INDEX

S. No Topic Page No
Week 1
1 Prologue 1
2 Corrosion of embedded metal; Significance and fundamentals of corrosion 27
Corrosion of embedded metal; Carbonation-induced and chloride-induced
3 corrosion 51
Week 2
4 Corrosion of embedded metal; Types of reinforcement – Bare steels 81
5 TM - Ring Test For Assessing The Quality of TMT / QST Steel Rebars 105
Corrosion of embedded metal; Types of reinforcement – Metallic and non
6 metallic coated rebars 112
7 Corrosion in prestressed concrete 149
Week 3
Deterioration of cementitious systems- Introduction, sulphate attack,
8 biofouling and acid attack 174
Deterioration of cementitious systems- frost attack, freeze-thaw and alkali-
9 silica reaction 213
10 Deterioration of cementitious systems- Shrinkage and Creep 252
Week 4
11 Deterioration of cementitious systems- Fire attack, abrasion and erosion 288
Condition assessment of concrete structures: Exposure conditions, visual
12 inspection, on-site Concrete testing 320
13 Condition assessment of concrete structures: Testing of concerete in laboratory 353
Week 5
Condition assessmennt of concrete structures; mechanical and corrosion testing
14 of rebars 381
15 Strategies and materials for surface repair 408
16 Strategies and materials for surface repair 436
Week 6
17 Strategies and materials for surface repair 469
18 Surface preparation and protective treatment 498
Week 7
19 Surface preparation and Protective treatments 531
20 Surface preparation and Protective treatments 561
21 Surface preparation and Protective treatments 581
22 Surface preparation and Protective treatments 608
Week 8
23 Coatings on concrete infrastructures 637
24 Waterproofing of concrete structures - 1 684
25 Waterproofing of concrete structures - 2 715
Week 9
26 Structural Strengthening & Stabilization- Load effects and Introduction to S&S 738
27 Structural Strengthening & Stabilization - Beams and Slabs 765
28 Structural Strengthening & Stabilization - Columns & Walls 804
Week 10
29 Structural strengthening - 4 (Joints and connections) 832
30 Injection Grouts for concrete repair 883
31 Structural repair of prestressed concrete systems 920
Week 11
Case studies on structural repair (Right methodologies and systematic
32 approach / case studies) 947
33 Cathodic Protection in Concrete Structures - Laboratory and field studies 972
Week 12
34 Service life estimation - 1 1005
35 Service life estimation - 2 1026
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras– Chennai

Module No # 01
Lecture No # 00
Prologue
Hi, welcome to this NPTEL MOOC course on Maintenance and Repair of Concrete
Structures. This lecture will give you an intro to the course basically go through why a course
like this is important and different modules in this course.
(Refer Slide Time 00:46)

On the screen the picture which you are seeing is an aerial view of a major construction
project and surroundings in Chennai city and the objective of this course is, there are many
projects like this in various parts of the country and we need to ensure that these structures don’t
face much of repair. But, if they need a repair then that repair should also last very long or
durable repairs. So, that’s the idea of floating a course like this and so we will see more.
(Refer Slide Time 01:20)

Now India is actually witnessing a construction boom. We are constructing a lot of

highways, seaports, airports, residential and commercial buildings both in urban and rural areas.
So lot of construction is happening today as you see on the bottom left you can see there is a

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single house and another picture on a rural housing and also an urban housing multiple storey
apartment complexes etcetera with the aim of giving housing for all Indians.

So, we have lot of these projects going on and if we do not ensure that these projects are
built with quality or durability in mind then we will end up in having huge repair and
maintenance activities. Sometimes we may not be able to even handle that magnitude of repair
works. So that’s a real concern and makes this course very important in that way.

So in short, we need to keep these structures safe and usable for long period of time
which could be several decades depending on the type of structure and without much
maintenance and repair that’s a key point. Without much maintenance and repair because if we
are thinking about just keep on repairing and maintaining then that is not really a big challenge.
So, building structures with durability in mind and ensuring that the repair works are minimal
and at the same time if we do repair then make sure that the repair is also lasting for long period
of time as beside by various projects. So this is the need for this course.
(Refer Slide Time 03:18)

Let’s look at what is the scenario today especially for the bridge sector in India. In
general bridges, whether they are made of concrete or steel. So, recently the government of India
conducted a survey of about 1.7 lakhs of bridges and this was done through the program on
Indian Bridge Management System (IBMS) by the ministry of road transport and highways
government of India.

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 They found that 6000 bridges are structurally distressed. For a country like this, I
seriously feel the actual number could be much more because sometimes we find it very difficult
to get data and even if we get data the quality or correctness of data is another question. So, this
covers only bridges. What about buildings? There are so many buildings also in our country
which are of different quality and of different age.

We have lot of old buildings and new buildings which are being built today. So, we have
a huge task or Herculean task of maintaining the existing concrete infrastructure; not only
bridges and buildings but many other and building new ones with durability and corrosion
resistance in consideration. Why I say corrosion resistance? Because that is one of the most
important deterioration mechanisms which is widely observed in many concrete structures.
(Refer Slide Time 04:54)

Now, let me tell you again the need for a course like this. Today many civil engineering
curriculums have these three courses which are written in blue text. Construction materials,
structural analysis and design related courses and also concrete technology which is again
sometimes given as an elective course. What I am trying to tell here is the construction materials
are not given adequate importance in some of these civil engineering curriculums.

So, for example the concrete technology which is coming as an elective. Maybe it is time
for us to rethink on this. We need to be like a civil engineer when they graduate if they are going

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for construction sector. They should know what the concrete is? & what the construction
materials are? So, we end up in having premature structural and material failures because
adequate importance is not given for the materials which are sometimes used.

We need to have a next generation of engineers with adequate knowledge on what can go
wrong in concrete structures and then if they go wrong how to repair them with good quality.
Also when we say quality repair but there are no formal courses available for understanding
repair of concrete structures. There are documents and information available but no formal
courses available in many institutes.

So, I think this course will also help to fill that gap. Now another thing is we need general
civil engineers for sure, but we also need specialist or repair specialist that’s very important. By
the end of this course you will know that there are many things which need to be taken care
while designing a repair for a concrete structure. So, we really need specialists who are trained
and skilled to take up a repair work.
(Refer Slide Time 07:10)

What are the reasons for failure of repairs? It is not failure of the concrete structures from
the beginning but the failure of the repair which was undertaken on the structures. So you can see
that about 16% of repair failures happened because of incorrect diagnosis or in other words
without really understanding the root cause of the problem or original problem. So that led to the
failure of the repair.

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 About 38% of the failure of repair happened because of inappropriate design of the repair
work. About 15% of repair failed because of inappropriate specification or inappropriate choice
of materials. About 19% of the failure of repair happened because of poor workmanship and
12% for other factors. So definitely the first three if you see that is something which is very
important and poor workmanship is also equally important.

So definitely we need to know what is a root cause of the initial damage and then proper
design of repair and appropriate choice of specification and materials. So design of specifications
and materials. So, all these are very important. Definitely poor workmanship need to be
enhanced.
(Refer Slide Time 08:42)

In 2 slides before; I said specialists are required to do a quality repair. These are some of
the examples I am going to show you where it was done by generalist and then repair itself failed
very fast. So one thing when we talk about repair is that many aspects should be considered
while selecting a repair methodology or a repair technique or repair material or the way in which
it is repaired.

You can see on the picture on the left side there is a column which has spalled it’s not the
same column but I just wanted to show you this to convey the message. This is again a picture I
got from the website. You can see that on the right side, this portion is actually repaired; patch

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repaired but again it cracked right along the rebar. That means for this particular repair the
corrosion which is happening in the steel inside the concrete structure was not arrested.

It was just a cosmetic repair, just covering it up that is not really going to solve the
problem. And in this type of cases what usually happens is you will go back to the same structure
again in about 4 to 5 years and then by that time again it cracks and then you will keep on doing
this repair. So for a small element you might not realize the cost implications. But when you talk
about large structures definitely it really influences the life cycle cost of the structure.

So we have to keep the life cycle cost to be minimal that means the quality of repair
should be very good and it should address the root cause of the problem. On the right side you
see the picture which is a core taken from roof of a building and you can see there is one layer,
second layer, third, fourth and so many layers of water proofing because water was keep on
leaking and it was failing. And then you see the thickness of the roof element increase from
about 10 centimeter from the beginning to about 30 + centimeter which is really not a good
practice.

The repair work again was not good in the first case when this started leaking they put
another overlay again an overlay so multiple overlays were kept on this structure. And by doing
this it’s actually increasing the dead load on the structure. May be you should check many
structures are out there which are something like this. So we keep on adding dead load and then
that put more stress on the columns and the beams below.

So this again an inappropriate way of repairing we should remove the unwanted concrete
and put new layer. So that’s so all these will be discussed in this course how we should really
handle the repair work. So that you don’t really create additional distress to the structure and you
are actually helping the structure to survive better. Now, one other important point is this, when I
say quality repair what I mean is, the number of repair should be one for the entire life of the
structure because we already have some structures and we have to fix them and after that we
should not end up in repairing it again and again. So this should be the target. If you ever have a
repair work make sure that we don’t go back to the structure again to do the same repair.

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Which is very challenging for which you need to really understand the root cause of the problem
and scientifically address the problem rather than just getting some material and then patch up
and then just doing a cosmetic repair.
(Refer Slide Time 12:23)

This is another example where I wanted to show, you can see on the left side you have a
building where the clothes are being dried and the water from the cloth is dripping on to the
beams below you can see in that little red box. So the beams near the staircase that is getting
corroded and it was left like that unattended for long time allowing the corrosion to happen for
long time. And then eventually I noticed that after few months when this was there and then they
repaired it; just a patch repair, just covering up with. They removed the old concrete cover and
then fill up that space with new concrete without really addressing the root cause. You can see on
the picture on the right also you still have a lot of clothes which are being dried. That means the
water from the cloth is dripping on to the beams and steel inside those beams get sufficient
moisture to continue corrosion.

So, we should address these things either by making sure that there is a water proofing
layer around the beams. So that water really doesn’t get into the beam and corrode the steel
surface. So if you tell the people not to dry clothes there, they may not agree with it. But you
have to find an engineering solution, so that we can still practice what we do but at the same time
not really harm the concrete structures. So that’s how the approach should be or repair
methodology should be chosen. (Refer Slide Time 13:57)

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 So this is that picture again little bigger you can see how badly those beams are corroded.
Now, prevention is definitely better than cure and it will cost you much less when you compare
that with the cost for curing in other words here curing is like repairing the structure. So if we
can actually prevent this water from getting into the concrete beam and then reaching the steel
that is the prevention which we are talking about so that the beam doesn’t corrode and there is no
need for corrosion repair.

Now, this will enhance the life cycle cost if you actually take preventive measures over
the life of the structure the total cost will be less. That is the life cycle cost I think we need to
start thinking about not only the capital investment but also the life cycle cost of buildings. So
this is in next lecture also I will cover this NACE IMPACT Report the cost of corrosion is very
high. It’s about 3 to 4% of GDP.

So objective is how can we minimize this cost of corrosion? Can we do some quality
repair work and quality construction like new construction? and the repair of existing structures.
So that we can minimize the cost of corrosion in our country so that’s the objective.
(Refer Slide Time 15:28)

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 Now, in the previous picture I showed that there was a building apartment complex
where you are let allowing the corrosion to continue. What is the reason why we are allowing
this to continue? May be this is because of the perceived risk associated with civil engineering
structures. Now before talking about that what is risk? Risk is a function of both the probability
of failure and the consequence of failure.

So, if you are talking about consequence of failure for example the picture on the bottom
you can see the one on the left side there is a building collapsed many people died in that
accident. And on the right side it’s actually a bridge collapsed. So again, many people died in
that accident also. So you can see these kinds so how do we rate the consequence of failure? It all
depends on what type of structure you are talking.

So definitely, we have a lot of structures where the consequence of failure can be

significantly high. And however in general, there is a different perception. The perception is that
there is no significant risk associated with civil engineering structure. And that is the reason why
we don’t have this corrosion management team in many of the companies we talk about. So I
think at least after this course people should actually have corrosion management team. At least
one person per company who will really think about preventive maintenance and look for
potential problems and then address things way before. So that we can prevent the corrosion
from happening and then give longer life for the structures.
(Refer Slide Time 17:14)

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 Now, let me show you other sectors where for example offshore platform or
manufacturing units or chemical plants or oil and gas pipelines. So all these structures if there is
corrosion on these pipelines and then the liquid leak through these pipelines then the risk is very
high because the consequence of that failure is very high. Again it is attached with the money
involved there. So, again in these sectors because it is attached with the money there is a
perception that the consequence is very high and also the actual risk is very high.

In the case of civil structures, the perception is that the risk is very low but the actually
there could be significantly high risk. So we need to sensitize engineers on this factor. And not
only engineers, the higher-level managers, decision makers who actually allocate funds for
maintenance of projects or the structures. See most of the time that is what happened we don’t
have enough money to maintain the structure or enough money is not allotted to maintain the
structure and to repair the structure.

So, we keep on extending or delaying the repair practices and then eventually we end up
in situations like this which is not acceptable or not favorable. So, we need to stop corrosion in
these structures or take adequate measures so that both the structure and the users are really safe.
(Refer Slide Time 18:53)

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 Now, what are the questions we need to ask while selecting a good repair methodology?
First thing is, will the root cause of the distress; root cause that’s very important of the distress be
addressed? Now will the repair materials be compatible with the substrate concrete? And then
will it need frequent maintenance? that means more and more money required. Now will it
ensure safety, durability, cost effectiveness and aesthetics?

So, all these are important questions to be asked while we choose a repair methodology.
And if you get a favorable answer for these questions from that particular repair methodology
then we can go ahead. If not, we need to relook at what repair methodology need to be adopted.
Now a big message is that we need a transformation of our mindset and we need repair specialist
who can actually think outside the box and come up with the best possible and when I say best
possible there is also another term which is durable best possible and durable repair solution.

So this is very important and we need to change our mindset and we also need specialist.
It is very important because why I say mindset is we think that here is the perception of that risk
which I discussed 2 slides ago that’s very important. We also have very high risk associated with
civil engineering structures.
(Refer Slide Time 20:30)

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 Now, another thing to look at is, how complicated when you talk about a repair work and
new construction work. So there are two types of field. One is green field which indicates a new
construction and a brown field which indicates a maintenance or a repair work. So as you see on
this cartoon here on the bottom left you can see the guy at the construction site he feels that
everything is easy because for his side there are no constraints.

But in the brown field he is struggling to do the repair because he has to work around the
constraints. So that’s very important and very challenging. The repair works are very challenging
compared to new construction works because you don’t have free space available. You have to
work around the system and you have to deliver as fast as possible because when you talk about
repair you are already creating trouble for the functionality or stopping the functionality of the
structure. So you need to do the work and get out very fast from the site.
(Refer Slide Time 21:32)

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 Now, let me now go into what is actually in this course. Until now I was talking about;
why this course and what is the importance of this course. How you will think differently once
this course is done and then now let’s talk about different modules in this course. We have split
the course into about 8 modules. First we will talk about corrosion of steel in concrete. I will go
through details on these eight modules in the coming slides.

So, let me just read through this, Embedded metal corrosion is one module. Module 2 on
Deterioration of cementitious system, Module 3 on Condition assessment of structures. Module 4
will be on Strategies and materials for surface repair and Module 5 is on Surface preparation and
protective treatments. Module 6 on Water proofing techniques and Module 7 on Concepts on
structural repair and in that we will talk only about the concepts not really detailed analysis. And
the Module 8 which is a short module on how to design good tender documents. So how to
develop or document tender specifications so that you get durable repair and also we show some
case studies on repair projects.
(Refer Slide Time 22:54)

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 In Module 1 we will talk about Embedded metal corrosion, first in the lecture 1 we will
talk what is corrosion? How it happens? and then we will slowly move into what type of
corrosion happens in concrete structures? which is carbonation induced corrosion and chloride
induced corrosion. Then also we look at different type of re-bars which are available in the
market and how different the corrosion mechanisms in these re-bars are? and also whether the
coated re-bars are actually good or not. Especially the non-metallic coatings which are widely
used today. You will see in these lectures that they are really not good considering the way in
which those rebars are used in construction today.
(Refer Slide Time 23:41)

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 Module 2 is on Deterioration of cementitious system. We will look at various chemistry,
chemical aspects & what kind of chemical reaction goes on in concrete structures in long term.
We will talk both about shrinkage something which will happen in the very early stage and also
looking at delayed ettringite formation or reaction between the cement paste and sulphates and
then looking at aggregates also how reactive they are.

We will also discuss, what can go wrong in concrete when there is a fire attack and how
these different types of chemical reactions damage the concretes all that will be looking at. In
this module we will not talk about steel, we will focus purely on concrete system or cementitious
system. And understanding what can go wrong in the concrete part of it?
(Refer Slide Time 24:43)

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 In Module 3 we will look at Condition assessment of concrete structures. And here we
will talk about how in the laboratory we can test the quality of the concrete and also how in the
field we can test the quality of concrete. Also looking at different test methods that are for
checking the quality of steel and concrete. For both steel and concrete and reinforced concrete
system. So we will look at these different test methods available in the market.
(Refer Slide Time 25:15)

In Module 4, we will talk about Strategies and materials for surface repair or near surface
repair. You can see in the pictures here where the blue over there indicates type of coating which
you apply on the concrete surface or on the surface of the repair. And the green color indicates
things which we do on the steel surface for protecting the steel. And the grey part or the black

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arrow indicates how we design the concrete or the repair material itself that should have good
flow properties; it should have good elastic behavior all these both fresh and long term
performance properties and also how well they can bond with the substrate. So, all this we will
look at and how to choose the materials, so that’s idea in this module.
(Refer Slide Time 26:07)

Module 5 is on Surface preparation and protective treatments. So, when you talk about
repair, once you understand what the root cause is and then when you are going to repair the
structure with some new materials and before you apply these new materials you should ensure
that the surface of the concrete is also really treated well. Treated well means let’s say you
imagine, you are sticking a Cello tape on some surface. If there is a dust on that surface, the tape
is not going to stick very well to the surface.

So, like that when you place repair material to the concrete surface you need to actually
clean the concrete surface first and then only you should apply new materials. What are the
techniques available to clean? and how to ensure that the repair is durable? and also at the same
time looking at how to protect the steel from corrosion? Techniques like cathodic protection and
different types of cathodic protection and how can we remove chlorides from the concrete? and
how can we realkalize the concrete? all these will be discussed in this module.
(Refer Slide Time 27:12)

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 In Module 6 we will talk about Water proofing of concrete. I already discussed this
picture on the left side. You can see multiple layers of roof overlay on this particular structure
which is not really a good idea it is actually adding more weight to the structure. Which induce
or which lead to more distress and how do we prevent water from entering the structure that is
one thing.

And what are the basic principles of water proofing especially for both old and new construction.
When we talk about joints, what are the new techniques available to prevent leakage through the
joints? All these will be discussed in this module on water proofing.
(Refer Slide Time 27:58)

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 In Module 7, will talk about Concepts on structural repair whether can we actually repair
the concrete structure by adding additional structural elements or by modifying the existing
structural element or by strengthening the existing structural element either by adding more
reinforcement or by adding more concrete around like enlarging the size or by wrapping the
elements with fibers.

All these will be discussed which are the better techniques for different cases. And also
some precautions to be taken while we do this so that eventually the structural repair will
actually perform very well.
(Refer Slide Time 28:42)

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 I feel this module 8 is very important which is on How to design tender specifications or
contracts. Because many people when we ask about quality they say this is not available, that is
not available. But, I believe that sometimes the reason is that we don’t do enough homework in
really thinking about the root cause and making sure that the proper choice of materials and
design etcetera of repair is in place.

So, we need to really make sure that we do a very good process of decision making. So
that when you make decisions on this type of repair and this type of materials need to be used we
need to really know what goes wrong. And the specification should be able to address those
things. It’s not just when you talk about repair material get a concrete of this much strength. If it
is actually a durability problem, we should really have those parameters included in the
specifications or contract documents.

So that, we can ensure that the repair is actually durable. And also there is a concern,
sometime people think whatever given in the codes we have to follow and sometimes we find
that the codes are not really updated. So, as a responsible engineer you can actually look for
codes from other countries also and pick the best possible procedure and if you get into the
contract then there is no harm or issue in following that code which is available, the reason why
a specialist is required is exactly this.

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 Only a specialist will be able to select the right code, right material, right design etc., for
the repair. And also take enough codes most of the codes are actually regulatory document. Why
I wanted to mention this is because until few years ago I was also thinking that all these codes
are actually mandatory document but they are not. They are only regulatory documents.
Engineers have enough power and they should take responsibility in looking at better practices
and try to adopt those practices in our country. Let’s build good quality structures and make sure
they are durable also.
(Refer Slide Time 31:17)

One way to get there is by practicing something called design repair contracts where both
the design and the actual work is actually done by the same person. Because in the construction
sector you have this multiple stake holders. So, when something goes wrong they start blaming
each other. So, blame game happens. So, how can we minimize that? So you keep one person as
a responsible person and you let that person or a company to do both the design and repair.

With design repair contracts, we will avoid this blame games and also we need to know
what the responsibility of each of the stake holders is. On this chart here you can see government
authority, consultant, specialist consultant. So again here specialist that’s a key person there and
material supplier, nominated subcontractor, another subcontractor and main contractor.

So, lot of stake holders are there, all have responsibilities but there should be one person
who will communicate to each of this stake holder and will be responsible. So that person will

21
ensure that the repair is durable. Now, again one more thing very important is this course will
equip the engineers to dictate the technical requirements. Equipping engineers most of the time
you will see that engineers really don’t know what a material is and what the properties of a
material are.

So, it is very important when you talk about complex repair practices we need to really
know what happened to the structure. The root cause and what type of loads are acting? both
mechanical and environmental loads and then how to address them. And how do we choose a
good material like system to address those. Let’s not purely depend on the sellers of the material
or the suppliers of the material.

But we should be looking at manufacturers and then demanding the manufacturers that I
need a material like this which has these target properties and then let the manufacturers, they are
capable enough to provide you what you want. But most of the time engineers don’t ask we just
choose from what is available in the field. Sometimes we have to also demand for better quality
and better practices.
(Refer Slide Time 33:43)

Now, with all these in mind ACI 562 committee has developed a code, on repair and
rehabilitation. And this is the front screen of that document and the major objective of this code
was to establish good practices for evaluation, design, selection of material and construction and
inspection of repairs. Another objective is to raise the level of performance or to enhance the

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quality of repair and to establish clear responsibilities and authorities for all participants and
stake holders.

So, if you are talking about let’s say one example you have a repair project going on,
there is a designer and then another company who is doing the repair work like actual
implementation. If something goes wrong the person who is implementing will start blaming the
designer and designer will say that they didn’t implement this properly. So this should not
happen.

