Study of the degree of deterioration of plain and reinforced concrete using an aging chamber

Abstract

Concrete is one of the most used materials in the construction area, due to this the aging of plain concrete and reinforced concrete was studied. Concrete samples were located in a climate simulation chamber where humidity, temperature and radiation conditions could be controlled. The analyzes were performed for samples that were subjected to 5, 10, 15 and 20 years. Gravimetric techniques, volumetric techniques and the atomic absorption spectrophotometric technique were used. The most prominent analyzes were moisture, since it presented an increasing and decreasing trend with values that vary between 2.17 % and 3.37 % for simple concrete and 1.21 % and 2.32 % in the case of reinforced concrete. This is due to the evaporation of water due to high temperatures. Another important analysis was the carbonate-bicarbonate balance due to the passage of hydronium ions (H⁺) that caused a change in pH in the medium, and iron oxides that varied significantly due to the presence of an iron reinforcement in the reinforced concrete with values from 2.26 % to 7.23 % with respect to simple concrete, which presented values from 0.89 % to 5.48 %. It was concluded that there were changes in the chemical composition of plain concrete and reinforced concrete over the years.