Testing of the permeability of concrete box beam with ion transport method in service

The permeability is the most direct indicator to reflect the durability of concrete, and the testing methods based on external electric field can be used to evaluate concrete permeability rapidly. This study aims to use an experiment method to accurately predict the permeability of concrete box beam during service. The ion migration experiments and concrete surface resistivity are measured to evaluate permeability of five concrete box beams, and the relations between these results in service concrete and electric flux after 6 hours by ASTM C1202 in the laboratory are analyzed. The chloride diffusion coefficient of concrete, concrete surface resistivity and concrete 6 hours charge have good correlation relationship, which denote that the chloride diffusion coefficient and the surface resistivity of concrete are effective for evaluating the durability of concrete structures. The chloride diffusion coefficient of concrete is directly evaluated permeability of concrete box beam in service and may be used to predict the service life, which is fit to engineering applications and the concrete box beam is non-destructive. The concrete surface resistivity is easier available than the chloride diffusion coefficient, but it is directly not used to calculate the service life. Therefore the mathematical relation of the concrete surface resistivity and the concrete chloride diffusion coefficient need to be found, which the service life of reinforced concrete is obtained by the concrete surface resistivity.