So, we need to be very careful in assigning the responsibilities to all the stake holders.
And designers also should think about how constructible the particular design which they are
coming up with is and are they feasible for the particular field conditions. So they have to also
think about it and then make sure that feasible solutions are provided. Now, also to provide the
local building officials the way to issue permits or select who could be a good person or a
company or a firm to do the actual repair work.

What are the criteria by which you can actually select a team for repair work.
(Refer Slide Time 35:30)

Now, some other important things which I emphasize heavily is. Let’s say we know all
the technical aspects but unless we are able to communicate that properly to the others or your
colleagues. It will be very difficult to practice and communication is very important. So, I

23
suggest learning how to effectively communicate technical stuff. So there is a very good book
which I found by oxford publishers “Effective technical communication a guide for scientists
and engineers” specially made for the scientists and engineers. This was written by Professor
Barun K Mitra in IIT Kharagpur. I feel it’s a very good book, very crisply written and to the
point book. So you will really enjoy it’s not a very big book and not that expensive also. So this
is something which I would suggest you to buy and read and then practice. Also many of us
don’t give enough importance to drawing; even in some curriculum nowadays engineering
drawing is being removed. So, that’s not something which is good and yes we have AutoCAD
and various softwares available.

But we need to learn really how to visualize things and then convert them into simple
drawings. So that you can explain your ideas and concepts to other engineers working with you
and also to the field workers. So it makes it very easy to communicate if you can actually draw
very well. So it is something very important to be able to communicate properly and if you can
communicate by drawing that’s also very good. So, enhance this quality on how to draw and
communicate things.
(Refer Slide Time 37:25)

Now, this course when I started teaching in IIT madras, Professor Mathews was teaching
this course before me. He suggested me to use this book; very good book; very well structured
book. So, I really appreciate Mr. Peter H Emmons to write this book. He has put a lot of real

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field application examples of field repairs. And I suggest if you can buy this book it will give,
you know much better insight into this problem.

So this is the book based on which this whole course is developed. Of course, there are
lots of additions to the course but you can really see this is the photograph which we took with
Peter H Emmons when he was in India on a conference in Mumbai.
(Refer Slide Time 38:17)

Now, there are some people who really influenced my carrier significantly this is my PhD
and masters guide or advisor, Professor David Trejo. And also Professor Ravindra Gettu and
Professor Manu Santhanam at IIT Madras with whom we actually developed one of the best
concrete materials lab in the country and also all my other teachers who have helped me in
learning many things.
(Refer Slide Time 38:48)

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 Finally, the BTCM students, one of the largest material groups. Of course, this has people
from other parts also. But thanks to everyone and we will see you in class. So we have very
informative and educative course which is developed. So see you in class, thank you.

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 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras– Chennai

Module No # 01
Lecture No # 01
Embedded Metal Corrosion
(Refer Slide Time 00:24)

Hi, welcome to this module on embedded metal corrosion. We will have 5 lectures in this
and the outline will be first lecture we will cover what is the significance of corrosion and some
fundamentals of corrosion in which we will talk a little bit about what happens in concrete also.
And then in lecture 2 we will cover in detail what is carbonation induced corrosion and chloride
induced corrosion.

Then 2 lectures on different type of steel reinforcement and what are the precautions to
be taken when we use latest type of steel reinforcements which are available. And then lecture 5
we will cover corrosion exclusively what is happening in pre-stressed concrete system both pre
and post tension systems we will be covered. Now let’s talk more about the significance of
corrosion and fundamentals of corrosion.
(Refer Slide Time 01:18)

27
 I am going to give you some examples of corrosion related failure or premature failure
that means prematurely the steel started corroding or before the design life or the target design
life was achieved the structure started corroding. So this is one example where on the picture on
the left side you see that at the far end there is a ship it actually hit the pillar and then the bridge
collapsed and what they did is after that they reconstructed another bridge right next to it

In which, in about just 13 years you can see this pillar over here started severe corrosion
and then you can see that the severe corrosion of the post tension systems in the vertical tendons.
(Refer Slide Time 02:12)

28
 And another example of premature corrosion is golden gate bridge. We spend a lot of
money on this bridge to maintain the structure every year there is lot of corrosion related issues
and maintenance is a big job there.
(Refer Slide Time 02:30)

Another structure again in the developed world is in Canada. This is the Mercier Bridge,
couple of decades old bridge. But you can see that the bridge is severely corroding the net which
you see here is actually to protect it from falling down and then you can see here it looks like
ASR type of problem there. So, different type of deterioration mechanisms happen, I mean
deterioration happen in many of these structures. (Refer Slide Time 03:04)

29
 And what we are trying to tell here is corrosion is leading to huge cost and what is that
cost? It’s about 3 to 4% of GDP before getting into that this Pie chart which is showing the cost
of corrosion and this is made for USA. But more or less which will be similar to many other
countries. So, I thought this will be a good example to show, what you see here is, if you look at
the infrastructure which is the green pie here. You can see it is covering highway bridges, gas
and liquid transmission pipelines, waterways, ports, railroads etc.,

Utilities which is this one which covers about 35% of the cost of corrosion. That covers
different hazardous material storage facilities, electrical utilities, telecommunication, gas
distribution, drinking water and sewer systems. What I want to focus here is there are many
concrete elements are there in these two. And if you put them together that utilities and
transportation infrastructure that is coming to be about 35+ % another 15% if you add that’s
about 50% of the total cost of corrosion. So, we have a big job here to reduce this cost of
corrosion associated with concrete structures.
(Refer Slide Time 04:31)

30
 So, some statistics on this corrosion in the pie chart I showed earlier; I told that it was 3
to 4% of GDP. Now if you look at Indian case, we spend about 4 lakhs of Crores that’s our cost
of corrosion, annual cost of corrosion in 2014. As time passes the cost is actually increasing
because we are constructing more and more structures. And also we are seeing premature
corrosion in many of the structures, much before it reaches its design life.

Now, some other statistics I just want to mention here, to emphasize that this is really a
big problem. Up to about 50% of the construction budgets actually is used for some kind of
repair and then 50% of the structures they experience a major repair within about 10 years which
is probably very short period. And now if you look at the amount of steel and cement which is
produced, if you look at the steel, 30% of the steel is used for repair.

And in case of cement 40% of the cement is used for repair. So, maybe these numbers
look very large but I have cross checked it with the same steel and cement industry. This is more
or less correct the steel that is actually used for replacing the existing steel, cement is also
purchased for repair projects. So, these two numbers are really alarming. So this is what we have
to really reduce 3 to 4% GDP. We cannot keep on spending this much money on our structures
which we are building and the structures which we already have. So, we must have a corrosion
protection strategy that’s essential to have a protection strategy in other words we should think of
how to do a proper maintenance and even in design life how to design the structure so that you
will have minimum repair. And do a proper maintenance and repair; the repair itself should be

31
durable. If the repair itself is not durable, then you will end up in doing many repairs which will
again increase the cost of corrosion.

So, point is now we have technology, to actually achieve this corrosion free service life
of 100 years and all that. But provided we do give more importance on quality of construction.
(Refer Slide Time 07:08)

Now, why the corrosion cost is becoming more important today is because we are
constructing a lot of structures today like highway projects, seaports and then airports and also
when we talk about these major projects there are also associated structures which are being
built. For example: if you are constructing a road, there will be a lot of other structures which
will come up all along the roads or on either side of the roads.

So, that’s also very important to have all these structures with quality in mind. Otherwise
we will face a huge repair and maintenance cost in the years to come. So the main purpose of this
course is to make sure that we construct the current structures in good way with durability in
mind. And at the same time, we ensure that the way which we repair this structure or the existing
structures are also going to be long lasting.
(Refer Slide Time 08:10)

32
 Now, when we look at India as such we have several geographically different regions and
the climatic condition is different for different regions. And usually we think about corrosion
when we think about corrosion, we think about chloride induced corrosion. Probably one reason
why we think like that is because we have a long coastline. You can see here this long coastline
and in this region here looks like a necklace like I showed in the previous slide.

If you have concrete structures along this region then those structures will be exposed to
airborne chlorides and at the same also the soil will be rich in chlorides in those structures. So,
the foundation also may experience a severe corrosion. So we have to be very careful when we
construct structures along the coast line. So, this is along the coast line and also for carbonation
we usually think carbonation is not a major problem.

But, carbonation is also a major problem because at about 60 to 70 % humidity you can
have very high carbonation. But, again on the coastal zone we usually see that chloride is
governing in most of the cases. However we should also give enough importance for
carbonation. Another thing is, if you are talking about any other structure in the interior or not on
the coast but away from the coast. We should also think about the local exposure condition,
because let’s say for example you are building a chemical plant where a lot of salt is being used.
So that air next to this structure or the immediate to the concrete elements will have enough
chlorides which will diffuse into the concrete element and can cause corrosion. So, even though
in this map for example: if the Delhi is coming to be moderate condition or if some structure

33
over here which is mild and if I am actually constructing my chemical plant here, I may actually
have very high chloride condition.

So, we have to really think about local environmental condition not just the global conditions.
This is very important to consider that.
(Refer Slide Time 10:36)

Now, let’s look at what happens when iron or how iron corrodes? So, I am going to show
you this, see how do we make steel for example: we make steel from iron ore and then we heat
the iron ore in a blast furnace and then you get the molten material. Then you mold it into a
particular shape. Let’s say if you are talking about a rebar you mold it into a cylindrical shape, if
you are talking about a structural steel you may have I section or L angle section.

So, whatever it is you mold that into a particular shape and pass this steel through dye.
So, here we get in this stage essentially. Here, we are actually giving more heat energy to the
system or the material. And here in this process we are giving or using more mechanical energy.
So, essentially at this stage the material will have higher energy than the iron ore. Now, once you
have this higher energy material that tendency for that material to corrode will be more than
when it converts to the iron ore.

So, in short steel will corrode at a faster rate than iron. Now, once your steel is made then
you expose that steel to these different conditions. For example: if it is exposed to rainwater you

34
have moisture then this indicates temperature and then you also have chloride environment. If
you are talking about the coastal line, you have chloride and if you are talking about luckily in
India we don’t use de icing or anti icing salts. But, abroad if you go, especially in a cold climate
region you will see that during the winter they pour this chloride solution or sprinkle chloride
solution on the road. So that the ice flakes can be melted. And then when it is exposed what
happen are these chemical reactions or the steel undergoes these chemical reactions which go
from 1 to 3.

So, eventually you get this Fe2O3 which has very similar structure like the iron ore. So,
NACE defines this corrosion as Extractive metallurgy in reverse direction. So, essentially from
here to here the rate at which it goes can be controlled. If you use stainless steel, I can reduce the
rate of corrosion from steel to iron ore or if I am using mild steel it may be higher rate. So, that is
only all what we can do is; we can do things so that the rate of corrosion can be reduced. I don’t
know if we can make it zero but we can make it slow so that we reach the desired life of the
structures.
(Refer Slide Time 13:39)

Now, when you look at steel, usually we think it’s a homogenous material. But if you
look in microscope this is how it looks. So, you have these different phases in same steel and you
can see some laminar structure here. So all these actually lead to some kind of local corrosion
cell over there or in between here this. So, one of the phase might be corroding in preference to

35
the other. And that’s what metallurgists do like to modify these things. So that, we can actually
have better quality steel.

Now these are some, one chemical composition for different type of steel. The main
reason why I put this here is you can see the number of elements present in one particular steel.
Yes, iron is very large in quantity. But there are other very small like, this one very small
quantity. But so these are all very important in ensuring different properties of the steel.
(Refer Slide Time 14:40)

What about concrete? Concrete is also very complex; I mean you know that calcium
silicate hydrates is a binding agent or it gives the strength to the concrete. And we also have a lot
of hydroxides in the concrete which give the high pH. Now, where is the pH? It will be
somewhere 12+; this is the region where we are going to talk about, when you talk about the pH
of the concrete pore solution. Now this high pH really helps us in ensuring that we can actually
use steel and concrete together.
(Refer Slide Time 15:17)

36
 This is the Pourbaix diagram where you can see that, if you talk about the steel this is
about 100 to -400. So this is typical region where, when you take measurement or the potential
measurement of steel embedded in concrete mostly you will see something in this range. And
point here to be noted is, if I put steel in a material with 12 to 14 or more than 12 pH then I can
actually have a region where there is a passive region. That’s what, so this region I can really
have a passive region. So, this is the reason why we are able to use steel in concrete and keep it
there for long time without any corrosion.
(Refer Slide Time 16:09)

So, what happens is you put the steel in concrete this is the photograph showing steel
embedded in concrete and I have drawn here small green patch which indicates that some

37
passive film or a protective layer gets formed on the steel surface the moment you immerse the
steel into the concrete. Now, you cannot see it in the case of steel we cannot see it. It is very
dense and colorless but it protects the steel below that from further corrosion. Now, if steel has
to corrode, something has to break this passive film then steel will start corroding.
(Refer Slide Time 16:53)

So, what leads to this breaking of this passive film? Chlorides and carbon dioxide. So you
can see here this is a bridge passing through marine environment. Chlorides can create problem
for the passive film to break, carbon dioxide can also lead to breaking of passive film. And of
course moisture and oxygen they are the essentials. So these two are the essential thing for
corrosion to happen if I can prevent moisture and oxygen and also keep it very low temperature
then corrosion can be stopped.

But which is practically impossible to achieve that in many parts of the world. There may
be if you go to North Pole you can probably get rid of high temperature. But most of the place
where we live, we have moderate temperature conditions and also you have moisture conditions.
Now, this is a picture showing in the one of the metro cities in India, you can see lot of vehicles
here they all are actually exhausting CO2.

And you have this concrete structure right above this, is just an elevated corridor. So all
these concrete are actually getting exposed to high CO2; locally you will have high CO2. Maybe
CO2 will diffuse into the atmosphere but local conditions if you look at those concretes are

38
actually getting exposed to high level of CO2. And also you have high temperature you can see
the sun out there.
(Refer Slide Time 18:25)

Now, when you look at the corrosion as a mechanism there are 4 components or essential
parts of any corrosion cell. So there you should have an anode, you should have a cathode and
you should have an ionic conductor and an electronic conductor. So here, you can see the region
which is corroding from the metal surface. This was the original metal surface so this much
metal has been lost.

So this region is what is getting corroded and that we call anode and the remaining region
on the steel so here it is the metal, the grey part is the metal. Then the remaining region helps this
anode to corrode and the electronic charge actually get passed from the cathode to the anode
right through the metal itself. And if you are talking about an electrolyte like a water or even
concrete if you want to say.

But water is also electrolyte so if you have it then there is a ionic conduction happening
through the water or through the interface between the steel; the metal and the electrolyte. So
you have this exchange happening here. So that’s electronic ionic conductor. So you should have
these 4 components, if I can get rid of one of these I can stop corrosion. But that does not
happen.
(Refer Slide Time 19:52)

39
 So, what happens in the steel inside concrete? Again similar thing like you have on the
anodic side, you have iron which gets converted into Fe2+ and 2 electrons. So, you have this
release of a Fe2+ into the solution. And provided you have enough moisture and oxygen in that
environment what will happen is, these 2 electrons which are coming from anode to cathode and
they will combine at the cathodic side.

So they will combine here and then you will have two hydroxide ions formed. Now, why
I put this picture here is, here you can see that this concrete pier is coming out of the water body
and here you can see a lot of corrosion or damage. Whereas here there is no damage and here if
you go deeper into this pile there also you will not see any damage. But here you will see lot of
damage.

This is mainly because when you go here you do not have enough oxygen when you go
above the water body you do not have enough moisture. But here you have both oxygen and
moisture available in sufficient quantity. And also this wetting and drying accelerate the
movement of the chloride inside the concrete pier. So in combination we have more corrosion at
the place where it comes out of the concrete.
(Refer Slide Time 21:33)

40
 Now, this is a same equation which I showed earlier just showing it in a more easy to
understand manner. Here you can see at the anode you have corrosion happening. So, these Fe2+
ions are getting into the solution. And then this negative charge is moving from the anode;
electrons are moving from the anode to here. And now what is happening is these electrons are
being absorbed at the cathodic side where there is enough oxygen and moisture and it forms OH
or hydroxide ions which kind of move and come react with this Fe2+.

So these 2 react and form Fe(OH)2. So this reaction even though in this picture it’s very
large in scale actually this can happen right in the scale of millimeter or even a smaller scale. But
for demonstration purpose we are showing it like this. Now anode and cathode can coexist in the
same piece of metal because even if you put one rebar or one steel piece into water or concrete it
can actually corrode. So that means both anode and cathode exist on the same steel.
(Refer Slide Time 22:53)

41
 What is the reason for this? One reason is there could be a potential difference between 2
points on the same metal. So, when there is a potential difference between 2 points on the same
metal. There will be a flow of electron from one point to the other to balance it. Now what is
leading to this difference in potential is non uniformity of the metal, non-uniformity of the
electrolyte and variations in physical conditions. So, I will show you these 3 cases in the coming
slide what is this mean non uniformity of the metal.
(Refer Slide Time 23:38)

The first one which is here I am saying that why there is non-uniformity mainly because
of the difference in the microstructure and different phases available within the microstructure of
the steel. You can see here this is a simplistic explanation of this what you see here. You can see

42
this ferrite phase here and cementite phase here and there is a possibility of electrons moving
from ferrite phase to cementite phase. Now, here you can see that this portion actually loses iron
Fe2+. So this is functioning like an anode and this is functioning like a cathode. So this can
happen in any steel which you pick at the microstructure level.
(Refer Slide Time 24:20)

Now, next reason for the difference in potential was non uniformity of the surface
properties of the steel or this is another example where mill scale you can see here. Nowadays
most of the steel they clean the mill scale but still there will be some remnants present on the
steel surface. So this is a picture taken from a metallographic study. You can see here this is the
mould, mill scale and steel.

So, what you see here is when you take the steel your steel surface is something like this.
There are some local regions where mill scales are present and other region where there is no
mill scale. Now this will create a cell here; right here you can actually have corrosion cell. You
can have crevice corrosion happening here like; corrosion will actually start here and then go
inside. So these kind of mechanisms can happen which leads to again corrosion.
(Refer Slide Time 25:25)

43
 Now second point was non-uniformity of the electrolyte. Imagine you have some region
which is more acidic and some region which is less acidic or more alkaline. So if you have a
difference in this alkalinity, the region with lower alkalinity will actually start corroding or it will
function like an anode and for example: if you have chlorides it is not essential that everywhere
the amount of chloride present in the concrete system will be uniform.

So, you may also see that some region has more chloride than the other region for
example: let’s say in this case if chlorides are coming from here maybe there is an aggregate
here. So chlorides cannot go so they will try to move it this way and then reach this point. So this
point gets more chlorides than the one which is next to an aggregate. So this is also causing a
differential condition.

Other thing is nowadays you have a lot of chemical admixtures which you put, one of
them is corrosion inhibitor and again depending on the non-uniformity in the mixing you may
have some region with more inhibitors than the other regions. So this region will at some point in
time this region will start corroding before this region starts corroding. So again all this are
showing that it is possible to have differential environment even though the steel is embedded in
the same concrete. So this differs so the concrete properties are also varying from point to point
so that leads to this differential.
(Refer Slide Time 27:04)

44
 Now, other thing is about the physical condition. So, you know that concrete is a
heterogeneous material; steel is also heterogeneous and then we have ribs on the steel which
causes some change in the physical conditions the shape itself. So for example this is a detailed
drawing showing like what can happen at different points on the steel surface.

So, for example here you can see like if there is a rib here, this is rib here and then you
can have the moisture trapped there, you can have an air void in this air void you can see that
where the moisture is there, there is no corrosion. But when there is air there is more. So lot of
these physical conditions can also lead to lot of variations in the steel-concrete interface. Now for
example this is a picture from our own lab where we can see that this, the top picture shows the
steel.

So we after casting the specimen we exposed it for some chlorides and then once the
corrosion started we open the specimen and then what we can see is like there is a exact match of
this thing. So you can see this is a rust spot; this is a rust spot all this region within the red circles
they are rust and when you see the imprint of that you can see there was actually a void. There is
a void here and everywhere it’s very well matching with.

So very clearly we can see that these very small air voids which may be in millimeter
scale they actually lead to the initiation of the corrosion which is matching with this thing what
you see here. (Refer Slide Time 28:47)

45
 Now, what happens when corrosion starts? Why our concrete structures are cracking?
This is also big concern. When corrosion happens there is a significant volumetric expansion in
steel that’s about 6 to 8 times increase in the volume. Now, here you can see this is the
uncorroded iron or steel for example we can consider to be steel uncorroded when it expands it is
getting from 1 to 6 times increase.

So, this is all happening within the concrete and there is a limit to which concrete can
resist this expansive stresses. So, once there is more expansion; when once the stress applied is
more than the tensile strength of the concrete it will tend to crack. So you can see that crack
radiating outward from the steel, this will happen. Now, if you have a cover concrete this crack
may happen only on one side. It may not crack inside because you have much more concrete
inside. So the cover region will start cracking faster.
(Refer Slide Time 30:08)

46
 Now, to just show you how significant or how large this expansive stresses could be this
is a picture from Colosseum in a Croatia. You can see this is actually a rock. So there was
actually a metal piece inside this rock and it expanded and cracked the rock. So if it can crack the
rock it can easily crack the concrete which is man made rock. I mean just to show you how
significant that force can be.
(Refer Slide Time 30:49)

Now, this is again concrete in our own campus, one of the buildings you can see and this
is pretty much you might have seen this kind of corrosion happening in many places. You can
very clearly see there is a bulging happening here. So this steel rebar inside the concrete is

47
corroding and expanding up to about 6 to 8 times and which pushes the concrete cover outward
and leading to cracking and then spalling. So first it cracks then it delaminates and then it spalls.
(Refer Slide Time 31:23)

This is another apartment building where you can see that spalling. Actually this is not
necessarily because of corrosion I don’t know the reason for this. But, based on the experience
what we have seen is in this particular locality there are actually buildings when they were
constructing they used sea sand or beach sand and chloride rich water. So in addition when you
have these clothes drying, they actually drop water on to these beams and you can very clearly
see that there is lot of corrosion happening.

Why I put this picture is one more thing to emphasize that we should go for preventive
maintenance. Why are we waiting until this happen? We should not let this happen, when we
know that there is a possibility of corrosion. We should try to stop it right then and there by
adopting a very good repair practice. Not just patch repair means it’s not that you just take it and
remove it and then fill it with new concrete it is not going to work that way.

You should really have a good patch repair. I mean, it should be done in a durable
manner. We will show you, how we can do this repair in a durable manner to ensure that it will
actually last long.
(Refer Slide Time 32:53)

48
 Now in summary what we covered today is cost of corrosion the main or the key number
which I would like you to remember is it’s about 3 to 4% of GDP today. We really have to work
hard to reduce that number. This essentially says why we need corrosion management strategy;
main reason is we have large number of structures which we are building today if we do not
ensure good quality on those structures they will start facing premature corrosion and then we
will have to spend a lot of money on repair.

