorochemical parameters on the performance of reinforced concrete structures. 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 resistance to water absorption. 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 five-year exposure period.