Resumen de Estrategias para Mejorar la Durabilidad del Concreto Reforzado Ante un Medio Ambiente Marino.
Herwing López, Pedro Montes, Jorge Porras, Theodore Bremner
As a consequence of climate change that our planet is currently suffering, buildings are exposed to severe environmental conditions that tend to accelerate the deterioration of the materials that compose them. This effect provokes their sub-utilization in unsafe conditions or generates overspending by requiring continuous repairs in order to extend their service life. In the present paper, the progress of an extensive research project developed to evaluate various strategies to enhance the durability of reinforced concrete exposed to a marine environemnet is reported. Such strategies include the use of corrosion inhibitors, alone or in combination with supplementary cementitious materials in concrete structures, epoxy coated rebars and the use of a surface pre- treatment with a hydrophobic agent. To evaluate the effectiveness of the aforementioned strategies, accelerated laboratory testing and field testing were conducted. So far the results have shown to be promising, although to varying degrees, in improving the durability properties of the evaluated materials in comparison with those without such protections.