We also looked at some fundamentals of corrosion mechanism. We looked at Pourbaix

diagram and we found that at around 12+ pH steel can actually prevent itself from corrosion.
And that’s the reason why we are able to put steel in concrete because we have very high pH in
our uncontaminated concrete. And then some reasons why steel corrodes even though on the
same metal 2 points on the steel one will act as an anode while the other one will act as a
cathode.

What is the reason for that to happen and steel essentially is not homogeneous it is a
heterogeneous material; concrete is also a heterogeneous material so because of those reasons we
have this corrosion happening. Anode and cathode can co-exist or exist on the same metal. One
thing I would like to say this is my PhD guide professor David Trejo. This is a sentence from one
of his slides. So he tries hard to influence the next generation civil engineers to design not only
for strength but also for durability with minimum maintenance.

49
 It’s very important for us to consider this today because most civil engineers when we
talk about concrete; one of the important parameter which comes to their mind is strength or to
be precise 28 day compressive strength. That’s not going to give you durability for the structure.
So you have to really think about how we can ensure durability not by spending a lot of money
later on but with minimal maintenance, thank you. So we will see next lecture on chloride
induced corrosion and carbonation induced corrosion.

50
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology – Chennai

Module No # 01
Lecture No # 02
Corrosion of embedded metal; Carbonation-induced and chloride-induced corrosion

Hi, welcome to the second lecture on corrosion of embedded metal. In this lecture, we will be
covering carbonation induced corrosion and chloride induced corrosion.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:27)

This is the outline of the module on corrosion of embedded metal. Where, we will have 5 lectures.
First, we already covered as lecture 1, which is mainly on significance and fundamentals of
corrosion, and then in this lecture, we will be covering carbonation inducted corrosion and chloride
inducted corrosion, and 2 lectures on this and 1 lecture on corrosion in pre-stressed concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:56)

51
So just a quick recap, on the lecture 1, where we covered basics of corrosion. When we put the
steel in concrete, we found that there is something called passive film forms, which, prevents the
corrosion of the steel further. And we also looked at 4 components of the electro chemical cell,
where you have an anode (the region the corroding region is defined as the anode), then the other
region on the metal which functions like a cathode, and then at connection, ionic and electronic
conductor.

The metal itself functions like an electronic conductor and the concrete will function like an ionic
conductor or any solution to which the metal is exposed to. The anodic reaction which we are
mainly talking about is
𝐹𝑒 → 𝐹𝑒 2+ + 2𝑒 −
The cathodic reaction is
1
𝑂 + 𝐻2 𝑂 + 2𝑒 − → 2(𝑂𝐻)−
2 2
(Refer Slide Time: 02:09)

52
(Refer Slide Time: 02:12)

Now, let’s look at how the carbonation influences the life of the concrete structures. What you are
seeing here is a schematic of various phases of concrete structure. The blue region indicates the
initiation phase, essentially, we can say that is the phase where there is no corrosion happening,
because corrosion have starts to occur at this time.

So, during initiation phase there is no corrosion happening. Now what is happening during this
initiation phase is that the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will try to penetrate into the concrete
and react with the concrete, and try to reduce the pH of the concrete. When the pH of the concrete

53
in this region (near the steel surface) reaches a value of about 0.9, steel will start corroding, and
that is at corrosion initiation point (blue dot on graph).

Now, beyond that point the steel will continue to corrode and it will lead to cracking of the
concrete. we call this phase as propagation phase. Now the steel will continue to corrode and reach
a particular level where, you have to start doing the repair or the structural safety may be a concern.
We start repairing the structure and that is starts from here (Red dot on the graph).

How do we achieve this, is by looking at different factors which effect the carbonation and
carbonation induced corrosion and we have to look at various factors, not just one factor to be
looked at, all the factors influencing carbonation and carbonation induced corrosion should be
looked at and then really we should say okay a particular system will actually have a long life. I
want to correct one thing here (in graph), it is not actually chloride please make a change, it is Co2,
carbon dioxide concentration at the surface of the concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:29)

Now, let’s look at some typical locations where, carbonation can happen. This is a bridge, you
have lot of vehicles here, so the near surface of the concrete elements can actually have very high
concentration of Co2, because of the all the exhaust gas from these vehicles. This level could be
much larger than atmospheric Co2 concentration.

54
So, this kind of structures can experience carbonation, especially when the relative humidity is
about 60 to 70 percentage. You might see that there are several locations where Relative humidity
is very high due to rain. If relative humidity is beyond 70% you may not see that high carbonation
but 60 to 70 percentage is very bad for the structure when you talk about carbonation induced
corrosion.

And that is also reason for corrosion in the coastal region, usually we think that in the coastal
region we see only chloride induced corrosion. But that is not usually the case, carbonation can
also happen, but most cases you will see that chloride induced corrosion will be the governing
thing but carbonation can also happen. Do not neglect carbonation when you talk about coastal
regions.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:02)

Other type of structure where carbonation can happen is typically on railway platforms. At railway
platforms or railway stations you will see this kind of fences, look carefully in picture, you have
lot of these vertical cracks along this vertical member exactly through the center of it. Actually
these members, if you look at the cross section of these vertical members it will look something
like this (picture in the top right corner), and what is happening is this portion here is actually very
porous mortar which they use for making these fences, even if it is concrete but the aggregate size
would be very small.

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And what you will see is they are very porous in nature and the steel inside there will be one rebar
which is inside this fence that will corrode, expand and it will lead to cracking. We looked at in
the last lecture that once the steel starts corroding, there is about 6 times volumetric expansion.
which will lead to corrosion cracks like this (Picture in the top right corner).
(Refer Slide Time: 07:21)

Let’s now look at what is the mechanism of carbonation and carbonation induced corrosion. I
already explained this, but let me explain once more. As you see here (See picture in the slide),
the Co2 can penetrate into the concrete and then it will react with the calcium hydroxide which is
present in the concrete. In this reaction what is happening is this calcium hydroxide which gets
consumed. If the consumption of calcium hydroxide is too much then it will eventually reduce the
pH of the concrete, of course concrete has a high buffering capacity.

However, there may be a case when lot of reaction happen then the pH will reduce. If the Co2
penetrates and reaches up to this level (Steel surface), then the pH of the concrete around the steel
reinforcement becomes about 9 then you can see that the steel will start corroding.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:26)

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This is a more detailed intermediate reactions on this mechanism. What first happens is carbon
dioxide will penetrate into the concrete to react with the moisture, and it will form carbonic acid,
which then reacts with the calcium hydroxide. So, eventually in this reaction we have consumption
of OH-, and then at a later stage, what will happen is CSH or the calcium silicate hydrate will also
liberate calcium oxide, and it will also lead to formation of calcium carbonate.

So, if effectively you have a significant reduction in the pH of the concrete, steel is no longer
protected.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:21)

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Let’s look at how this carbonation depth can be measured by using simple test. If you remember,
earlier college time in the chemistry lab you might have used phenolphthalein indicator to see a
change in the pH. So, as in the same way we do, we can spray this phenolphthalein indicator onto
the concrete surface and depending on the pH of the concrete surface it will change the color.

For example, here this colorless region (Picture on the right side) or when this solution is sprayed,
there is no change in the color. This region, indicate that pH of that region is less than 9, and
whereas in this region the pH is greater than 9. That means, the region with pH less than 9 is highly
carbonated, and the region with pH greater than 9 is uncarbonated region. Of course, you can also
think like, Co2 penetrates from outside to inside. So, of course, the outer or the peripheral region
will be carbonated before the interior.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:40)

Now, if you take a core from the concrete structure (you can see there is a rebar), actually by
looking at this image, I can say that this rebar is going to start corroding very soon, because the
carbonation front is almost reaching the steel surface.

Now, if you wait for longer time, you will see that the region at steel surface will also becomes
colorless and that means the steel is gets exposed to carbonated concrete, and pH is low so it will
start corroding. However, I want to mention one very important thing here, we should never extract
a core with rebar, you should do a proper check, whether, there is any rebar present in the area
where you are going to core, you should not damage the structure. Because, by cutting the rebar

58
you are actually damaging the structure which should not be done. So, it is very important to check
whether there is a rebar before you actually take a core.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:10)

Now, this is a photograph of some experiments which we are doing in our lab. What we are doing
here is looking at how exposure condition influences the rate of carbonation in a particular
concrete. We have similar kind of specimens inside this shelter also. What we found is when you
have sheltered specimens or the specimen where it is not directly exposed to the sunlight, you can
actually have more carbonation.

So, in other words, specimens inside this shelter will have more carbonation than those specimens
which are exposed directly to sunlight. If I relate that to a real structure imagine that this particular
bridge (Picture in the top right corner) is actually having same concrete in all the elements,
however, I would expect that the region here (Between girders) will have more carbonation that
this region over here(Pier cap), because, most of the time pier cap is exposed to the direct sunlight.

So, you have a very low internal humidity over there (Pier cap), whereas in this case (Girders), it
is very difficult to change the relative humidity, so, that leads to more carbonation in this region
(girders), than in this region(pier cap).
(Refer Slide Time: 13:44)

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Now, let’s look at chloride induced corrosion. What is happening is very similar to the carbonation
induced corrosion. what you will see is there is also an initiation phase which is indicated by blue
region. These are the factors which influence, you have chloride surface chloride concentration,
and then you also have the rate diffusion coefficient, which indicates the rate of penetration of the
chloride into the concrete.

And, there is also another term which is called decay constant, in other words this is very important
when you talk about new type of concretes and because which keep on hydrating for longer period
of time, and then you might see that the diffusion coefficient keeps changing as a function of time.
So, we have to consider that also when we talk about service life estimation and all that.

In other words, you should not just look at 28-day diffusion coefficient, and then compare different
concretes, it is not the right way to do. More details on this will be covered towards the end of the
course. When we talk about service life estimation, there is a very important parameter which we
say chloride threshold, which is the amount of chloride required to initiate the corrosion, when we
talk about chloride induced corrosion.

Now, what is happening here is the corrosion initiates at this point (Blue dot in the graph), so the
chloride penetrates through the concrete cover reaches the steel surface, and it is keep on building
up at this steel surface. And when the chloride content over there reaches the chloride threshold
value, then you can say that corrosion will initiate at that point of time. Now the time from the

60
beginning until this point (blue dot in the graph), we can say it is corrosion initiation time, and
beyond that we can say it is corrosion propagation period.

Again, as we discussed in the carbonation induced corrosion case, we start doing the repair work
right here (red dot in the graph). Now, we have to see how to build durable structures, which is
mainly a phase from here to here (Corrosion-free initiation phase + propagation phase), or some
people say it is up to here (Corrosion-free initiation phase), and then you have propagation phase.
we also have to worry about durable repair, that is also very important to look at how to ensure
that the repair, which we do is also durable, which is main focus on this course.

We have to really look at synergistic effects of chloride diffusion coefficient, chloride threshold,
and surface chloride concentration. How all these have to be looked at and the service life should
be estimated. Then only we should decide which material combination or system should be
selected. We should not make comparison just based on diffusion coefficient or just based on
chloride threshold, the synergistic effect on service life should be considered.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:00)

Now, let’s look at where we usually see chloride induced corrosion. I mean we see in many places,
I am going to show you some examples, where, it is more prominent. Main, first of all, it is sea
water or marine conditions, where whatever structure, which is exposed to either seawater may be
in direct contact with seawater or very close, proximity to the sea water you can have chloride
induced corrosion.

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So, here, this is a concrete pier (1st picture in top row), or a pile, where you can see significant
corrosion at that wet dry region, here also (2nd picture in top row) splash zone all this you can see
lot of corrosion on all these elements, because you have very rich chloride environment, and here
also (3nd picture in the top row), it’s again a port structure you can see lot of corrosion here. In fact,
this particular structure there is a lot of repair also being done, but we found that those repairs also
were not lasting long enough, so lot of repeated repairs have been done on this particular structure.

This, is a view of a bridge (1st picture in bottom row), from below. This bridge is located right
above a water body. This (2nd picture in bottom row) is an interesting thing where people are tried
to actually protect from chloride induced corrosion, you can see a jacket placed right around the
columns near the splash zone. Which prevents this particular problem (1st picture in top row) from
happening. In this (3rd picture in bottom row) you can see this say temple view actually here, this
is very close to the sea and you can see the rebars inside this elements are also severely corroding.

And, actually most of these types of architectural features that those elements will be made out of
the very rich cement, rich concrete’s, which actually should not be a practice anyway just wanted
to mention that, less the cement better the concrete will be.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:14)

Okay, Now, some other locations we talked about where we talk about direct contact with the sea
water, or very close to the sea water, and if you move a little bit away from the sea shore, again

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you can have a lot of air born chlorides. This is one building (1st picture), where you can see very
severe corrosion cracking, this is also very close to the seashore. This is another building again
facing seashore (2nd picture) you can see a lot of areas with lot of patchwork happening, you can
see all this.

And then, 3rd picture is a close up of one of the sunshades in picture 2, you can see this very severe
corrosion and another thing to mention is, I mentioned earlier moisture and oxygen are essential
for corrosion to happen, especially, when we talk about reinforced concrete elements. Now, here
you can see (4th picture), drain pipe over here, usually what we do is we don’t give any space
around the drain pipe, when we drill a hole through a concrete element, we pack all that region
with mortar.

So, what is happening is, this drain pipe does not have any space to move, and which leads to
breaking or cracking of this drain pipe, especially, if it is made of a brittle material. So, we should
think about those aspects also and try to provide some cushion you know, over here. So that the
pipe will not be broken, when there is some movement. And, in that way we can actually prevent
this moisture ingress into the concrete around or moisture attack of the concrete around the drain
pipes.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:11)

Now, other examples which I would like to mention is lot of this pedestrian highways or elevated
structures, we usually walk on top of this and then we see that everything is fine, you see nice tile

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flooring and everything is fine (1st picture), but if you just look below the tiles this is how that
looks like (2nd picture). This is from the same structure and this is also located very close to the
sea shore, you can see how severally corroded these elements are. So, just by putting a cosmetic,
I mean, I would say that this tiling is just a cosmetic thing, it is not really addressing the root cause
of this problem here.

So, we should be very careful, just look is not important you have to also address the core concrete,
which really gives a strength to the structural element.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:05)

This is another example of a localized chloride attack, this shows picture of a building, where it is
a chemical plant, actually this region over here (1st picture), it uses hydrochloric acid for the
production of the chemicals here, and because of that chloride rich environment you can see the
beams over here (1st picture) has severe cracking here, and unfortunately this is not all a safe
practice but I had that photos so I thought of sharing this in the class, you can see this propping
(1st picture), it is not really a safe practice, you should replace the beam or do a proper protection.

And, there are many cases where such unsafe practices do happen, and you can see even this tank
over here it is also corroding (1st picture), you can see that, so the safety of the workers, who are
working here is not really considered in a good manner I would say. That is something which we
have to stop from doing. And you can see here cracks all along the structural elements, you can
see there is a lot of signs of corrosion, and you can see that they have also tried to do the repair

64
work, install some steel elements structural steel sections over there. severe cracking here through
the beams (3rd picture).

So, I just want to show that this structure is not located in a coastal region. I just want to show that
it is not just looking at the corrosion map of India, which I showed earlier, where coastal region
shows significant corrosive environment. You have to really look at the local exposure condition
for the structure, especially this one example is chemical plants.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:08)

Now, this is an example where in this particular structure, they used chloride rich sand and chloride
rich water, and it could happen in several places that if the sea sand or some sand which is rich in
chloride, if that is locally available people will try to use it, but eventually you will see that it was
not a good choice to do. We have to make sure that the ingredients which we use in concrete should
be free from chlorides or at least with minimal quantity.

Now, if you actually have chlorides within the concrete itself like from the aggregates or from the
water you can even see corrosion within 5 years. This particular structure experienced corrosion
in about just 5 years, 4 to 5 years they started seeing this problem. All these rebars which you see
here are severely corroded and what you see here is there is some cathodic protection being
applied. I will discuss more on that technic on a later lecture but I just wanted mention that here.

65
(Refer Slide Time: 25:32)

So, we looked at different type of structures or the reasons for, where is the source of chlorides,
that is what we looked at, we looked at that marine conditions or even it could be from the airborne
chlorides or could be from the materials used for making concrete itself. So, whatever be it like
the chlorides are reaching the steel surface. What you will notice is that there will be something
called pitting corrosion, for example here, if you look carefully that I have put this one of the arrow
as in a thick line, thickness is more indicating that this region might have more chloride than this
region, and this will lead to an earlier onset of corrosion in this location.

So, you may see a light pit, they are forming at an earlier time because you have more chlorides
reaching the steels of surface over there at an earlier time.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:39)

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And, this leads to pitting corrosion, I am going to show you how this happens in a different way.
What is the chemistry of this chlorides induced corrosion? So, if you have enough chloride
reaching the steel surface, let’s say here somehow you have chloride ions available. And they will
try to react with the steel or ion over here and this two will react and form ferrous chloride, which
in presence of moisture, will lead to formation of the rust, which is ferrous hydroxide and also you
have HCl form.

Basically, you create an acidic environment, and this HCl will precipitate again into two H + and
Cl – ions, which can attack this steel further, another iron atoms it can attack and then again it will
form. So, this reaction will continue to happen it will form more ferrous chloride which again will
in reaction with the moisture, it will form HCl and ferrous hydroxide.

So, this reaction, it will continue to happen, and so the point here is it is a catalytic reaction. So,
once you have enough amount of chlorides to initiate this reaction it is very difficult to stop it,
unless you can get rid of all the moisture in the concrete, it’s very difficult to keep your structures
very dry. Especially, when you talk about very large volume of the concrete elements. So, best
practice is to delay the time by which the chlorides can reach the steel, how can we do it?

Either, by increasing the impermeability of the concrete cover, is the best way to do, or, you can
also go for the higher quality steel, which will result in a delayed initiation of corrosion.
(Refer Slide Time: 28:56)

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Now, let’s look at how this pitting looks like in the case of a pre-stressing strand, you can see this
is the picture showing the pits formed in a pre-stressing strand. So, if you look here very carefully
like in this cross section, the area available for taking the tensile stress is different. Especially when
we talk about the region with pit there will be less area available that means the structure may fail
at an earlier time.

So, this is more dangerous, it is not uniform corrosion. Even in the case of rebars you can see there
is a small pit here, there are more corrosion here, but less in this region. So, there is a spatial
variation in the amount of corrosion happening and so that is how we say pitting is happening
when we talk about chloride induced corrosion.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:55)

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Now, earlier I mentioned that there is a parameter called chloride threshold, which determines the
initiation of corrosion, also there are other parameters which influence. I would mention here that
this chloride threshold is not just a function of steel, it is also a function of a material in which you
put this steel in. Anyway, before discussing that let me show you how that how different the
chloride threshold can be for different type of steel.

These 2 are similar to typical steel which we use in the market (A706 & A615), these 2 indicates
(SS304 & SS316) that the chloride threshold for this stainless steel, SS indicates stainless steel, it
is much higher than what it is for typical conventional steel reinforcement, and among the SS steels
you can see SS316 has a higher chloride threshold than SS304. But, in India I do not think we use
this stainless steel a lot unless we have a structure which you really want to have completely
corrosion free, where we do not want any risk of corrosion, we may go for stainless steel.

And then there are other type of steels also available where they modify the microstructure a little
bit, and which gives you higher chloride threshold than the conventional steels. So point what I
want to make here is, when you talk about new type of steel which is coming to the market we
must check what is it’s chloride threshold, and we must also check the chloride threshold for the
particular cementitious environment which we are going to use, and if it is low, one way of
improving the chloride threshold is by using corrosion inhibiting admixtures.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:56)

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So, this picture is now probably familiar to you, you have a concrete and a steel embedded in it,
and you have a passive film, so this green patch indicates that passive film is formed. Now, these
red dots over here indicate that when the corrosion inhibitors are used, we can make the passive
film denser or better passive film which will have more chloride resistance. So, the passive film
formed on the steel surface when the corrosion inhibitors are used is much more protective or
resistance against the chlorides.

And typical corrosion inhibitors which is available in the market is bipolar corrosion inhibitor,
earlier it used to be anodic inhibitors, where it prevents the anodic reaction. But bipolar inhibitors
actually help in preventing both anodic and cathodic reaction from happening.
(Refer Slide Time: 33:04)

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And, I am going to show you some results from our lab, on the effect of corrosion inhibitors on
the chloride threshold. First, we looked at the effect of water cement ratio, so if you can see this is
0.4 water cement ratio, you can very clearly see that when there is no corrosion inhibitors that is 0
percentage, you can say that the chloride threshold is around 0.3, that was the value which we have
observed, and when we added 0.5 percentage by weight of cement, average chloride threshold is
increasing from 0.3 to about 0.4.

And, when we put 1 percent corrosion inhibitor it is further increasing average, but again I must
say that there is one outlier probably here. So at least we can say that there is an increase from this
point, when the case without the corrosion inhibitor there is an increase. So definitely the use of
corrosion inhibitors seems to increase the chloride threshold, when we say it increases the chloride
threshold what it means is that the initiation phase, which I showed earlier like in the service life
the initiation phase it goes like this.

So, this portion here in the service life chart it is going to be more. So, the initiation phase can be
enhanced or increased by using corrosion inhibitors. I will show you later, how much it can be.
And also, when we go for a higher water cement ratio, what we are seeing is there is no change in
the chloride threshold. So, we have to really see that the effectiveness of this inhibitors is good
when the water cement ratio is low.

When the water cement ratio is high, they do not seem to really perform or to be of great use.

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(Refer Slide Time: 35:09)

So, this a PDF indicating that probabilistic service life when we use corrosion inhibitors. So, you
can look at these average values here, where you can say 9.2, or about 10 years if you get, when
you don’t use inhibitors, when we use inhibitors, we get about 20 years or 30 years. So especially
this one is for the bipolar inhibitors, so 3 times increase in the service life is possible by using
bipolar type corrosion inhibitors.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:02)

Now, when we go for the inhibitors, earlier I showed results on corrosion properties, we can very
clearly see that the corrosion resistance can be enhanced or chloride threshold is enhanced.

72
However, if you do not have an optimum dosage, or if we change the dosage it can actually change
the compressive strength and other transport properties of the concrete. I am going to show a little
bit of that. So, you can see here, this (Gray color line) indicates when there is no inhibitors used
you have about 40 MPA compressive strength.

When the recommended dosage, RD stands for recommended dosage, we got similar compressive
strength. When we deviated from the recommended dosage, by about -20, -40 and + 20, + 40, it is
very clear that there is a reduction in the compressive strength. So, this thing must be considered
while designing the concentrate mix. So, you have to consider an optimum dosage which is able
to provide corrosion resistance, and at the same time sufficient strength should be available.

