Accelerated durability testing of reinforced and unreinforced concretes in a simulated marine environment

Durability of marine reinforced and unreinforced concretes was tested under accelerated environmental conditions. The specimens were subjected to alternate wet and dry cycles in specially constructed durability testing tanks. The specific objective was to evaluate the durability of different types of concretes with varying water-cementitious material ratios (0.3, 0.4, and 0.6), cement types (Types I and II), mineral admixtures (blast furnace slag, fly ash, microsilica), and steel types (black, galvinized and epoxy-coated rebars). The unreinforced cylindrical specimens were tested for compressive and splitting tensile strengths and the reinforced prismatic specimens for corrosion. The test results after 300 cycles of accelerated exposure indicated the adverse effects of the marine environment on the durability of concretes, resulting in loss of strength and corrosion resistance. The specimens with lower w/c ratios (0.3 and 0.4) showed good performance, whether or not they were admixture modified. However, mineral admixture inclusions improved the properties of strength and corrosion resistance of the specimens even with high w/c ratios (0.6). The specimens with regular rebars indicated least resistance to corrosion induced from the accelerated marine exposure compared to the ones with galvanized and epoxy-coated rebars.