So, if necessary, you can over design the concrete, and make sure that the mix after the addition
of the corrosion inhibitors is giving you a right strength or desired strength.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:31)

And other thing which this corrosion inhibitors can influence is the transport properties of the
concrete. One example I am showing here is the water sorptivity index. We saw that if you use the
recommended dosage, there could be an increase in the water sorptivity, that means moisture can
ingress faster now into the concrete. So, all these have to be considered when we use corrosion
inhibitors, it’s not that you just take this chemical and mix it and it will give you everything what
you want.

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So, what we have to look at is, what is the right dosage for the corrosion inhibitors, right dosage
in terms of corrosion resistance, in terms of strength properties, and in terms of transport properties
of the concrete. So, all the 3 things must be considered when we choose a corrosion inhibitor, and
this is same thing for all other chemicals also which we now a days mix with concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:35)

Now, let me talk a little bit about the corrosion in cracked concrete. So, this is a schematic showing
what different types of cracks which we would observe in concrete structures, flexural cracks here,
shear cracks here, this is also shear crack, and this is for a continuous beam element, because the
re-bars are at the top. So, these are the types of cracks it is possible to have in many concrete
structures.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:04)

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Now, I want to show you some examples of different type of cracks in different type of elements,
this is in a building, where this actually what happened in this structure on the left side image is
that they removed the foam work before the concrete really attained the strength. So, I draw this
black line here because it was very thin hair line crack and so just to show you there was a crack
like this on this beam.

Now, imagine there is a rebar, which goes like this (red line), and that re-bar will experience
localized attack right when it crosses the crack. Now, another example of crack in a roof element
is like this you can see here (2nd picture). Again, here also it could be because of the removal of
the foam work at an earlier time, or because of the shrinkage of the concrete either thing can
happen.

You can see very clearly the scale formation; all this here is scales very clearly indicating that
there is a passage available or a crack available within the concrete element through which
reinforcement inside can get attacked.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:38)

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Now, this is about the example showing cracks in a high way bridge girder, it is actually a
reinforced concrete bridge girder, you can see here very fine cracks. So, I am going to draw parallel
to the crack (red inclined lines). So, and imagine now what will happen to the reinforcement which
is going through these cracks, you know there will be localized attack in these locations and that
is what we should be really worried about. You can have a severe localized corrosion attack at an
earlier time.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:20)

This is on a pre-stress concrete girder where again you can see a lot of shear cracks in this direction
(red inclined lines), and this schematic is showing very clearly how the shear cracks will look like
and in this particular structure you can see that there. Actually the crack was filled with epoxy,

76
you can see this brown patch, it is actually filled with epoxy to prevent. But I don’t know how
effective this epoxy injection would be because these structures undergo lot of vibration.

So, you have to ensure that oxygen molecules or water molecules cannot penetrate through these
cracks, that is very difficult to achieve unless, you really provide a proper cover instead of just
filling a crack. We may want to go for a proper cover, that might be probably better option than
just filling the crack with epoxy. Best thing is to do a better design, so that these cracks do not
occur.
(Refer Slide Time: 42:24)

Now, this picture shows how carbonation can happen all along the crack, very clearly earlier we
said if pH is greater than 9 then that means concrete is not carbonated, if it is less than 9 then the
concrete is carbonated, which is indicated by this region, very clearly we can see this (the region
without any change in color) is highly carbonated region..

So, what is the end result, you will have localized corrosion in this region so the steel in this region
might experience localized corrosion. Similar is the case it is not just carbon dioxide if there is a
crack, chlorides can penetrate through that, oxygen, moisture all this can penetrate through these
cracks, and it will attack the steel in a very localized manner which is very dangerous when you
talk about structural behavior.
(Refer Slide Time: 43:31)

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Now, we talked about the crack, and then there is something called crack width. Which is how this
problem is addressed in the structural design, as you see here, on the first column you can see
different service conditions. If it’s dry air or a protective membrane is provided, they allow a crack
width up to about 0.4, and as you go down on the left side you will see that the condition is more
and more severe, or more corrosive in nature.

Here, you have sea water, sea water spray, wetting and drying, and continuous exposure to water,
water retaining structures. So, as you go down the severity of the condition is more, so we try to
also reduce the allowable crack width, or allowable or tolerable crack width, it goes all the way up
to 0.1 when you talk about water retaining structures. In the pictures on the right side, ‘W’ is the
crack opening width.

Now, if you have a structure like this you can see the cover depth is here, and this there is a high
tendency that this region will start corroding very fast (top right picture). Now, what we can do is
either design the crack width and have a combination between crack width and the cover death.
So, if you have more cover depth even for the same crack width you may not have a condition
where the crack is reaching the steel (bottom right picture), there is no crack in this region as you
see here no crack (bottom right picture).

So, the steel in the bottom image is better protected than the steel in the top image. so, point what
I am telling here is that, I am not telling to keep on increasing the cover depth which of course the

78
structural designer has to look at. What I am saying is whatever is suggested in the design we
should ensure that is actually implemented at the site.

Because, sometimes we see that there is a significant variation in the cover depth. so, we must use
proper measures on ensuring that the cover depth is adequately provided, good quality chairs can
be provided. But at the same time when I mention chair the quality of the chair block should not
be inferior to the quality of the concrete. So, it is very important to note down here. So, if you have
proper cover that is a best way to ensure durability of structures.
(Refer Slide Time: 46:07)

So, to summarize, we looked at carbonation induced corrosion, we found that the carbonation
process can reduce the pH of the concrete pore solution, which will lead to uniform corrosion, that
is a key feature we looked at, and there is something called critical pH threshold or critical pH at
which is if about 9, if the concrete pH reaches about 9, then steel will start corroding.

And the second mechanism we looked at was the chloride induced corrosion, which leads to
localized pitting corrosion. And, there is also a critical parameter which we called chloride
threshold, the chloride threshold can be enhanced by using corrosion inhibitors and also it is
function of both steel and the cementitious material used, not just the steel. The dosage of the
corrosion inhibitors used is also very important to consider, it should not affect the other properties
of the concrete. For example, if you are using a corrosion inhibitor you should ensure that it’s
influence on corrosion resistance is more, but it should not influence the compressive strength or

79
the transport parameters of the concrete, or in other words even if it is influencing we should take
adequate measures during the design process itself.
Now, cracks can accelerate the ingress of deleterious elements. Through the crack chloride, carbon
dioxide, oxygen, moisture all these can penetrate and reach the steel surface at an earlier time,
which will lead to localized corrosion.

I think with that we will stop this lecture. In the next lecture we will look at different type of steel
reinforcement available and what are the precautions to be taken when we use those kind of
advanced steel reinforcement, which claim better corrosion resistance.

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 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology - Madras

Lecture – 04
Corrosion of Embedded Metal; Types of Reinforcement – Bare Steels

(Refer Slide Time: 00:17)

Today, we are going to talk about corrosion of embedded metal. In the previous lectures we
looked at the significance of corrosion and fundamentals of corrosion. Basically, we looked at
the corrosion circuit and then in the second lecture, we looked at the carbonation induced
corrosion and the chloride induced corrosion mechanisms in concrete structures. And now
today, we are going to talk about bare steel, what are the different type of steel reinforcement
available and we will have one lecture on bare steel which we will cover today and in the next
lecture, we will talk about coated steel and non-metallic rebars.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:59)

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Let us look at the bare steel, before getting into the different steel reinforcement types, first of
all let us look at why do we need to ensure that these construction materials or for example,
steel is of good quality in steel and concrete. The main reason is most of the structural failure
happens due to material deterioration, if you are talking about long term deterioration process.

Based on the case studies, we found about 40% failures are mainly due to the materials, I mean
not being able to meet the adequate properties.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:48)

So, if we want to enhance the service life or avoid such failures, we have to make sure that both
the steel and the concrete, if you are talking about deterioration which is basically, the chemical
attack or long-term degradation process. So, we have to make sure that the steel which we use
is of good quality and at the same time, the concrete not just the concrete but mainly, the cover

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concrete, which is actually protecting the steel reinforcement that also have to be very highly
resistant against the deleterious elements.

So, both these have to be looked at and there should be a balanced approach, in this module we
are going to focus mainly on the steel reinforcement.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:37)

Now, let us look at different type of grades of steel rebars available in the country. Earlier we
used to use Fe 250, but then there was a demand for higher yield strength, so we went on
increasing. Even today people are thinking about Fe 700 type or grade steel, so, the different
grades are Fe 600, Fe 500, Fe 415 and Fe 250. Generally, you can see (graphs on the right side)
that as the yield strength is decreasing, the ductility or the end of the graph actually is moving
towards the left or in other words, the ductility of the rebar is actually reducing as we go for
higher and higher strength. If you look at the modulus of elasticity, you see that pretty much
all the steels have similar modulus of elasticity, so that is maintained.

But definitely, ductility is a problem. Especially, when we talk about the earthquake resistant
structures, ductility is very, very important. So, the structural system when we talk about steel
concrete system should be still ductile enough so, the structural engineers have to take care of
that part and why I was mentioning here is this higher grade, when we go for higher grade steel,
we should not make ad hoc changes at the site like reducing the number of steel rebars and
increasing the grade of the steel. We should leave it to the structural engineers or designers to
approve then only, we should go for higher grade steels otherwise, it might affect the ductility
of the structural system.

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(Refer Slide Time: 04:31)

Now, let’s look at the influence of different chemical ingredients or what is the chemical
composition of the steel and how they are actually influencing the various properties. Let’s say
very briefly we will go through. Carbon; it influences the hardness, strength and weldability,
brittleness all these properties will get influenced if you change the carbon content. For
example, here you can see if the carbon content is more than 0.3%, then the steel might become
unweldable or it might become very brittle in nature.

Manganese; it influences the yield strength. Sulphur; it influences the brittleness. Phosphorus;
it influences the strength and brittleness. Phosphorus influences the corrosion properties also.

Then the copper also it influences the strength and corrosion resistance, chromium influences
the weldability and corrosion resistance, then carbon equivalents affects the hardness, tensile
strength and weldability. So, all these properties are very much important for the good
performance of the structural system. Even though, some of these elements are in very, very
small quantity in the steel, they are still very important to be considered. Otherwise, you will
see that the steel which we used is having very different properties than expected.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:00)

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Now, let’s look at different type of rebars, which we are going to cover in this module. First
one is plain and ribbed (hot rolled) mild steel rebars and next one is cold twisted rebar, then we
now we use Thermo Mechanically Treated, scientifically speaking, it is Quenched and Self-
Tempered steel, it is QST steel rebars but in India we call this as TMT.

And then we also have CRS rebars which is Corrosion Resistant Steel and then we have
stainless steel rebars and prestressing steel strands, so until Prestressing steel strands we will
cover today in this lecture, and then we will move on to coated reinforcing systems.
(Refer Slide Time: 07:00)

Now, let’s look at plain and ribbed, hot rolled mild steel rebars, so these are the first type of
hot rolled bars which were in use in the industry. Mainly, after the flat or strip reinforcement,
which were used in the first-generation concrete structures. then there was a need for more

85
resistant steel and higher strength. So, let’s look at the plain and ribbed mild steel rebars mainly,
hot rolled steel.

So, in the plain rebars these are the first type of hot rolled rebars, initially, the flat or strip type
reinforcement were used and then industry started using this round shaped rebars, and these
are actually, more resistant to corrosion than the cold rolled steels because the energy level is
less of this type steel. These are not very much used in today's construction.

Mainly, today we are talking about high strength elements and the demand for high strength
materials are there, So, we are not using plane ribbed or mild steel rebars much. Let us look at
the first type of rebar discussed in the previous slide which is plain and ribbed mild steel bars,
these are mainly hot rolled steel, and these were used in the very beginning just after the flat or
strip reinforcement came into the market.

And then, this type of rebars are more resistant to corrosion than the cold rolled steel because
when the process is hot roll, the energy level of the final product is little less than the cold
rolled steels and then you have also, there was a demand for higher strength steel so now we
do not use this type of plain bars much and also there was a requirement for better bond between
the steel and the concrete.

So, people started using the ribbed bars, which is you can see that because of these ribs over
here (2nd picture), it enhances the friction between the steel and concrete. You will see that it
is the deformed bars are used in the market especially, for the primary reinforcement. In the
shear stirrups you might still see in some places where the plain bars are used.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:38)

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The other type of rebars which were in the market earlier is cold twisted deform bars because
there was a demand for a higher strength. Without really changing the chemical composition
industry went on with cold working the steel. These are basically, cold worked steel or work
hardened steel, this cold here does not mean the cold which we feel. But it is a temperature
below the recrystallization temperature, they twist the rebar as you can see in the image here
just like an after taking bath, we twist the cloth or the towel, so just like that these rebars are
twisted rebars, you can see the ribs are different from today's steel, which is available in today's
market.

So, these are the ribs and these are this long (picture in the top right corner), I call it seam, like
in a cricket ball you can see this portion here. And it is twisted bar, you can very clearly see
how the bar is twisted but this twisting process leads to some residual stress on the surface of
the steel because of which there it is more vulnerable to corrosion because of this residual
stress, this surface has higher energy level, and that will lead to more vulnerable steel surface.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:15)

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If you look at the microstructure how this cold working process, and what it does to the micro
structure. Before the rolling, you can see here in this picture, all these grains have similar size
in both the x and y direction or the horizontal and vertical direction in this picture whereas, in
the second image here after rolling, the rolling direction is in this way.

In the second image, we can see that these grains are elongated in the direction parallel to the
rolling direction, this leads to a higher energy level and the bars will tend to corrode faster,
because of this it is not really used in today's construction.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:16)

And the industry went on to another solution which is thermo mechanically treated steel, where
again the chemical composition is not much changed but the manufacturing process is changed
a little bit, and what you can see is you look at this graph here in the manufacturing process of

88
this type of steel, Initially, the temperature is around 1000 degree Celsius and within 1 second,
the horizontal axis is in log scale here in about 1 second.

Because of the quenching process, the steel surface temperature reaches about 200 degrees,
that is about 800-degree reduction in about 1 second. 1 to 2 second you can say, and then at
that moment, the core of the steel is still really hot, so the core temperature is this curve here is
indicate the core temperature and this curve here indicate the surface temperature, so the core;
the heat from the core is radiating outward.

And, it tempers the surface which is quenched, so that is why we are calling this quenched and
self-tempered steel, so in other words we are tempering it because of the heat which is radiating
outward from the core of the steel, so this is the correct term for this TMT rebars but in Indian
jargon, we call it TMT steel.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:49)

What are the advantages of this TMT steel? Main advantage is it is very ductile in nature
mainly, because this centre portion here or the core of the steel is ductile in nature whereas, the
peripheral region which is tempered martensite, it contributes to the strength and hardness or
the surface hardness.

Because of this large area covered by ferrite pearlite which is more ductile you get really, it is
possible to get about 18 to 30% elongation, which is very much necessary for building
earthquake resistant structures. Now, most of the time we have seen that in some type of rebars

89
available in the market, this composite nature or the cross section of the rebars are not as it is
as shown on the picture here.

You have to have this core, which is ferrite pearlite, this region ferrite pearlite and you also
have to have a peripheral tempered martensite region, then only you will get highly ductile
with good surface hardness and sufficiently strong steel. Ideally, 20 to 30% of the cross-section
area should be having this tempered martensite phase but we have seen that there is a huge
variation in these things which leads to variation in the mechanical properties of the steel.

Also, we recently observed that there is a need to test the rebars at the site and make sure that
rebars are actually having this kind of cross section. We had developed a test which we are
calling TM ring test. TM stands for Tempered Martensite ring test. I will go through that test a
little bit later.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:48)

So, this is how that test setup looks like. On the right side what you see is the test setup where
at the bottom, you see a small test specimen. On the left side you see the test specimen that is
kept here on the bottom of set up. You have a camera and a proper lighting and you can cut the
steel cross section and then etch the steel surface using a 5% Nital solution.

It is a very simple test. It hardly takes about 5 minutes to get the test results. You cut the steel
surface (I will show a video later to cut the steel surface) and then etch it by using 5% Nital
solution and then you will see that the steel will start reacting with the acid and then it will
form this 2 different colours on the surface.

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(Refer Slide Time: 16:46)

You can see this video here, on the left side is a poor-quality rebar specimen. On the right side
it is a good quality rebar specimen. You can see now we have placed this Nital solution which
is basically nitric acid in ethanol, not in water, in ethanol 5% Nital solution, you can see on the
left side, there are proper ring is not being formed whereas, on the right side you have a very
good ring formed.

So, very clear, that the right-side rebar is actually better manufactured, or the quenching process
and the self-tempering process that is better controlled in the steel on the right side. So, this is
what you see on the right side is what we really need to have but there are many products in
the market where you see only inadequate ring.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:48)

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This is an example, case A is a good rebar, it is very good. Whereas case B, C and D are not
good because you can see where these red dots are placed, this region you have very little
tempered martensitic phase, here also there is a disconnectivity, this leads to earlier corrosion
or it can lead to corrosion at a lower chloride concentration.

So, we definitely have to prevent the use of such type of steel, so I request, we must actually,
do this test and ensure that the TMT steel is having this composite nature like what is on this
first picture (case A) a proper ring is necessary.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:45)

This is a market survey; results from a market survey, where we did some testing. These A, B,
C, D, E are the different products which we found. As the diameter is smaller, you can see that
this kind of problems are much more in the smaller diameter rebars. So, all these are not really
good type rebars.

Whereas, in the larger diameter bars, only one case over here (case D of 16 mm dia) we found
some problem now, we can you know if we do this test why I show this slide is to make sure
that the test is done on all the diameters or the rebars, all the different diameters because you
cannot just grade or the rate the product based on a TM ring test on a larger diameter rebar
because in this case B, you can see the 16 mm diameter bar is okay, but the 12 mm diameter
bar it is not okay because, you have a very thin tempered martensite over here. Like this you
can see very thin tempered martensite region, so it is not good, as you go reduce the diameter
to 8, it is really bad steel. So, what is the impact of this, why I am saying this is not good?
(Refer Slide Time: 20:10)

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The impact is this; on the left side is an image you can see at the bottom of the screen, on
bottom left you can see a cross-section, it is very good steel. when you bend that there is no
crack in this region, it is perfectly alright, there is no crack induced due to the bending. But on
the right-side image, you can see here this is the how the cross section is, here also very little,
it is not uniform.

And when you bend this, it leads to significant cracking, you can see all this region with several
cracks here, so this is the problem when you talk about or when you use this kind of rebars
with inadequate tempered martensitic phase or inadequate cross section.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:00)

Now, why again, I am saying what is the issue with this crack or where you can see this crack?
First of all, we are using these TMT steel mainly because you want ductility and you want

93
earthquake resistance. So, when you talk about earthquake resistant design, you have to have a
requirement most of the time, the stirrups we bend it by 135 degrees not just 90-degree bend,
like shown in this picture here.

You can see in the picture; this is bend by 135 degree as it is shown in the sketch or here the
diagram. Now, when these bars are gone to cracking, it will crack right where the bending is
happening or at the bend region and outside surface of the bend it will crack. If you have a
crack like this, this will tend to corrode even with very, very low quantity of for low
concentration of chlorides.

Because the mechanism is slightly different, we can call it as a crevice type of corrosion. So,
if I go back to the previous slide here, what will happen is; if I have a crack like these, so
chlorides can enter through this, go into this crack and then stay there and then it will start
corroding deeper and deeper right here (under the crack). That is the danger and one more thing
to mention here is when we talk about the shear stirrups, shear stirrups will have smaller cover
than primary reinforcement.

Now, if the shear stirrups are cracked and you will see that they will corrode before the primary
reinforcement. So, if you look at any structure which is corroded, you might most often see
that these shear stirrups are corroding and that too at the bend portion of the bar.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:34)

So, then it will compromise the structural capacity, so point here is we must do bend test on
the TMT steel and also do this TM ring test, so bend test plus TM ring test. So, these 2 things

94
we must do in addition to all the tensile strength test. Otherwise, we might be actually
compromising the corrosion resistance of the steel.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:02)

Now, we also have this corrosion resistant steel or CRS rebars in the market. Mainly, these are
the rebars with difference in the chemical composition. They have a small quantity of copper
and chromium is present and also, slightly higher quantity of phosphorus, this is the main
difference in the CRS steel when compared to other type of steel. Now, people say that the
CRS steel is highly corrosion resistant.

I mean the name itself claims so. But when you talk about the service life, it is not the corrosion
rate which is the key factor, it is an important parameter, but additionally, we must ensure that
the chloride threshold or the amount of chlorides required to initiate the corrosion, because
when you talk about the service life, the initiation phase is the one which really governs the life
of the structure.

So, what we should have is a steel which has a higher chloride threshold than a steel which has
a lower corrosion rate. If you really look at these 2 and look at the impact of them on the service
life, we must test the chloride threshold of CRS steel in addition to the corrosion rate. I am not
saying not to test the corrosion rate but the decision should be mainly based on the chloride
threshold and its impact on the service life, which is not usually done.

We generally test only the corrosion rate and make decisions, so we must test chloride threshold
that is a key thing, which is the amount of chloride required to initiate the corrosion.

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(Refer Slide Time: 25:59)

So, now let us look at the stainless steel. What is stainless steel? Steel with more than 11%
chromium plus nickel plus molybdenum. This enhances the resistance of this type of steel.
Mainly, by having a passive film, which is rich in chromium oxide passive film and the picture
here very clearly says the advantage; depicts the advantage of stainless steel.

On the left side, what you see is these pillars, which were built about 30 years after building
this structure which is made of stainless steel. So, this bridge on the right side is still standing
without any corrosion issues, stainless steel cost about 6 to 7 times more than the regular
conventional reinforcement, but still there is an advantage of using this.

The point is if you have enough money, budget constraints are not there and you want long life
with minimal repair, then definitely stainless steel is a very good option to go for provided
financial constraints are not there.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:20)

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This is a couple of other examples of bridges with stainless steel rebars, one in new jersey and
other in Toronto Canada. So, it’s not that people do not practice this, they practice this because
they may know very clearly that if they go for the other type of rebar, there will be huge repair
activities or the need for very frequent repair, so in such cases we really may have to go for
highly corrosion resistant steel, one of them is stainless steel.

Now, in India, there is a trend to use combinations of stainless steel and other steel rebar, in
some structural elements, because stainless steel is very costly. If I use stainless steel in some
portion of the structure and the other type of rebar in another portion of the structure, the project
cost is still not varied, it does not increase significantly.

But when we practice this, the mix of two type of steels, we must check the possibility of
galvanic corrosion between the conventional steel rebar and the stainless steel rebar. If the
impact of this galvanic corrosion on the desired service life, not just the immediate future but
if something is designed for 100 years, this galvanic corrosion should not lead to any significant
problem and for that time period.

So that must be checked, so the galvanic current should be so low that even after 100 years
there is no significant problem that must be checked before recommending such combinations.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:10)

97
Prestressing steel strands is another type of steel which we are using very much in different
type of structures today. Railway sleepers or railroad ties, this concrete sleepers and then very
tall electric poles or mast you can see here (1st picture in the 2nd row), when you go for very
tall then the lateral loads are so high and then you really need to go for pre-stressed concrete,
otherwise the structure will be very bulky.

And for long span bridges, mostly they come in as a coil because you are talking about using
these steel in very long spans, small rebars of 10 meter long is not enough, so it comes in coil
and also nowadays, we use these type of strands in high-rise buildings also, there uncoated
strands are also used but also there are products with a sheathed strands.

These sheathed strands comes in single units, when you talk about these in high rise buildings,
in post-tensioned slabs they use this kind of mono strands very much because you do not want
to bunch a lot of strands which will lead to significant bursting stress or they distribute the
positioning of this strands, so for which mono strands are used.

And now, in some new project we even started using fusion bonded epoxy coated strand. I
would say we should be very careful, when we use the epoxy coated strand. More details I will
cover in the next lecture but there should not be any scratch on this epoxy coating and they
should not be exposed to ultraviolet radiation or sunlight for that matter otherwise, you might
see that this coating will degrade.

98
And if there are scratches, it will not serve the purpose for which they are designed for, so when
you use coated rebars, you have to be very careful in handling them very delicately, so that
mechanical damage and UV induced degradation is avoided.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:45)

So, where we use this high strength steel material? In metro rails, elevated highways and
flyovers, long span bridges, power plant any large structure when you talk even high rise
buildings, we use heavily all these different type of steel rebars and strands and cables.

So, different types of cables are used, so go from single solid rebar or wire depending on the
diameter and then multi strand, multi wire strands and then you have multi-layered cables and
so, these are different type of steel reinforcement when you talk about very high strength
requirements.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:41)

99
Now, the prestressing steel, it’s a cold drawn steel, not like the mild steel which is hot rolled.
What is happening in this cold drawing is you see the picture on the left, which shows the
microstructure before the cold drawing process and on the right side, you can very clearly see
all these phases are aligned in the direction of drawing or rolling direction you can see these
are kind of vertically aligned over here.

And that actually, induces some factor of corrosion in the steel also, so you can see a pearlitic
structure with a matrix of ferrite with plates of cementite, so parallel laminar structure you can
see in this after cold drawing, so there is a rearrangement of the phases. Now, ultimate strength
of this type of prestressing steel is about 4 to 5 times more than that of typical reinforcing steel
and also the yield strength is at similarly 4 to 5 times yield strength is also expected depending
on what your base steel is.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:08)

100
I will cover separately one full lecture on what are the different type of corrosion mechanism
in pre-stressed concrete. But very briefly, let us look at this on the first picture, the top bar is a
deformed bar or the typical conventional reinforcement, the bottom bar is the steel strand.
Second picture is prestressing strand and third picture is conventional steel rebar.

And in the close up image shown here (2nd picture), where you can see that there is a severe
pitting happening locally, not everywhere but very local, as in the case of the conventional
reinforcement (3rd picture) you can see that the number of locations of pit is much more or
spread is more along the surface of the steel when as compared to what is happening on the
prestressing steel. So, this localized corrosion is very, very dangerous.

Because the prestressing steel is under stress all the time and because of the stress, there may
be some micro cracking and which is leading to this localized corrosion.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:29)

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Now, to summarize, we looked at the balanced approach necessary to enhance the quality of
the steel concrete system. We have to work on the quality of both steel and concrete. Demand
for higher strength and better corrosion resistant let to different type of steel rebars which are
now available in the market from mild steel, we went to CTD and then we went to TMT steel,
now we are talking about stainless steel, prestressing steel.

So, different types of steel's are available to cater to different requirements of various structural
elements, CTD bars are no longer in use because of its relatively poor corrosion resistance.
Better quality control of TMT steel is essential, lot of products are available in the market.

But when we really look at the cross section or the composite structure of the TMT steel, we
find that there are many products are not meeting the requirement of having a very good TM
or tempered martensite ring. Recommending the TM ring test to do in addition to the tensile
strength test or test on mechanical characteristics and also, we must do bending test when you
talk about TMT steel.

In bending test we look at whether steel is really cracking or not, if it is cracking we should not
use that because that will lead to corrosion at much lower chloride content mainly because of
crevice corrosion phenomenon and also chloride threshold is a very important parameter
especially, when you talk about CRS or any steel for that matter.

Chloride threshold should be looked at in addition to the corrosion rate because chloride
threshold and the diffusion coefficient of the concrete really governs the service life of the

102
structure and stainless steel offers good resistance. But of course, the combination of stainless
steel and other steel is in practice today to reduce the expenses.

But that must be allowed only if the galvanic corrosion is minimal for the desired service life.
Prestressing steel can be prone to deep pitting corrosion or localized corrosion because of the
high stress they are experiencing as compared to conventional steel. All this must be looked at
when we talk about steel.

In the next lecture, we will talk about what are the different type of coated reinforcement which
we have in the market, both metallic and non-metallic coating we will look at.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:29)

(Refer Slide Time: 38:35)

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And these are the list of references, if you want to read more about this, you can please go
through these references. Thank you.

104
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology – Madras

Lecture – 05
TM-Ring Test for Assessing: The Quality of TMT / QST Steel Rebars

Hi, welcome to this short video on air quality control test for most of the rebars which are
available in our country. Thermo mechanically treated steel or rather technically known as
quenched and self-tempered steel. We use this steel a lot in our construction site. However, there
are a lot of issues associated with the quality of this steel. Recently we developed and rather
modified the test procedure on how to assess the quality or how to assess the tempered
Martensite ring on TMT steel. And I have here Suraj Nair who is a masters student who worked
on this project and then refined the test procedure. So I am actually handing over to him to
explain the significance of this test, why it is necessary for our country and then explain the
details of the test methods.

Hi, my name is Suraj and I worked as a graduate student at IIT Madras developing the TM ring
test which is used who assess the quality of the TMT rebars in terms of its microstructure. Now
as shown on the screen, the TMT rebars are special in having a cross section where a tempered
Martensite ring and a ferrite pearlite (FP) core in it. The tempered Martensite ring is
predominantly responsible for the strength that the TMT rebars have whereas the ferrite pearlite
core gives it its ductility.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:08)

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Because of its special feature, we use these in earthquake resistant designs where we need both
strengths and used in ductility. These parts are used in stirrups and we bend it at 135 degrees. A
typical 135 degree bent stirrup as being shown here. A good TMT rebar will show a non-cracked
surface because the surface crack resistance is also good in these cases. But surprisingly as
shown on the screen we found cracks in several rebars which have been tested in bending and
this is being attributed to the inadequate microstructure that is present in it.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:46)

When I say inadequate microstructure as shown on the screen, you can see that no cracking case
shows a complete TM ring in it with a concentric FP core whereas a severe cracking case has an
incomplete TM ring in it which shows cracking when it is being subjected to bending.

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(Refer Slide Time: 03:09)

Now we have tested this in several rebars of different diameters and different sources. So, on the
screen we have several different rebars being tested and show us the TM and the FP areas in it.
So in most of the cases we find that the microstructure is inadequate where the TM ring is
discontinuous, or the FP core is eccentric, and this is predominantly seen in 8 mm and 12 mm
rebars. Now if we don’t ensure the proper microstructure is present it can result in premature
failure in terms of strength or premature corrosion.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:48)

IS 1786 which regulates the strength characteristics of these bars do mention about doing a
macro etching test which is non-mandatory to make sure that the TM ring and the FP core are

107
properly present in these rebars. But since it’s not mandatory it’s not usually followed or not
used as an acceptance criteria in the specifications.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:12)

This is where TM rink test comes into picture where it used to ensure the durability of the steel
in terms of proper heat treatment. This test is easy and replicable to do on site and it involves
macro etching in it. This is more of an enhanced version of macroetching.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:12)

Coming to the test procedure, we have two parts, one is the specimen preparation and second one
is the actual test procedure. For the specimen preparation we have a regular steel rebar which is
cut into a small piece, this rebar will be polished using sandpapers of different grid sizes ranging

108
between 80 to 220. Once polished we embed the specimen in a cold mounting epoxy which in
this case has a contrasting color, this will help at the end when we take the photograph.

Coming to the test setup, we have a camera which is set at the top, we have two adjustable
lighting and then there is a movable platform. On the movable platform stays the specimen. The
adjustable lighting is set at 350 to 450 lux light intensity to make sure that we have replicable
results. The movable platform is set to make sure that the specimen is entirely in focus in the
camera.

Next, we have the solution which we are going to use for macro etching which is 5% Nital
solution. The Nital solution is being made using nitric acid and ethyl alcohol. 5% nitric acid by
volume in ethyl alcohol is being used in here.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:24)

Once a solution is ready, we collect it using a micro puppet, take 2 to 3 ML and pour it on the
surface of the specimen. Once a specimen is exposed to the Nital solution, wait for 3 to 5
minutes within which the specimen is going to be etched. Having etched we will collect the
excess solution on the surface of the specimen using paper towel or cloth. This is to make sure
that the surface is non-reflective when you take the photo. So now the TM and FP areas are
clearly visible and then we take a snap at the specified lighting condition and the proper focus
level.

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(Refer Slide Time: 06:24)

So as shown on the screen the result of this test it would be different cases. Case A is good where
you find a completely TM ring and an FP core whereas cases B, C, and D are poor TMT bars
where an incomplete TM ring is present, or an eccentric FP core is present. This can have
implications on the strength and corrosion characteristics.
(Refer Slide Time: 07:31)

This test procedure and qualification or acceptance criteria has been published in a recent paper
by us in ICA journal. So on the screen the name is again TM ring test and there is a data sheet
that is present in there which can be used on site for acceptance criteria. The acceptance criterion
is of two levels. Level one is a visual analysis where we visually see if the TM ring is continuous

110
or the FP core is concentric. Level two is a much more extended analysis where we quantify the
area of the tempered martensite using any image analysis software.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:07)

The quantified TM area is expected to be in the range of 30 to 50%, an under quench TMT rebar
will have an area of tempered Martensite less than 30% which can result in premature strength
failure or corrosion and an over quench case where tempered Martensite is grater than 50% of
the area can compromise in ductility.

So we need to make sure that the area is within 30 to 50% and this can be done using the level
two acceptance criteria. With that the test set up, the specimen preparation and the testing
procedure has been explained and this is easy to follow on site and can be helpful to make sure
that the quality of the TMT steel rebars are ensured. Thank you.

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 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology – Madras

Lecture - 06
Corrosion of Embedded Metal (Coated Steel Rebars and Non-Metallic Rebars)

Hi, welcome to this NPTEL MOOC course on Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures.
Today is the fourth lecture and we will be focusing on corrosion of embedded metals.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:26)

And this is the outline of this module on corrosion of embedded metal. In the previous lectures,
we already covered the significance of corrosion, fundamentals of corrosion, carbonation-
induced corrosion mechanisms, chloride-induced corrosion mechanisms and in last lecture, we
talked about how bare steel rebars, what are the challenges associated with the quality of the bare
steel rebars and what to be ensured.

And then today, we will talk about the coated steel rebars, mainly the metallic coating and the
non-metallic coating and also the non metallic rebars, that also we will have a very brief session
on that today.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:11)

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So this is a recap and you have seen this slide already. So essentially, what we will cover today is
this type 7, 8, 9 and 10, on galvanized steel rebar, fusion bonded epoxy-coated rebar, cement
polymer composite coated rebar and fiber reinforced polymer rebars.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:32)

So first, let us talk about the galvanized steel rebars or hot dipped galvanized steel reinforcement.
These are the two specifications which are available for selecting or qualifying the type of this
type of rebars. ASTM A767 and IS standard 12594. How is this galvanization being done? So
first process is to clean the rebars, because from the steel mill when it reaches this galvanization
unit, they might have some dirt soil or oil or anything. Whatever being on the steel rebar, it has
to be cleaned.

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For that any coating, which when we do it first thing to do is to make sure that surface of the
metal surfaces very well prepared or cleaned. So that is done in this process here up to here and
then it is dried and after which the steel bar is immersed into a zinc bath, which is at 450 degree
celsius approximately and then that the zinc is added to the steel surface and then you are
allowing it for cooling and further inspection before the steel is sent out of the factory.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:57)

Now what is there in this zinc coating? Typically there will be four layers of the zinc, which is
formed you can see here, this is the bare steel and then you have this very thin layer of gamma
phase here and then another layer here and then you can see another border somewhere about
here and then this is the pure zinc region.

So essentially, there are about four regions, which you can see in this. Because of this and the
steel gets protected and main thing to note here is, even the outer layer you have about 70 DPN
hardness, which is much better than typical non-metallic coatings and because of this high
hardness, you needs no to be handled in a very delicate manner. You can handle as we do in a
normal construction site. Rough handling does not really create much problem for this type of
steel.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:12)

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And this is one example, just to show you how that the zinc will corrode and you can really have
significant thickness loss. This particular corrosion of zinc helps the steel from further corrosion
or in other words galvanic protection is enabled because of this zinc coating. And you can see
here the steel surface here, this is not at all getting corroded, but the thickness loss is happening
only for the zinc coating.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:50)

And one major advantage of this type of steel or coated rebar is that the coating itself is very
uniform at all the surfaces on the steel; because steel rebars usually will have a lot of ridges, it
will have the ribs, as you can see here on this bar, there are a lot of uneven surfaces on the steel's
surface and this zinc coating is actually providing a uniformly thick coating. As you see here, it

115
is very uniform over here even and on this also you can see it is very uniform throughout this
region. So you get a really nice uniformly thick coating on the steel surface, which is a very good
advantage.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:44)

And let us say during the rough handling or even bending of the steel rebars, the coating gets
damaged or gets peeled off at some locations like this one, here the steel gets exposed. So here
you have a little damage and the steel gets exposed in that region. However, because this coating
is directly in contact with the steel, it helps in protecting it in using galvanic action. In other
words, you have galvanic protection is very well provided even if there is a little damage on the
steel surface, which is a huge advantage, especially when we talk about the rough handling in our
construction sites, and even for bending, it is very good.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:37)

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Now it is has been reported that when the galvanized coated steel is immersed in concrete or is
embedded in concrete, because of the very high pH of the fresh concrete, this calcium
hydroxyzincate is formed in the very beginning. In other words, when the pH of the concrete is
greater than 13, some people say 13.1, 13.3, anyway, let us take for this class, we will say when
the pH is greater than 13, there is a possibility of this calcium hydroxyzincate, which is formed
on the zinc surface and following which there will be a reaction of hydrogen evolution. And in
this hydrogen evolution, the hydrogen which is released where from the reaction will kind of
lead to a debonding of this concrete from the zinc surface. So the bond loss is possible and
however, this used to be like a concern in the past and people have actually tried different
technology and today we have technology available, which will prevent this bond loss.

Before we go to that bond loss thing, one more thing I wanted to mention and there is a wide pH
passivation range you can see here the corrosion rate is very low when the pH is in this rang.
When the concrete gets hardened in the long run, even if the pH is about 8, you still have very
low corrosion rate. That is a very good advantage, when you talk about carbonation-induced
corrosion and things like that.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:28)

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So we are coming back to how people overcome this issue associated with the hydrogen
evolution and bond loss. The addition of chromates was tried and then it has been found that
when you add chromates to this zinc coating, the bond loss is actually not really there. You can
see here, when there is no chromate you see the bond strength is about 4-5 and when you add
chromate at different concentrations, you get bond strength is about 7. So we can say that if you
have the zinc coating with chromate, you don’t really need to worry about the bond strength loss.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:13)

Also another advantage is this zinc corrosion does not lead to cracking of the concrete. For
example, if you are talking about an uncoated steel rebar, when there is a slight corrosion that
can lead to cracking of the concrete cover. On that slide I mentioned, it can be even less than 1

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mil and that can even lead to cracking of the concrete cover. Of course, it depends on the tensile
strength of the concrete cover, but still in most cases it can lead to significant cracking. This is
not happening in case of zinc corrosion products, because zinc corrosion products are loose and
powdery in nature and then less voluminous. It does not accept any expansive stresses on to the
concrete. And if depending on the porosity of the concrete, it can actually ooze into the pores of
the concrete near the steel surface or near the zinc surface.

So that is a very good feature or advantage of this zinc coated or galvanized steel rebar, because
the cracking of concrete cover can be also delay or minimized.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:29)

Other thing which is very important about this type of rebars is the corrosion parameters or
parameters which are very crucial for determining the service life of the systems with HDG steel
rebar. So first parameter we will talk about is chloride threshold which is about 2 to 4 times more
than that of the uncoated steel. Chloride threshold is the amount of chloride which is required to
initiate corrosion and that amount is about 2-4 times more than that is required for uncoated steel
that means you need more time to initiate corrosion or service life can be enhanced.

And also zinc has much wider passivation range when you are talking about carbonation induced
corrosion, this plays a major role. Let us say you have very severe carbonation environment or
the environmental conditions are very severe or in other words humidity range is very ideal for

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carbonation to occur and then in such case, you will see that the pH of the concrete reduces. pH
of the concrete reduces from around 12.5 or something, if it is less than 9, then you will have
carbonation issue, but in case of zinc coating, it can even go further down or even at a lower pH
than 9, the rate is not that significantly high, unlike what is the case with the uncoated steel.

And moreover one more thing is the corrosion rate, in our service slab discussion, we discussed
that there is an initiation phase and then there is a propagation phase. Even for the propagation
phase, that means even if the zinc has started corroding, the rate of corrosion is going to be much
less as compared to the uncoated steel. So, all these will lead to a longer service life. So there is
definitely an advantage of going for zinc coated or galvanized steel rebars.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:50)

And people have used it in many structures. This is a temple in South Chennai and this is a
bridge abroad where, but only thing is the cost. The cost is much more, 2-3 times more than that
of the uncoated steel. But I think depending on the type of structure you are building, the
importance of that structure and if you want to really look for the lifecycle cost not the
immediate or the capital investment, if you are really looking at lifecycle cost, you might find
that use of this kind of coated steel is really beneficial.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:28)

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Now let us look at fusion bonded epoxy coated steel rebars. This is also widely used. See as a
technology, what is a protection mechanism? This fusion bonded or this epoxy coating, it
eliminates the direct physical contact between the steel and concrete and because of that barrier,
there is a reduction in the potential or the drive for the corrosion. This is essentially a physical
barrier, which is present between the steel and the concrete and that also reduces the availability
of oxygen, which is necessary for corrosion reaction to happen. You can see here this scheme
and the picture. This is the gray part is the steel, darker gray and then you have this green coating
and then you have concrete as the outer surface.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:25)

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Now how is this manufactured? First you take the steel rebar and then clean it, as you have seen
in the top left picture one. First you take the steel and then it is sandblasted or grid blasted and
then cleaned and then it is heated to about 200 plus degree Celsius and then it is passed through a
chamber which is having a mist of this epoxy resin powder and it is attracted to the steel surface
by electrostatic forces and then you have quenching.

Why quenching is required? Because you do not want this epoxy to be on the steel surface for
long period, which will probably lead to flowing of this epoxy downward, which might lead to
non-uniformly thick coating also. So to ensure that it is uniformly thick, the water quenching is
the best way to do.

And then of course before sending it out you have to inspect for holidays or any damage is
present. But what we are seeing most time is, when it comes out of the factory, it is probably
very good, but as because of the poor handling at site, it sometimes not really wise to use this.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:54)

This is a micrograph collected from one of the steel rebar, which was collected from the site.
You can see that all these black spots; they are all holidays or pinholes. So these pinholes all will
lead to early corrosion and there are ways to check whether how many of these pinholes are
present on the steel surface. I mean the lot of pinholes you can see on this steel. This is a rebar
surface which you are looking at. So there are two major types of equipment, one is using a wet

122
sponge and other one is using a wire brush. Basically you keep this wet sponge or the wire brush
on the steel surface and make an electrical circuit and if there is a holiday, then electrons will
pass through that and then circuit gets completed. And if the coating is very good insulator then
you will not have the closed electrical circuit and then with that way we can actually determine
whether the quality of the coating is good or bad.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:07)

This is ASTM A775 very latest code and this table shows how this code was modified over a
period of time, what are the major changes which were made in this coating specifications. You
can see that there are a lot of changes, as time passes people learned that something which is
already in the specification is not good, so they modified it. So this is a nice summary of these
changes made in this code.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:12)

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Now let us compare this ASTM A775, latest version which was published in 2017 and the other
IS 13620 2004 specifications. So you can see here the time to coating application after the
cleaning, in ASTM, it allows only 3 hours whereas in the IS it allows 8 hours. So this might also
be a problem, because if you have 5 additional hours between this coating and the cleaning
process, then the possibility of other materials getting deposited on the steel surface is high. So
this is something which we need to think about we may have to really reduce this also.

Then coating thickness, the uniformity is one thing and the thickness, how much is the thickness
average allowable, in case of ASTM, you see 177 to about 300 microns whereas in the case of IS
you see about 100-300. Even the thinner coating is allowed in IS 13620, which is probably again
not a good idea. Because we have experimental evidence that when the coating is less, the
tendency for the coating to be cracked is high, which will lead to early corrosion. So we may
have to make it more and more stringent.

Even continuity, number of holidays allowed in ASTM is less than 3 in IS we allow up to 6. And
adhesion, no visible cracks or debonding after 180 degrees in ASTM whereas IS say only up to
120.

In case of our earthquake resistant structures, where if we are using these type of rebars, the
stirrups are bent to about 135 degrees, this is the angle by which we bend the stirrups, so at 135

124
definitely this angle should be more than 135 to be able to consider as a test for steel rebars
which are going to be used for earthquake resistant designs. And allowable damage level on the
coating in ASTM it says less than 1%. We say up to 2% is okay or 40 millimeter square is okay.

I believe that these specification should be much more stringent and that will probably help us in
ensuring that the structures are going to be durable. So these need to be relooked. It is very
important.
(Refer Slide Time: 20:34)

And let us see what really happens in the practice, so this is also if you see a coating damaged at
the site, especially at the ends we generally apply additional coating. So this when you do this
process in the red box, when you apply additional coating, it is actually done at the site, it is not
really done by fusion bonding, because at site there is no elevated temperature, ambient
temperature you are doing it, so definitely fusion bonding will not happen.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:11)

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And when you bend these rebars after the epoxy coating, the type of tool which are used is like
this. The lever arm which you use is made out of steel, you are definitely going to pinch the
softer epoxy coating which will lead to damage especially near the bend region.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:38)

So this is how it is you can see here and these are the damages which are caused due to the
pinching of the lever arm and also if the epoxy does not have good elastic property at the time of
this bending, it will lead to cracks like this at the bend region. And these are bars which are just
90 degree bend and imagine if they are actually used for stirrups for earthquake resistant designs
which would have to be bent to 135 degrees. So that is another problem. We should not bend

126
these bars after epoxy coating. The best practice to bend it before epoxy and then take it to the
site.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:29)

Now what will happen if there are damages like this on the rebar? What will happen is, some of
the scratches will tend to corrode or will become anode like this here. The scratche at the center
is an anode and then the remaining scratches help or functions like a cathode and they do not
corrode. So you can see very clearly here, some can become anode and the other help in
corroding by becoming cathode and this is dangerous, because then you will have localized
corrosion happening, which will not be the case if it is an uncoated rebar.

The corrosion will happen more uniformly. Here the chances of localized corrosion is very high
and that is something which we need to be worried about.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:20)

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These are some pictures collected from construction sites in a major city in India and you can see
that these bars are exposed to sunlight. This means there might be construction delays or there
might be different stages of construction. So during this whole process, these bars gets exposed
to sunlight for weeks or months or even sometimes years, depending on various construction
delays.

So there is a possibility that rebars gets exposed to sunlight and what is the exposure to sunlight
means is it is exposed to UV radiation. Here is another example you can see this again, a lot of
scratches are there on this bar, damages and it is exposed to sunlight. I have seen this structure it
is there like this for several months, there was some significant delays. So significant exposure to
UV radiation is happening, which leads to cracking.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:24)

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So we looked at some of this, we did as experiment and then we found that when these are
exposed to UV radiation, cracks tend to form. In about 15 days, you can actually see that the
cracks are forming in this. So this is about 0.3 micrometer in crack width size and as time passes
you can see that crack width is slowly, slowly increasing. From here, you can see the crack width
is increasing and then day 34 and then 40, 47, 54 all this. As you go towards the right the crack
width is increasing means more and more volatile materials is being lost from the epoxy coating
and once there are cracks, it is very easy for moisture, oxygen, chlorides, etc., to penetrate and
lead to under-film corrosion or crevice corrosion. That is a major problem.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:28)

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So this is another picture, just to show you after exposure for about two months, how the crack
will be, there are very severe cracks. So the first picture shows without any cracking, second
picture it shows the cracks and if it is not really visible, look at the third picture, which really
shows all the cracks which are on the second micrograph. So this is a serious concern, because
most of our construction sites, there will be delays and you really want to have a steel system
which will not have any cracks on the coating until the steel is covered with the concrete.
Otherwise, it is very vulnerable to corrosion even without the presence of chlorides. That is the
most important point to take here is that the cracks can lead to corrosion even when there is no
chlorides at the steel surface. That means very short span of service life or the corrosion free
service life is going to be very, very small.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:30)

This picture on the bottom right basically to show the mechanism, you can see here one crack
right here, one crack is there and then oxygen, chlorides, moisture all that can penetrate through
this crack in the epoxy coating.

This is the concrete region. This is the green portion, is the epoxy coating and this is the steel
region okay. Now once it reaches, once the moisture and oxygen goes through the crack and
reaches the steel surface, it will then move to the right and left and then you will have an anode
formation and a cathode formation right in that region. Wherever there is an oxygen depleted

130
region that region will become an anode and if it is relatively rich in oxygen, that region will
become a cathode. So this will definitely lead to significant under-film corrosion in short period
of time.

And another laboratory study says if the coating is very good, the corrosion was observed only
after about 100 days. When the coating was exposed to UV radiation, the corrosion was observed
in about just just 50 plus days. So there is a significant reduction in the time taken to corrode the
steel rebar.

So multiple evidences say that the UV exposure or exposure to sunlight can really leads to
significant corrosion or early corrosion of the epoxy-coated rebar, even when there is no
chlorides presence.
(Refer Slide Time: 28:42)

And so I said even when there is no chloride present, it can actually initiate and you can see here,
this particular rebar corroded, when there is only 0.2% of chloride. This SD stands for scratched
rebar. So this is experimental results from tests on as received and no damage, if there is damage
then it is a different story. So then as received, but with UV, case 2 or case B and at last we have
as received SD which is scratch damage, which is very prevalent in this type of rebars because of
the dragging etcetera on the site.

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Now what we observed is, there is a significant difference in the chloride concentration or the
amount of chloride required to initiate the corrosion. We can say it is chloride threshold for this
type steel system, coated steel system. If there is no coating, it is about 0.4 and if the coating is
very good and no damage, then definitely there is an increase in the chloride threshold.

So this coating as a technology is very good, but because of the poor handling at site, it gets
reduced and with the two months of exposure, we were able to see significant reduction in the
chloride threshold and if the rebars were damaged, further reduction was observed. So definitely,
there is a reduction in the when the rebars are damaged. So we cannot really use the bars with
scratches or damages on these coatings, we should not.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:31)

So what is the effect of all these on the service life or which we can say here as a corrosion
initiation time or time taken for the chlorides to reach the steel surface and initiate corrosion.
And here this AR means no damage or no degradation, as received good quality epoxy-coated
rebars. So very clearly here, the uncoated bar which are the solid filled circular markers, we can
say an average time taken for initiation.

And if the coating is very good, you can say you can easily get 100 plus years of life, but again
when you look at this, they are just basically very close to each other. You cannot really say a lot
of differences. So the message to be taken here is that epoxy-coated rebar or to be precisely

132
fusion bonded epoxy-coated rebars are very good to use provided we develop the quest for
quality at our construction sites. And we handle these rebars with quality in mind, delicate
handling is necessary, we should not allow any scratching of the rebar, any peeling off should
not be allowed and also it should not be exposed to sunlight.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:12)

These are the conditions, which we must follow if we are going for epoxy-coated rebars,
otherwise it is better not to use the epoxy-coated rebars rather go for uncoated rebars, which will
give you almost similar performance with a very similar service life. So this is just a summary of
these two. If there is scratching, this is the proposed mechanism. If there is a UV exposure, this is
the mechanism. Scratch damage this is what is going to happen and UV damage this is what is
going to happen (Refer slide).

We already looked at it the formation of anode and cathode cells, anodic and cathodic sites and
under the film corrosion or crevice corrosion, this is going to really lead to localized corrosion
which is hard to identify or detect and at the same time it can lead to significant section loss
locally.
(Refer Slide Time: 33:08)

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These are some pictures showing on a five years old bridge, even without any chloride, these
rebars were corroding. So I am reinstating that it is more dangerous to use damaged epoxy-
coated steel rebars than conventional uncoated steel rebars.
(Refer Slide Time: 33:30)

And this is some picture showing how ideally this should be done. These rebar should not be
bent at site at all and even the ends should be epoxy coated. This is what the practice is abroad,
even if they are going for epoxy coating, the bending and all those mechanical processes are
done before the epoxy coating is done. Bending and cutting everything is done before epoxy
coating. That is how we should also practice if we are actually going for it.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:04)

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And for the tie wires also we should not use uncoated of metallic tie wires. We should go for
plastic coated tie wires, or in other words a material which is of similar hardness or softness as
the epoxy coating should be used.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:24)

And if we are using needle vibrators, we should use not the metallic needle vibrators, but the
vibrator should have a sleeve, which is made of a soft material like rubber as you see in the
picture here. These are rubber coated needle vibrators. So that these type of scratches are not
induced on the rebars, because of the vibration process. In normal construction, we do not see
this, because this process is happening after the concrete is placed. And also the couplers which
we use metallic couples, as you tighten these couplers or fasted them onto the rebars what you

135
are actually doing is you are pinching on to the epoxy coating or really damaging the epoxy
coating.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:16)

Another type of non-metallically coated rebar which is widely used in the construction is this
cement polymer composite or CPC coated rebars. Let us look at what is this rebar. You have
three major processes. First you have to clean the rebar surface. The recommendation is clean it
by a sandblasting which is sometimes very difficult to practice at most of the construction sites.
So you have to really get a very clean steel surface and then you apply a primer coat on that steel
surface which is item number 2 here and then on top you apply a seal coat which is item number
3 here.

So this is how this is made and what is primer coat? It is essentially cement with an acrylic
polymers as additive. I am sorry, it is the reverse. It is acrylic polymer with cement as additive.
So you should read this acrylic polymer with cement as additive and seal coat also acrylic
polymer with cement as additive. The cement is the additive here, not the polymers. So just
please correct that and they are available in different color.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:39)

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The protection mechanism is this type of coating provides an alkaline environment. Because of
the presence of the steel in this coating it provides an alkaline environment to the steel, which
helps in providing a or forming a good passive film. Which is not the case in the fusion bonded
epoxy coated rebar, where there is no alkalinity provided on the steel surface. It is just a physical
barrier it is dependent on, but in this case of CPC coated rebar, physical barrier plus this alkaline
environment helps in corrosion protection. And also this coating eliminates direct physical
contact between the metal and the concrete or the steel and the concrete and also you get
reduction in the oxygen supply. So these are similar mechanisms but one added feature is that
this alkaline environment is available in case of CPC coated regions.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:41)

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Now that is what I just discussed is the best practice and if you have a good coating, it will have
long life, but if you have considering the way it is being done at the many construction sites, we
are seeing a lot of challenges or trouble or concerns with the use of this type of coating. This
picture was taken from a coastal bridge construction. You can see the piers and the cage for the
pier of this particular bridge and what you see here is the top portion of this it is not at all coated.
And only the bottom portion is coated here and that too was coated after the cage is made. When
you are making something which is after the cage is made, getting the entire steel surface coated
is very difficult. So ideally we should coat the steel surface and then make the cage, but in this
particular case, it is done the other way. So what is the end effect is something like this as you
see on the closer picture on the right you can see that some region is white in colour and some
region is rust colour, the brown color. So definitely, there is a non-uniform or uneven or
discontinuous coating. That is a challenge.

When you have this discontinuous unevenness or non uniform thickness, etc., you are actually
inviting trouble by creating corrosion cells or you are inducing corrosion or you are increasing
the chance of corrosion in such cases. Either you apply a good coating or do not apply coating.
That is the message to be taken.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:26)

Now to study this or quantify the effect of this improper coating, we did some study. We
prepared specimens like this, small prism specimens with three rebars, 1, 2, and 3. You can see

138
the cross section here, how the specimen looks like and then we pondered the specimen with
chloride solution for long period.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:52)

And we found that, as you see on the first photograph AR, which is actually a well coated but
with some rust on the steel surface that is what as received means as received with some rust on
the steel surface, we applied the coating which is the practice being done or adopted at the
construction sites. But the right practice is to do sandblasting and then apply the coating. So we
tried these two cases. How they are performing or how the corrosion resistance is getting
affected.

You see on the left picture, this sketch on the left side you can see that lot of region is either
corroded or peeled off. This light gray is like peeled of region and the black is the corroded
region. Significant corrosion has been observed in the case of as received rebars. So this is AR
case and this is SB case on the right side. On the right side SB case, the amount of corrosion is
much less.

So definitely steel surface preparation is very, very important and we if we are adopting CPC
coated technology, we must ensure that the coating is applied on a clean sandblasted surface.
Otherwise, it is going to be harmful to the structure.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:27)

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These are two micrographs, the one on the left side shows how the coating is adhered to the steel
surface. You can see steel here and this is the coating and then there is a nice crack which is all
along the interface between the coating as you can see there is a micro crack, which is absent in
the case on the right side. So you can see steel here steel and then well adhered CPC coating and
there is no crack between the or there is no crack at the interface between the steel and the
mortar. So definitely, the surface preparation plays a significant role.
(Refer Slide Time: 42:13)

How it affects the service life? If the coating application is not really good, how the service life
gets affected. So again, as I discussed earlier the chloride threshold for uncoated steel, we can
assume it to be about 0.4 or this is what we determined. Here woC is without coatingand wC is

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with coating. Again here the without coating and with coating and the left two is as received case
and this is sandblasted case.

Definitely there is an advantage of sandblasting in increasing the chloride threshold. If you

compare the first two like these two in the case of as received case, you can see that the as
received case, there is no significant increase in the chloride threshold; it is only from 0.4 to 0.5.
But if you actually sandblast and provide this coating, you get the chloride threshold increases
from 0.4 to about 0.8 plus almost double.

So that really tells you that the life can be enhanced if the coating is applied with proper
sandblasting. So the message is the coating technology is good, provided the steel surface is very
well cleaned at the time of application of coating and what is the impact in terms of service life is
that if the coating is applied on a sandblasted surface, you might get an average service life of
100 plus years, 120, 125 years, just for the specific case. But if you actually have applied coating
without sandblasting, it is almost about 70 years. So it very clearly says that this application of
this coating if it is done without proper cleaning, it does not really do any good job. It is just
mere waste of money.
(Refer Slide Time: 44:38)

Another type of rebar, which is used in the construction market today, it is slowly getting into the
market. It is fiber reinforced polymer rebar or non-metallic rebars. Typically glass fibers are all

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used and basalt fibers are also used. These are the two major types of fibers, which are used for
this type of bars and why it is being used? It is very light compared to steel rebars and it can be
manufactured in whichever shape and length that is also possible.

So what is this FRP rebar is? You have fibers like this and this is the polymer matrix or epoxy
and then at the end you get a product like this. So all these fibers are held together or glued
together with an epoxy resin. These are just pictures on the right side shows some of these fibers,
which are available in the markets. That bottom picture clearly shows you can also get these type
of rebars, which are already bent. Definitely you cannot bend this. These are very brittle
materials. So you cannot bend these at the construction site. You have to do it early enough.
(Refer Slide Time: 45:56)

Advantages are these are non-conductive. So it can be very good for applications where power
generation plants and other specialized installations where electric short circuit is a significant
concern due to the use of the facility. And they are very brittle. This is a disadvantage of this
thing and this is a good thing and then non-metallic, non-corroding material.

But again you have to see, what is the definition of corrosion? If you are talking or if you are
defining corrosion as a metal loss, of course that is not there, but if you are defining corrosion as
the material loss, then you have to think about the chemical attack also. So no metallic corrosion
but this chemical attack and how it influences the performance of the bar in long run to be

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analyzed. The attack is mainly due to the highly alkaline environment in concrete and probably
the moisture which is present in the concrete.

How these GFRP or this FRP rebars, (GFRP is glass fiber reinforced polymer) or even basalt,
anything perform in the long run in presence of highly alkaline concrete and in presence of
moisture must be studied before we can widely use these type of rebars. There are some
technologies already available like alkali resistant fibers are used.
(Refer Slide Time: 47:36)

Now this is a picture showing a poor quality FRP rebar this is because poor inadequate
manufacturing process or the quenching process or in other words the epoxy was allowed to
flow in the vertical direction like this and leading to small, you see bubbles forming like this not
bubbles of epoxy is formed. This is also not good. It is an indicator that there is lot more epoxy
in the rebar than what is actually required. In other words, it is not really well compacted, the
structure. You do not need epoxy as filler. You need epoxy as a binder only or glue not
necessarily as a filler. So adding too much epoxy and inadequate quenching or setting process is
not really is something which needs to be looked at. It should be uniform. These kind of bubbles
should not be there. These are all indicators of poor quality.
(Refer Slide Time: 48:43)

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And again here, you can see there is a lot of air void present in this. That is also something not a
good thing to have on this kind of rebars.
(Refer Slide Time: 48:55)

And let us see how, what is a failure mode of this type of rebar. These are definitely very brittle
and you can see here on the picture, first picture, this one debonding and shear rupture in this one
also. You can see the fibers are getting debonded like this here and also there is a shear, also
there is a shear rupture like this you can see here, these are the two types of failure observed on
the first two pictures or the first two type of FRP bars.

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And here on the third picture here, you can see there is a shear failure and slight debonding
happened on the first specimen, but it may not be a major concern, the major governing failure.
So all these have to be considered and before we start using these rebars in a larger scale.
(Refer Slide Time: 50:03)

And how the pH affects the shear modulus? Definitely you can see in about, in this picture under
in the graph on the right side bar chart. So this is related to the unexposed bars most of the other
bar charts are below this, relative shear modulus of elasticity is less than 1 indicating that there is
a possibility of reduction in the mechanical properties of this type of bars, when they get exposed
to exposed to chemicals, in other words concrete. Even though, there is no metallic corrosion but
the other forms of degradation must be tested or investigated before we go ahead and use this
type of rebars.
(Refer Slide Time: 50:53)

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And this is just a cost comparison on how different type of steel rebars which are coated, what is
the cost between the two. The galvanized steel, you can see is about twice the cost. FRP rebars it
is about thrice the cost and the CPC coated and fusion bonded epoxy coated is about 1.2 to 1.4.

So this is probably the reason why these two types of non-metallic coated rebars are used, but we
should be very careful about going for lifecycle. I mean, do not look at only the capital cost, but
also look at the lifecycle cost and the durability. These two are very, very important to look at
before selecting steel reinforcement, because the structures life will depend not only on the
concrete, but also on the performance of the steel that balance which we were talking earlier.
That is very, very important.
(Refer Slide Time: 51:52)

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And so we covered, how this galvanized steel rebars can exhibit higher chloride threshold and
low corrosion rate and also a wider pH passivation range. So those are the advantages of
galvanized steel rebars, fusion bonded epoxy-coated rebar and CPC coated rebars both are good,
if they are manufactured in a proper way and implemented in a proper way, they can give you
long life.

But considering the site practices and rough handling, etcetera or even inadequate preparation of
the steel surface, these rebars are not performing. We have enough evidence showing that they
will not really last very long as compared to an uncoated rebar. Then also we discussed about the
fiber reinforced polymer rebar. Definitely, we should look at the longevity of those rebars in
highly alkaline environment, like we see in concrete. They may not corrode. There is no metallic
corrosion, but other form of chemical attack is possible, so that should be taken into
consideration.
(Refer Slide Time: 53:20)

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(Refer Slide Time: 53:24)

These are the references for further reading in this material.

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 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology – Madras

Lecture – 07
Corrosion in Prestressed Concrete

(Refer Slide Time: 00:29)

Today in this module on corrosion of embedded metal, we are going to cover corrosion in
prestressed concrete systems most of the time there is something special about the corrosion
mechanisms in prestressed concrete as compared to the conventional concrete systems.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:32)

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 I am going to show you very classical illustration of prestressing using some stack of
books. You can see this is Professor Gustav Magnel’s demonstration. He used to do it in class.
Take a stack of books and then press it from the sides so that you can carry more load. So this is
the same principle applied for prestressed concrete systems also where you have prestressing.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:06)

There are two types of prestressed concrete systems, one is pre-tensioned system and the
other one is post-tensioned system. The one on the left is a pre-tensioned system.
There are two types of prestressed concrete systems based on the time at which the
strands are stressed if it is pretensioned concrete system then the strands are stressed before the

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concrete is cast. In the post-tensioned concrete system, the strands are actually stressed after the
concrete has achieved its strength or after the concrete has hardened.

So, one on the left which you might see these kind of bridges most of the flyovers in the
city you might see this kind of systems most of them are actually pre-tensioned concrete. This is
a typical metro on the right side. It’s a typical metro bridge or elevated metro system where you
will mostly see post-tensioned segmental concrete construction. Also I would like to mention if
you see an I-girder it is not necessary that it’s always like these kind of I-girders. It’s not
necessary that they are always pre-tensioned but there could also be post-tensioned system.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:29)

So, what is the corrosion protection strategy in the pretension concrete? Here you can see
in this close up you have the black dots which are the strands and the grey region represents the
concrete. The chlorides penetrate through the concrete cover and reach the steel strand through
diffusion or the typical chloride ingress processes which are also present in the conventional
reinforced concrete systems.

And then once the chloride builds up to a sufficient level at the steel surface you can say that the
corrosion will initiate.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:09)

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 The pitting corrosion on strands and deformed bars are of 2 types or the type of
corrosion which you see in the case of rebars and in the case of strands are little different
especially the corrosion cracking patterns. So, for example in the case of typical rebar or a
conventional deformed bar like in this case what happens is. You can see that some pits here and
there.
But there are also regions which are not pitted much but the point here is there is no space
like in the case of strands. Rebar is a single solid bar and the only surface which is corroding is
actually in contact with the concrete. So, whatever the rust is formed it will very fast exert
expansive stresses on to the concrete nearby leading to cracking and then followed by the oozing
out of this rust through the concrete cover and then you can see that brown stains on the concrete
surface.

But in the case of prestressed concrete system it’s a little different what happens is. First
because of the stress the pitting can be very significant or much localized and you can see very
severe pits whereas some regions are not at all corroding or very limited corrosion. But you can
actually have severe pits which might lead to the fracture of that particular wire. Like in this case
this particular wire will fracture much earlier than the others which might lead to structural
problems.

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 And also on top of that whatever the rust is formed in the beginning they will occupy
these small triangular shape spaces between the 7-wires. Once this space is fully filled with the
rust only after that the rust on the strands will actually exert pressure on the surrounding
concrete. So because of this what will happen is? There may be prolonged corrosion before you
actually see some brown stains.

So, visual observation is not really a good idea when you talk about post tensioned
systems. In the case of strands there could be delayed expensive stresses, cracking and
manifestation of corrosion products.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:53)

Another thing which can happen in the case of prestressed concrete system is that as you
see on this image here or if you take 1 pitch length of the strand that is shown in this picture here.
You can see that all the 6 wires are actually getting corroded not only a wire in other words in 1
pitch all the wires at the top surface and those portions are getting corroded.

So, effectively what you can see is. When you look at the cross sectional loss over a pitch
length it is approximately 6 times the cross sectional loss on 1 wire. So effectively you lose
significantly as compared to a rebar. If it is in the case of a rebar let’s say you have a rebar like
this which is a solid bar only the top portion will be corroding and then this region will not be
actually corroding and the picture on the bottom left you can see, severe pitting like this here.

153
 You can see a pit form. So severe pitting whereas some region there is no corrosion at all.
Now because of this there will be significant reduction in the structural capacity and that is a
significant concern. So actually in this case of prestressed concrete we don’t even want to get
into the corrosion propagation phase. In fact, we want to enhance or increase the duration of the
initiation phase as much as possible. That is because once it starts corroding it becomes very
dangerous in the case of prestressed concrete systems.
(Refer Slide Time: 07:40)

Let’s look at what is the strand protection strategy or system in post-tensioned segmental
concrete. As you see in this sketch here you have several box girders or the segments like in this
picture you have 2 diaphragms and then 4 segments just to show but there will be more just to
make it clearer to understand I have put it something like this. And then you have tendons which
run from 1 pillar to the other. Typical simply supported systems will be something like this.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:19)

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 When you look at the tendon alone, each of the tendon is made of about 19 or depending
on the diameter of the tendon you will see multiple strands are placed inside a duct; inside a
plastic duct or high density polyethylene duct which is this one and then the space in between the
strand and the duct is filled with the cementitious grout. Now, this highly congested strand and
that is where the challenge is how to get this space between the strand and the plastic duct filled
with cementitious grout properly.

That is the biggest challenge and if it is not filled properly you can actually experience
significant amount of corrosion or early corrosion of the system. There are 2 types of tendon
systems one is internal and another one is external. The internal is when the duct or the entire
tendon is inside the concrete where the external means it is kept outside the concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:26)

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 Depending on various reasons designers might choose either internal or external tendon
system. So here, it shows a typical profile of tendons on the top drawing you can see it is a
straight profile like this and then it goes like that. In the bottom one you will see a curved profile
mainly because here it is a continuous beam system and in the top one typically when you have
simply supported system you go for that kind of profile.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:00)

When you have this profile the strands will not stay at the centre of the duct. When you
pull the strands depending on the profile the strand will try to occupy a shortest distance and it
will get little bit eccentric to either one of the sides of the duct as you see here on the left image

156
if the strand is pulled then it is moving towards one direction as you see here in both these
tendons, the strands are more congested in the top portion of the duct than at the bottom portion.

And in this case over here you can see that strands are pulled towards the bottom. In this
case also it is actually at the bottom. Here moving towards the top. So it is not necessary that
always the strands to be at the centre. So, because of this what is actually happening is. There is
some region here like this as I am drawing where you have less congested region and the grout
which you fill flow through that region and then it will reach the other end. Then people
generally conclude that if the grout is pumped from one end of the tendon and if it is reaching the
other end it is actually completely filled. But that is not the right conclusion to make because you
have to really make sure that this congested region like this here is actually filled up that is very
important.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:40)

For achieving that we should a very good grout and also allow enough time for the grout
to flow and best way is instead of pumping the grout from one end of the duct to the other end
you pick the lowermost points as per the Federal Highway Administration this is the
recommendation especially based on a study conducted by Florida Department of
Transportation.

157
 So as you see here they pick the lowermost points on the profile and then try to pump in.
This is the inlet, pump the grout into the duct and then the grout is allowed to flow upward and
through this vent it is supposed to come out and then vents here also. So the filling from the
bottom most point let the grout flow upward and that is how it is supposed that will actually
ensure much better filling than filling from one end and letting the grout flow downward etc.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:43)

Now other thing is to prevent the void formation at the end or the anchorage. You can
also do a little bit to prevent the void formation and entry of moisture. You can see that slight
inclination of the tendon profile at the end can also so, for example if this is the end of the
anchorage zone if water is coming through like this it will never go upward like this. But in this
case you may see that water going like this. So that is kind of this is not good and this is good
practice to follow slight change in the profile.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:25)

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 Nowadays, you will see that most of the tendon systems you have this cementitious cap
like this. What is happening in this is? Cement has an inherent property of absorbing moisture, it
is hydrophilic in nature. So, it will absorb the moisture and then if that anchorage region has
sufficient moisture. Definitely it is going to lead to corrosion of the strands at the near anchorage
zones.

And you might see strands corroding something like this in very short period of time
which is not really a good thing to happen. Especially when we think that these types of
structures are supposed to last for 100 years or more. Now, recently people are also practicing to
put some kind of polymeric coating on this like water proofing coating.

But remember that these structures when they are exposed to sunlight these polymeric
coating might actually degrade in very short period of time maybe few years down the line they
might degrade unless it is prevented or protected from sunlight. So I would say the metallic caps
are the best preventive measure for these kinds of systems.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:50)

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 And on top of the metallic cap you also should have very good concrete element which
will protect it. You need to really take care of the anchorage zones otherwise these structures will
have severe corrosion problem in very short period of time.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:10)

Now, these are the segmental joints, the joints we can see here. So these joints usually are
supposed to be filled. Earlier few decades ago people used to go for dry joints means there is
nothing in between the 2 segments. You just keep the 2 segments together and then you know
press it or due to the prestressing action itself and then rely on the shear keys for the resistance.

160
 However, later on people found that it leads to severe corrosion because through this dry
joint oxygen and moisture can penetrate and will lead to localized corrosion of the strands which
are going like this. So this region will actually corrode. So, to prevent that recently people are
actually using epoxy joints. That means you put epoxy on the facing surface of both the
segments and then push them together and squeeze it.

Because of prestressing it will get squeezed and it is supposed to fill the entire region and
to prevent the entry of moisture and oxygen it is very important. But we have seen if you do not
really put a good amount of epoxy it will actually lead to further leakage and corrosion later on.
(Refer Slide Time: 16:36)

This is an example showing that inside the duct you can actually have stagnant water and
it is very important to make sure that these kinds of things don’t happen. This is not good for the
strands. So how do we prevent that? There is a design procedure where they suggest to provide a
drain hole, I mean hole on the segment for draining the water. Whatever possible water
stagnation it will drain and then let the water out. It is very important to keep these systems away
from water.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:17)

161
 This is an example; I want to show where the water can come in. This is an expansion
joint and 2 girders. Water can come in and then enter here to this way and this way. So this is a
severe issue. So this must be avoided by making sure that there is a very good protection
mechanism to prevent the entry of water.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:44)

There used to be a practice of filling the duct with water before the grout is filled in and
then expecting that the grout will actually displace the water and prevent the formation of air
void. This was the idea for going for practicing filling the duct with water. But it is not really a
good idea because the strands might get corroded and the type of water which you use if it has a
lot of chlorides that might also affect.

162
 So, because of this nowadays it is not recommended to fill the duct with water before
filling the grout, okay. So you can see here this picture was taken from one of the sites where this
was actually practiced as you see here the colour of this grout it is not grey, it has a lot of rust
getting mixed with it. So it is a proof that the strand inside has corroded to some extent. So that is
something which needs to be avoided.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:51)

Also we should have a good number of inspectors and qualified persons at the site. This
is a picture taken almost 9 years ago but what you can see is there is no inspector at this site
when the bridge was being grouted. Because the grouting in essence is not given sufficient
importance and that is where the problem lies I think.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:20)

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 And then also the shear keys it is leading to this you can see an example where a shear
key is lost and you know it does not really have a good shear resistance, this might really affect
the shear capacity of this.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:36)

We generally think that the post-tensioned concrete bridges are performing well. Why
we have this feeling is? Mainly because most of the structures which we see around are less than
10 years old or they are very young. Babies always look good so that is one reason why we are
having general feeling that all these post-tensioned structures or prestressed concrete structures
are of good quality.

164
 But as time passes we will see that the size of this yellow region is going to reduce and
then the green, white and blue it is going to increase. So, I mean this is also a pie chart here. So
let us not judge the long term performance of these structures based on the short term
performance. It is very important to understand this and we really have to do things. So that,
these young structures will actually last as long as they are decided to last. So the protection of
strands from corrosion is very important.
(Refer Slide Time: 20:57)

So this is a bar chart showing the premature corrosion on post-tensioned bridges. So the
numbers in the parenthesis show the number of years before they shown corrosion.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:15)

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 What are the issues? Mainly the tendons are inadequately grouted and hence they corrode
prematurely. In this picture here this bridge actually failed after the tendons were refilled with
grout and in a very short period you can see here within about 15 years they started experiencing
corrosion which is not at all expected in these kinds of bridges which are designed for 100+
years.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:47)

Now, where is the corrosion actually happening? You see the profile here and then what
is happening is, the cement in the grout will segregate, cement will move downward and water
will move upward. So cement will move downward; water will move upward and then basically

166
it segregates and then you see lot of bleed water will form at the top portion of the tendon like it
is shown in this close up.

Then eventually that bleed water will evaporate. So you can see this unshaded or the
white region is supposed to be filled with grout but it is not. So that will lead to additional
problems.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:33)

This is another bridge where you can see a vertical tendon like in this pillar where this
portion here is not at all grouted. So that is also leading to severe corrosion as it was visible in
about 8 years this strand system completely corroded which is again very early corrosion.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:54)

167
 Other kind of problems which can be observed is the broken ducts. If the plastic is not of
high quality then broken ducts problem may be seen, lot of voids in tendons present and then
water stagnation and then even there are regions where there is no grout at all. This is a picture
taken from the center span. But there is very clear indication that there was no grout reached at
this location.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:24)

This is another failure which happened in just 33 years due to poor grouting.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:34)

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 This is another demonstration of poor grouting being done. As you see in this bridge
here, on this end you can see a semi-circular region of grout. If the tendon was completely filled;
the tendon goes like this, horizontal tendon on this girder, the pier cap if it goes, if it is not filled
properly you will see the semi-circular or partially filled region. If it is properly filled with grout
it should be a perfect circle and which is not visible it is very clear that the grout is not properly
filled.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:16)

What is the problem with this is that after some time as you see here if there are regions
with no grout and with grout. The top portion of this grout indicated by this horizontal red line,

169
the top portion will get very easily carbonated. Now when you have carbonation like that and
chlorides can enter and CO2 can also enter through this and it will carbonate this region.

Now you have a strand which is passing through a good grout and it is exposed to a
highly carbonated grout. That leads to accelerated corrosion of the strands and this is also an
example picture here which says that partially filled region and in this picture if you look very
carefully you can see that the top portion is actually showing more corrosion than the bottom
portion.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:20)

These are all evidences showing that very severe strand corrosion due to inadequate grouting.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:28)

170
 Now in the market today due to the significant void formation people have worked on
developing better quality grouts. Better quality means grouts which can actually fill the tendons
much better. But even in some of those grouts we see a new type of problem which is the soft
grout formation where the inert materials which are used in this grouts were floating and it forms
this soft grout as you see here very porous in nature and which can actually absorb the moisture
and keep it there.

So it is like froth in a coffee cup. I mean on top of the coffee very porous, very low
strength which can absorb moisture keep it there and then lead to corrosion of the strand.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:23)

171
 The tendons are really the backbone of post-tensioned systems and it is very essential to
make sure that they are protected well from corrosion otherwise we will have severe strand
corrosion related issues.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:38)

So we looked at prestressed concrete system and they can be vulnerable. How they
corrode? We should not rely on the visual inspection or visual manifestation of the rust on the
concrete surface that is not a good idea. And that in the pre-tensioned and post-tensioned
concrete systems the corrosion mechanisms are different rather the mechanism leading to
corrosion is different.

In the case of pre-tension system, it is mainly through the chloride diffusion through the
cover whereas in the post-tension system it is the inadequate grouting is something which leads
to premature corrosion.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:30)

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This is the list of all the references used in this presentation.

173
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras-Chennai

Lecture 6
Deterioration of Cementitious Systems
(Introduction, Sulphate attack, Biofouling and Acid attack)

Hi, in the last module on deterioration of embedded metal or the steel reinforcement in
the concrete, we discussed mainly about how the various types of steel can get corroded,
corrosion mechanisms of different types of steels etc., are covered. In this module we are going
to talk about deterioration of the cementitious system or the plain concrete itself.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:45)

So, this is the outline of this module where we will talk about what are the essentials for a
durable concrete system and then various deterioration mechanisms. In this particular lecture we
will cover sulphate attack, biofouling and biogenic acid attack. In the coming lectures we will
talk about freeze-thaw attack, alkali-silica reaction, shrinkage and creep and also some other
deterioration mechanisms such as or damage mechanisms such as fire attack or what will happen
to concrete at elevated temperature and then also looking at erosion and some other mechanisms.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:25)

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 Now, as we discussed in the previous module, a balanced approach is very much
necessary for ensuring durable reinforced concrete systems and enhance the service life. Now,
when I say balanced approach it is to do with both the steel and the concrete here you can see on
this balance on the left side, item number 1 we are talking mainly about the corrosion resistance
of the steel.

And the number 2 is mainly on the corrosion resistance or in other words the degradation
or damage of the concrete cover, which is necessary for preventing the deleterious elements to
enter the concrete which eventually leads to cracking and then corrosion of the steel. So,
synergistic effects need to be considered both of steel and concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:16)

175
 Now, on the left side you see a picture, which indicates how a typical reinforced concrete
system will look like. Over there you can see steel reinforcement which is the black solid line
inside which the concrete we can call heart-crete and the concrete outside the steel reinforcement
we are going to call it as cover-crete. Now, core-crete or the heart-crete influences a lot on the
strength of the reinforced concrete system whereas the cover-crete influences a lot on the
durability of the concrete system.

So, if you look carefully on the picture on the left side you will see that the cover-crete is
of a different texture basically to indicate that if you do not have a good concreting practice you
might have a very good heart-crete but the cover-crete might be still very porous in nature. So
what we need is something like on the right side where good quality heart-crete or core-crete and
at the same time good quality cover-crete are essential.

When you talk about this good quality cover-crete and core-crete, how do we achieve it?
It’s possible by having good materials, good mix designs and then very good placement
procedure and also adequate curing. All these are necessary to ensure good quality heart-crete
and cover-crete.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:53)

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 When you talk about concrete the size of pores and how they are distributed in concrete is
very important to consider. As in this picture, you can see the size of this pores range all the way
from 1 nanometer to about 10 millimeter. So, this is the range of different type of pores or voids
that can be present in concrete which might very well influence the rate at which different
deleterious elements such as chloride, moisture, oxygen, carbon dioxide, sulfate and all this can
enter the concrete.

So, having a very compact micro structure is very important to reduce the rate of ingress
of these deleterious elements through the cover concrete which means you need to have very
small pore size or very compact micro structure.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:54)

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 How do we achieve this highly compact micro structure? We can use different type of
chemical and mineral admixtures and adequate curing. I am emphasizing again on adequate
curing because it is not just having good quality materials and design procedures but also after
placing the concrete you need to have very good curing. If you do not cure the concrete properly,
you may not really achieve durable concrete systems.

It is just like having different type of vegetables. You can have dishes made with same
vegetable but the way you make the curry or the way you make the dish is very influential on
how at the end, the taste of that dish would be. So, you can probably use a good analogy here
also in concrete. We add different ingredients mineral and chemical admixtures then pack them
very well.

And then at the end you have to pack and then place and then cure the concrete very well
that is very much important to achieve decided workability, strength and durability. What is
durability? It is nothing but strength in long term. So, one thing to mention here is the use of
cement. Cement should be considered not as filler, but as a binder. In other words, when we talk
about mix design, we should think about having minimal amount of cement which will play a
role mainly as a binder or glue to hold all the aggregate particles together that should be the idea.

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 Why I am saying that is there are many cases where people say, if you want to increase
the strength you go for more cement content which is not the right thing to do always because
cement is the one which is probably most reactive element in the concrete. So, whenever we talk
about long term chemical degradation, it is the cement which gets reacted and thereby changes
the properties of the concrete. So if you have minimal cement that is always going to be probably
more durable concrete system.
(Refer Slide Time: 07:22)

Now, what are mineral admixtures? First, I would say what? This mineral admixture it is a
actually a common name used in India but not outside Indian border. So outside it is more
technically correct name is supplementary cementitious materials or SCMS. So, I would like you
to actually talk in terms of SCMS and not you know, when you especially when you start writing
documents, we should really talk about SCMS and not probably the main admixtures.

What is an SCM? A finely ground solid material that when used in conjunction with
Portland cement contributes to the properties of the hardened concrete through hydraulic or
pozzolanic activities or both. The main ingredient which is the component which we are looking
for in SCMs is the amorphous or reactive silica which in presence of water combines with
calcium hydroxide to form calcium silicate hydrate which is basically the glue which you are
talking about in cement hydration.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:44)

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 Now, this reactive silica is very important to have. It is not just silica. So, when you talk
about SCMs, you have to really ensure that particular SCM has sufficient amount of amorphous
silica. Now, here the first equation on the top of the slide, it shows a typical Portland cement
hydration reaction where you can see C3S and C2S are the reactants along with water they form
CSH and CH.

Now, when we talk about these SCMs or pozzolanic reaction, we are essentially talking
about using this calcium hydroxide which is formed because of the cement hydration reaction.
And that calcium hydroxide reacts with the amorphous silica which is present in the SCM. When
there is sufficient water or moisture it forms more CSH. Now, the CSH is formed by replacing or
by consuming calcium hydroxide.

So, the space which is occupied by calcium hydroxide is now going to be occupied by
CSH. So that enables it to form a more compact micro structure, which is stronger and also
durable in most cases. Now, the outcome of this entire discussion is the use of SCMs, low water
binder ratio, sufficient quantities of super plasticizers, good placement, compaction procedures
and adequate curing.

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 All these, if you are ensuring then it is very easy to achieve highly compact micro
structure and thereby high resistance against the ingress of deleterious elements through
concrete. So we can have durable concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:46)

I am going to show you one slide on water binder ratio, 2 slides on SCMs; how they
really influence the rate of ingress of these deleterious elements? When you have a very low
water cement ratio, the chance of having micro pores is very less which is this case here. So you
can see that in the picture, I am not really showing any micro pores for low water cement ratio
whereas in the second picture on the bottom right with high water cement ratio micro pores are
present.

Whatever the amount of water which is not used in the cement hydration reaction, it is
going to be now left. It will be unused water which eventually dries and leave air voids. So, this
white circular and elliptical shapes which I am showing there is all indicating that there are
possibility of more air voids in the concrete when you have a higher water binder ratio. We
should use lower water binder ratios and if the water binder ratio is low.

If it is leading to workability related issues then handle that by using chemical admixtures
such as super plasticizers and not by adding more water. So, the point here is when you have a
lower water binder ratio, the rate of diffusion or ingress of various chemicals into the concrete is
going to be less, you can see that on this graph.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:26)

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 When you talk about fly ash or slag which are the two widely used supplementary
cementitious materials. Until 28 days you might not see significant difference between the
diffusion coefficients of OPC or Ordinary Portland Cement. And then there is not much
difference in the diffusion coefficient of ordinary Portland cement based concrete or concrete
with slag or fly ash replacement within 28 days.

But as the time passes, on the x axis which is in log scale. You can see that definitely as
time passes the diffusion coefficient of slag and fly ash is significantly less than that of ordinary
Portland cement concrete. So, definitely in the long run as the concrete continues to hydrate and
then make more and more CSH and then effectively or get more and more compact
microstructure as time passes which leads to reduction in the rate of ingress of different elements
into the concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:52)

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 Now, if you are talking about silica fume which is also a very good SCM with very fine
particle size. So, the silica film has a dual role both as a pozzolanic material and at the same time
it also has a little bit of filler effect depending on how much silica fume is used. As you see in
this micro graph here you can see that cement particles are much larger than the silica fume
particles.

So, all the space between the cement grades can probably get filled or the very fine pores
available can also get filled by the silica fume particle depending on how much is the dosage
definitely you can see the rate of ingress is going to be less when you add silica fume.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:44)

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 We also talked about chemical admixtures. I am showing here 6 widely used chemical
admixtures. First one is super plasticizer, which is used mainly for handling the workability
related issues and then you have an air entrainer which also helps in enhancing the flow
properties, but at the same time, it is also used widely for addressing the freeze-thaw attack in
concrete structures. You introduce small air bubbles, as you see in this picture these small black
circles which are all air bubbles introduced into the concrete by this air entraining admixtures.

They help in providing sufficient space during the winter when water gets into the
concrete it starts expanding and try to become ice. If there are no air voids, then you will have
significant expansive stresses. So, that can be avoided by providing these small air bubbles in
concrete will talk much more in detail in the next lecture on that. And then you have retarders
which are mainly to slow down the reaction rate, especially for cases like what you see in that
picture, it is a concrete truck stuck in traffic.

If the concrete has already started mixing or hydrating and then you are stuck in the
traffic and you have time to reach the construction site. So, the best thing to do there is to reduce
the rate of reaction so that you can still have good concrete by the time you reach the
construction site. Now, number four over here is the corrosion inhibitors, which are mainly used
to enhance the corrosion resistance of the steel rebar or the steel- concrete system.

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 What it does is, while mixed with concrete, it actually helps in providing a better passive
film or a more resistant passive film. So, the point to note here is this inhibitor they will come
into action maybe after a decade or two depending on the corrosive environment or how
corrosive the environment is. Now, shrinkage reducing admixture, this is number five, shrinkage
reducing admixture is used especially when the concrete can be more prone to cracking or in
very thin elements which can be more prone to cracking.

So, we tend to use shrinkage reducing admixture and number 6 which is an accelerator,
an accelerator which is mainly used when you talk about very low temperature or cold climate
where you want the concrete or the cement to hydrate faster, so you tend to use accelerator.
There are different types of these admixtures available to cater to different requirements of the
concrete.

Now, one thing is quantity of these admixtures which are added to the concrete is very
small. So, to attain uniform distribution or making sure that these admixtures are available in the
entire concrete in a uniform manner, it is recommended to add these admixtures to the water and
then use that mixing water rather than adding directly to the concrete being mixed. Now, the
ASTM C494 provides specifications for typical chemical admixtures.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:38)

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 Main advantages of using these admixtures are to achieve and enhance certain desired
properties in both fresh and hardened states. Like for fresh state super plasticizer, air entrainer,
retarder, and accelerator all these are mainly handling the properties during the fresh state
whereas corrosion inhibitor and shrinkage reducing admixtures are mainly for the hardened state
depending on what type of shrinkage, whether you are talking about plastic shrinkage or later.
Also to ensure quality during the stages of mixing, transporting, placing and curing in adverse
weather conditions and to face emergencies during site operations.
This is one emergency, which we briefly discussed. And then to reduce the overall cost to
achieve the same desired properties to ensure durability. Why we are saying overall cost is
because when you talk about these admixtures into the concrete, the unit cost of the concrete
might increase slightly. However, you have to think about the entire system.

If you really look into that basically you will end up in having a peaceful concreting to
that manner. So, definitely the overall cost is going to decrease, because you will not have much
of hassle in placing the concrete and at the end you will get a good product. So, essentially the
overall cost is going to be better.
(Refer Slide Time: 20:20)

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 Before getting into the various deterioration mechanisms, I would like to tell you about
other courses which are offered through NPTEL from our group. Modern construction materials
by Prof. Ravindra Gettu, Advanced concrete technology by Prof. Manu Santhanam

And then Advanced topics in science and technology of concrete where we have collected
lectures from multiple experts from all over the world who have visited us or we requested them
to give couple of hours of lectures in their topic of expertise. All those lectures are collated and
are nice topics especially for research scholars and researchers, this course is very useful and
then another course on Characterization of construction materials by Prof. Manu Santhanam and
Dr. Piyush Chaunsali.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:17)

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 Looking at various deterioration or damage mechanisms in concrete systems, main thing
why we are worried about is, if the concrete gets damaged eventually it affects the steel inside
the concrete and then it influences the structural capacity of the system. So, we already talked
about how corrosion happens mainly due to carbonation and chloride attack.
And when we talk about the concrete, we are going to talk about abrasion, erosion very
briefly. Freeze-thaw attack, fire, alkali-aggregate reaction or alkali-silica reaction, acid attack,
sulphate attack and fouling. So, all these we will be discussing.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:08)

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 First we are going to talk about sulphate attack. There are 2 types of sulphate attack
depending on the source of the sulphate. They are external and internal sulphate attack. The
major mechanism I am just showing 3 pictures here on the left side, you will see what happens at
the microscopic level, you have this formation of these needle shaped Ettringite crystals
wherever there is a little bit of space available and the volume of the Ettringite needles are
actually more than that of reactants which eventually leads to expansive stresses.

This expansive stress induces cracks like this as you see on the second picture, you can
see this is an aggregate and then this is the cement paste and you can see significant cracking all
along the cement paste and along the boundary between the aggregate and cement paste or ITZ.
So, the system is not really an integral system when you have significant cracking like this on a
larger scale.

Third one is a picture of a bridge where you can very clearly see a lot of cracking in that
column or the pier which you are seeing. So, from micro structure to macro level, cracking really
leads to significant distress of the structure.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:49)

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 So, it is a major deterioration mechanism which we all need to know and worry about, so
that we can design our structures to prevent them. Now, I am showing some examples of how
this external sulphate attack, not the internal. This picture mainly shows about external sulphate
attack where over here you can see this is a concrete element which has degraded exactly where
it is coming out of the soil.

And here also you can see where it is in touch with the water, you have degradation. Here
also you can see when the region, where it is in contact with water, it is almost completely gone.
I mean, there is no more concrete left in that element. And one thing to note here, you can see
this close up of that concrete element with the small pen to give you an idea about what is the
size, you can very clearly see that the aggregates which are basically river gravel, I think, it looks
like.
So, the rounded aggregates they are not damaged, they are intact. However, the cement
which is in between the aggregates which is supposed to glue the aggregates together is almost
lost or completely degraded. It’s a clear indication that it is the harden cement paste which is
getting attacked and not the aggregate.

So, if you reduce the amount of cement again it is going to be easier to resist sulphate
attack. Now here on the bottom image you can see the water cement ratio of 0.65 and water
cement ratio of 0.39 or let us say 0.4. So, the one with 0.4 or 0.39 is highly resistant against

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sulphate attack as compared to the one with 0.65 on the left side. And you can also see that both
are using type v cement and also you can see this on the left side that much degradation
happened in 12 years whereas on the right side that much degradation happened in a longer time,
which is 16 years. So, even after exposing the concrete for a longer period of time when you
have a lower water cement ratio definitely the amount of sulphate attack is going to be less.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:18)

Now, let us look at what are the different sources of sulphates. As we saw in the previous
slide definitely there are sulphate rich soils and sulphate rich groundwater or water bodies,
present next to the concrete structures or in contact with the concrete structures and also
depending on the type of structure, we have to see whether there is any agricultural soil or water
adjacent to the concrete elements and also effluents of furnaces and effluents from the chemical
industry.

These are all other sources where you will have significant amount of sulphates present
and if they are coming in contact with the concrete element then that element is vulnerable to
sulphate attack and further deterioration. Now, the bottom line of this slide is that it is not that
difficult to find high concentrations of sulphates in either soil or water body which is in contact
with the concrete structures. So, you have to really think about this and make sure that the type
of concrete which you are using is sufficiently resistant against the sulphate attack for that
desired life which we are talking about.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:37)

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 As we mentioned earlier, there are 2 types of sulphate attack one is external and one is
internal. In the external sulphate attack, first step is the sulphates from either water or soil body
will enter the concrete so now they become internal to the concrete. And then second step is once
they enter the concrete it reacts with the calcium hydroxide which is present and forms gypsum.

Now, in step 3 that gypsum will react with mono sulphate which is present and this
conversion of this mono sulphate into Ettringite will happen. This conversion is the dangerous
part, because there is a volumetric expansion, because Ettringite will consume more space or will
need more space than the combined volume of mono sulphate and gypsum and it leads to
cracking of the concrete because of the expansive stresses.

So, here you have a product which is having more volume than the reactants, definitely
that will induce stresses in the entire matrix of the concrete and eventually leading to cracking.
So, how we can actually control this is on the right side of this table, the first step we can control
by reducing the permeability of the concrete cover either by using low water cement ratio or by
using SCMs.

And if you are in the second step that can be controlled by controlling the amount of
calcium hydroxide, if you have lower calcium hydroxide content, then definitely the amount of
reactants is less or the amount of gypsum formed is also going to be less. So again, that can be

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achieved by using pozzolana or SCMs. And in the third step, as you see here in the mono
sulphate phase you have C4A. So definitely, if you have less amount of C3A in your cement,
again we are controlling the amount of reactants.

So, the amount of this mono sulphate phase which is available is going to be less if you
have low C3A contained cement, which is type 2 or 5 cement. But essentially it is the C3A
content which we are trying to reduce. So, type 2 is the cement with about less than 7% C3A and
type 5 is cement with less than 5% C3A.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:26)

Now, this is a graph showing how this amount of C3A or the C3A content is going to
influence. It is just a demonstration of that, let us say you are talking about concrete with 0.5
water cement ratio or let us pick 0.6 water cement ratio here. As you see, if it is type 1 cement
you have this much expansion, if it is type 2 cement you have this much expansion and if it is
type 5, you have this. So, definitely there is a reduction. Type 1 is more than 7%, type 2 is more
than 5 to 7% and type 3 is less than 5%. So, as the amount of C3A is reduced, definitely the
amount of expansion is less.

So, definitely if you are talking about sulphate resistant concrete systems, we have to go
for cement, which are having low C3A content. Lower the water cement ratio entire pore
structure is better refined. I mean, fewer amounts of pores are available. So effectively you use
low permeability concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:39)

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 Now, internal sulphate attack, where we are talking about some issues related to the time
at which these Ettringites are formed. So for example, what happens especially in terms of hot
weather concreting or mass concreting where the heat generated is significantly high which leads
to curing temperature or early temperature of more than 70 0C. If that happens, then the normal
formation of Ettringite will not happen. I am going to the next slide to show you what this
normal formation of Ettringite is.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:17)

So, here you can see this curve here, which is this one, which goes like this, that is the
curve for ettringite formation and you notice that after few hours of concrete is mixed, there is a
increase in the amount of ettringites which are formed and they occupy their space because at

194
that stage, the concrete is still somewhat plastic, so that they can occupy that space and it is not
completely hardened or not completely set also.

So at that time it occupies the space without creating any damage to the concrete. But
when you have this high temperature of greater than 70 0C and then this Ettringite is not stable
and it does not form. And what happens is, it does not form at that time and does not occupy the
space required. But after several years or decades, when sufficient amount of the reactants which
we were talking about earlier, moisture is available, this mono sulfates might get converted to
ettringite at a later stage.

So, we call it delayed ettringite formation just because it is not happening during the early
curing period, but it is happening at a much later stage. When it is happening at a delayed time or
at a later stage this concrete is already hardened concrete and there is no reserved space for this
ettringite in that concrete because it was not reserved in the early stage.

So, it generates a tremendous expansive stresses, which leads to cracking., First it will
occupy all the space between the aggregate and the cement paste and then eventually try to exert
tensile stresses or expansive stresses which lead to significant cracking. So, this is the problem
with delayed ettringite formation because that space required is not originally reserved and when
it forms at a later stage, it does not have that space thus exerts significant expansive stresses
which lead to cracking.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:52)

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 Now, this already we discussed. You can see here significant cracking in the aggregate
phase also and these are all the needle shape ettringite which are occupying the voids available
within the concrete system.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:15)

Now, this is some demonstrations of sulphate attack, you can see these are very large
bridge piers. So, definitely these are mass concrete elements. Probably the curing temperature
might have reached a level which is beyond 70 degrees Celsius. And after a long period of time
they started degrading or deteriorating due to sulphate. You can see a significant cracking here
on these concrete elements. So, significant cracking, especially for mass concrete elements, we
have to really think about this.

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(Refer Slide Time: 35:57)

Now, here are some more examples where you can see map cracking, there is no
particular shape for these cracks which are formed due to sulphate attack and here also you can
see random cracking on all these elements. Again all these are mass concrete elements and that is
where we see maximum delayed ettringite formation internal sulphate attack.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:22)

This is a table which shows study done on various bridges in France. Main point to notice
here is the maximum temperature which is in this one, the blue box you can see that they are all
actually above 70 0C except one which is 69 0C. But we can say for all practical purposes they
are high temperatures which is probably not good. And also the amount of C3A, which is in the

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cement which was used, is very high more than 7% C3A. So, these are all leading to significant
internal sulphate attack.
.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:03)

This is a nutshell on how to prevent sulphate attack. We have to use low curing
temperature or make sure that the temperature during the curing period is less than 70 0C and
concrete should have low permeability by using SCMs or good mix design and curing practices
we can achieve low permeable concrete. Also the cement which we use should have low C3A
content and definitely less availability of water. So, if we are able to achieve these, then we can
definitely prevent sulphate attack.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:39)

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 Now, the next damage mechanism or deterioration mechanism we are talking about is bio
fouling in concrete structures. Not really given much importance to it but we thought to include
and give some light on this type of deterioration which happens on concrete structures. So, as
you see here on the picture, you can see a nest of an octopus on the soffit of concrete anchor.

So, these are the nice resting place for these microorganisms. So, what is there in
concrete which is attracting these microorganisms to get attracted to the concrete elements? So,
we will see on the next slide.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:34)

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 These are some more pictures or photographs showing different types of bio fouling. So,
the first picture is a repetition actually here anyway, you can see here it is a bridge column. I had
another nice picture of bridge in a port where again significant fouling was there. Also this
picture is giving similar message and you can see here significant surface damage on these
concrete elements. Here all these are actually concrete surfaces getting damaged because of bio
fouling.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:19)

This is again microorganisms, how they interact with various building materials. I am not
going to much detail into this, but as a civil engineer, we should know that these microorganisms
can also actually damage concrete elements in the long run and we should keep away these

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microorganisms from the concrete surfaces and how do we do that? We will see towards the end
of this lecture.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:48)

This is again another picture showing again this. So, the main damage mechanism here is
few minutes ago I said why are they attracted to these concrete structures? So, all algae or this
microorganisms they consume calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron etc., for their metabolism. In
concrete we have all these available for example, in your cement, you have calcium, you have
aluminum, you have silicon and you have iron in oxides of these are available in our cement or
hardened concrete systems.

What happens is, these metabolic actions involve production and release of organic acids.
So, essentially these lead to acid attack of concrete surfaces that is a key message here.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:46)

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 Now, other examples where similar acid attack is witnessed or observed are effluents
from the agriculture and agro food industries, where all the effluents might have significant
amount of acids which is actually thrown into or the concrete structures nearby will get exposed
to these acids and what do they do? These bacteria and yeast they can degrade the organic
compounds and produce organic acids and fungi can also damage concrete and even stone by
slow penetration into the surface. If you Google you will see a lot of pictures showing these kind
of long term deterioration mechanisms.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:38)

Deterioration of concrete due to inorganic acids. Here you can see household and certain
industrial waste. You know, they contain organic matter that if not kept cold because the

202
temperature also matters a lot, will start to break down or biodegrade. So bacteria will eat and
digest the organic matter and then throwing away their excreta which might be acidic in nature.

You also have formation of hydrogen sulfide mainly depending on the amount of oxygen
available. So, depends whether it is a closed system or an open system, depending on that the
amount of H2S or the type of H2S also matters. Now, here you see that picture on the left side it
is an inside view of a concrete manhole on the right side, inside view of a sewer pipeline.

So, why I am showing these pictures are, these are major infrastructure systems where we
tend to repair these systems very frequently mainly because of this acid attack or H2S.
(Refer Slide Time: 42:55)

So, let us see how the deterioration of concrete happens mainly because of the inorganic
acids especially in sewer pipeline. So, we will look at that mechanism alone here. So, think about
the sewer pipeline. H2S is produced and then what will happen is this H2S because it is heavier
than air, it will try to settle right above the water body and then because of the convective
currents, it will actually get circulated inside the air space available or air fill cavities, which are
present on the concrete surfaces.

And then they eventually redissolve in the water or slime. If I draw a picture here, so if
this is the water body and then you will see a lot of slime formation in this right here and then
they get to the concrete walls then hydrogen sulfide forms a weak sulphuric acid and this weak

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sulphuric acid attacks the concrete directly, especially that happens right here at the crown of the
pipeline, it will directly attack the concrete and then lower the pH of the concrete from about 12
+ to about 9.

And now we all know that when the pH is about 9 or at that low pH, the steel is very
vulnerable to corrosion. So that is why we have this significant problem of corrosion of this
pipelines or sewer pipelines and their life is not really very long, even though we desire it to
have.
(Refer Slide Time: 44:47)

So, this picture on the left side actually shows how this entire sulphate attack mechanism
is in a pipeline and the point here is poor quality sewer pipeline usually get deteriorated in about
5 years. This is data obtained by talking to various people in the industry, they say mostly sewer
pipelines get damaged in about 5 years, whereas the design life is about 20 years.

So, how do we ensure that these infrastructure systems are free from deterioration in the
design life? Main thing is this deterioration happens below ground so we do not really see them
happening on a regular basis. So, that is the main major challenge in identifying what is
happening and then really making sure that they do not really fail. And before that we are either
replacing or repairing the structure.
(Refer Slide Time: 45:46)

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 Different repair strategies for existing concrete systems, especially when we talk about
this biological attack. Now, one is power wash, basically clean and then use good quality repair
material and then use good quality surface coating. On the picture on the bottom left you can see
power washing, but of course, you have to really think about what is a pressure to be used for
and also it is good when you are talking about large surface area, otherwise it may not be really
economical.

On top right image you can see, good quality repair materials and then the surface coating
and nice coating with smooth finish will definitely help in preventing this biological attack.
(Refer Slide Time: 46:33)

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 Now, power washing you can see here on the picture on the left side, it is nicely cleaned.
Power washing is primarily done to avoid slip hazard. And it can start devastating vicious cycle
because if you are actually going for very high pressure and high velocity, it may actually
dislodge the aggregate particles also or the cement particles at the near surface. So, you have to
really think about what is that pressure which we need to use. So, an optimal pressure is very
important to decide before we go for power washing.
(Refer Slide Time: 47:23)

And repair materials and again selection of the repair materials is very important.
(Refer Slide Time: 47:32)

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 Here are the different materials available, this is just a simple table which I got from the
internet, and you can see the resistance of these different coating materials. So, all these are
different coating materials. And these are the chemical resistance against what type of material.
So, you can see that, the resistance is varying from coating material to material behaves in a
different way. So, you have to really think depending on the type of exposure conditions you
might have, which type of coating material have to be picked.
(Refer Slide Time: 48:08)

Now, another thing is, how smooth the surface of the repaired surface should be. So here
it is a picture showing R 1 is the roughness 1 and R 2 is a third level or rougher surface and if
you look closely on these 8 photographs, which you have on screen. You can see that on the first

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row, surface with less roughness, the amount of green spots which you see is much less as
compared to that on the second row, which is R 3 or more rough surface.

So, see in 19 days, in the row 1 you have some spots forming, but in row 2 you have
more green spots on 11 days itself or even before but when you look at 25 days, you can see that
on the second row it is completely green and in the first row, you still have significant region
which is not attacked. So definitely roughness of the surface plays a role on resistance against
bio fouling.

Now, the question is, does this mean that all the exterior surfaces should be smooth,
maybe no. If it is smooth for a wall element, it may be ok but if you are talking about a floor
where you also walk, you may not want it to be very smooth, because people will slip it will be a
slipping hazard. So, all these techniques, whatever we talk, you have to really think about where
you are applying for what specific conditions or specific applications.

And you have to also think about multiple damage mechanisms and it is not like you look
at only one thing and then forget about the other damage mechanisms. So you have to think
holistically when we decide about.
(Refer Slide Time: 50:13)

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 What type of deterioration and how to prevent? Now again, one last thing to talk about is
acid attack. Calcium aluminate cement has been proven to be highly resistant against acids.
However, I am showing this picture here, the one on the left side is showing a calcium aluminate
cements and the one on the right side is showing Portland cement very clearly the one on the
right side is more degraded.

So, we can conclude that CAC cements are more resistant against acids. However, there
are publications which say in some cases you might have different or the resistance might vary
from case to case or from acid to acid. So, you have to really look at what type of acid or acidic
conditions you will have and then accordingly decide on the type of cement used.
(Refer Slide Time: 51:08)

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 From the same literature this is another case showing that the Portland cement system
will have much more weight loss or more degradation as compared to CAC systems when it is
exposed to acids.
(Refer Slide Time: 51:32)

Nowadays, you have a lot of these pipes, which are coming with interior coatings, which
are very highly resistant against the various types of acids. So, the products are available, you
have to really make sure that the tender specifications which we make are actually looking for
some measurable parameters which will really give you long life as decided and if you do a good
homework in framing the tender specifications, I think most of our constructed facilities will last
really long.

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 But most of the time we fail there, we do not really put in enough time in planning or in
making these tender specifications thinking about what could go wrong and if how do I prevent
that from happening. I think towards the end of the course, we will have one lecture exclusively
on designing tender specifications. So, by the end of the course, you will be better prepared to
handle certain situations and really be able to construct durable systems.
(Refer Slide Time: 52:42)

So, as a summary, mineral and chemical admixtures can be used to get a good quality
concrete, especially cover concrete, and then susceptibility and effect of sulphate attack, acid
attack etcetera can be reduced by understanding the mechanisms, how they really happen and
understanding what type of exposure conditions you have, and then addressing those factors.
Then coming up with good tender specifications or good measurable parameters for the type of
system which you are designing mainly to prevent such deteriorations from happening during the
design life.

As we always say, prevention is better than cure. So, the idea should be, make good
concrete at the beginning itself and then for that we have to select good materials, have good
mix design, good placing procedures, compaction and then cure the concrete adequately. All
these are very much necessary and if we do all this, we will definitely have long lasting beautiful
concrete structures.
(Refer Slide Time: 53:58)

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Now, next this is the list of references.
(Refer Slide Time: 54:02)

Which have been used to make this particular presentation. Thank You.

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 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras-Chennai

Lecture 7
Deterioration of Cementitious Systems
(Frost attack, Freeze-thaw attack and Alkali-silica reaction)

Hi, this is lecture 7, which is actually second lecture in the module on deterioration of
cementitious systems. In lecture 6, we covered introduction for the durable concrete systems.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:39)

Also sulphate attack and acid attack. In this particular lecture, we will cover frost attack,
freeze-thaw attack and also alkali-silica reaction in concrete systems.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:55)

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 Before talking about the frost attack the first thing is where that will actually happen? We
have a lot of regions in our country where the ambient temperature could be less than 4 0C. So
we define that as cold climate. On the map you can see that, all this blue region are regions
where cold climate is experienced even in other parts of the country, you can see some hill
stations etcetera where the temperature could be very low, can be defined as cold climate.

And if you really talk about the northern border, you have places where the temperature
during the night could be -35 0C or even less than that. And eventually what happens is for
construction purpose, we get only few months per year, like 2 to 3 months per year, to work
comfortably in an outdoor environment. It is not only temperature we also have to consider the
wind chill factor.

Also you might have diurnal variation that is daily variation of temperature. So all these
have to be considered when we talk about good quality concreting and it is not very easy to
construct during that cold climate because, we ourselves won’t feel much comfortable in that
climate.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:26)

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 Definitely we have a need for good quality concreting in places like what you see on the
screen, especially on the border regions, very high altitude regions with terrain which is very
difficult to reach. How do we do good concreting in such cases, which is very important for our
defense systems, because we might have bunkers and other facilities, which need to be in good
quality. So, in this lecture, we will kindly focus on how to do good concreting in such harsh and
very difficult to reach environment also.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:08)

You can see on this picture completely snowcapped region and towards the center of the
picture, you see a black circle and there is actually a home which is being built. And this
example, I just put here because that particular building took about 8 years to construct because

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of the harsh weather conditions. So, this is very important to consider. We need good quality and
good construction practices so that we can reduce the duration of this construction from 8 years
to maybe a couple of years.

So, we have to really think and also another point is even if we take 8 years to construct
how long that particular facility will last. Can it be durable? All that also have to be considered
when we talk about because first of all in these conditions it is very difficult to construct. So, our
objective should be when we do it, it should be of good quality so that we don’t have to go on
and repair also in this difficult terrains and harsh climatic conditions.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:21)

Now, this slide shows picture of transportation systems or you have a bridge and an
asphalt road which is heavily damaged because of moisture attack and also the poor quality
asphalt and then which leads to severe damage when vehicles run over them. And then on the
right side, you have an image showing a wheel with metallic chains which are sometimes
necessary to ride these vehicles in very harsh climate.

So, what these chains do is, as the wheel is rolled, this chain breaks the ice and then
makes it easy for driving on ice cap pavements. And the picture on the bottom left, you can see
towards the center of the picture there is actually a highway in that region and all this have to be
of good quality and how do we really achieve that good quality and long lasting. Again, let me
emphasize the point, construction itself is very difficult in these locations.

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 So, if you do not pay attention for durability, the constructed facilities may not really last
long. So we must ensure that the quality of construction is also very good. Once constructed, it
should last for as long as possible.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:03)

This picture shows that in most cases the construction is not good; day on which this
picture was taken was probably a relatively sunny and nice day. But this particular region
experiences very cold climate and probably the construction was not done with good materials
and practices. Of course, there could be other reasons also non-technical reasons, but at the end;
the concrete was not treated well.

It took 23 years to construct, because of various other reasons also, but only 1 year to get
damaged. It’s the irony here. Now, what are the reasons? Mainly harsh climatic conditions, poor
concreting materials and practices. So, this is not something that is acceptable, especially when
we talk about very difficult to reach terrains and very harsh climatic conditions. So, objective of
the concreting in cold weather should be like, you do it and do it in a proper way so that you
don’t have to go back and then the structure doesn’t really experience a lot of repair but we are
having a lot of structures where repair is needed.
(Refer Slide Time: 07:22)

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 I am going to talk about what are the various mechanisms by which concrete in cold
weather conditions deteriorate? What are the difficulties associated with concreting in cold
weather conditions? Now, if you say in fresh state or early state of concreting, there are 3
parameters which are important to consider, the concrete should set very fast or as early as
possible. And early age compressive strength also has to reach a significant, I mean reasonable
level.

Typically, we say 3.5 MPa and then thermal crack resistance is also very important. So,
all these can get affected when the temperature is very cold. In hardened state also, compressive
strength may not reach the desired strength if the temperature is very cold and if concreting is not
done with adequate measures. And other things which can happen in the long term are pop outs,
D cracking, internal cracking, scaling, etc., so, we will cover all these in the remaining slides
which are upcoming. What are these different mechanisms?
(Refer Slide Time: 08:48)

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 First thing when we talk about cold weather or frost attack is there is ice formation which
happens in concrete. If the temperature is very low, the water which is used for mixing the
concrete will become ice. As we know, ice formation means an increase in the volume which
significantly, 9% increase in the volume, which leads to significant expansive stresses in the
concrete

So, the first picture shows that 9% increase and the second picture shows a system where
there is not enough space available inside the concrete which will eventually lead to cracking
because of the this ice formation and the third picture is basically showing how can we control
this scenario of cracking? The black circles which you see there in the third picture is basically
the air voids which are introduced or entrained air voids, not entrapped but entrained air voids. In
other words, its air added as an ingredient in concrete.

And we typically use about 5 to 6% of air, by using some chemical admixtures that is air
entraining admixtures. So, the idea is these air voids will help to provide space for this ice
formation without inducing any expansive stresses. So this is the main idea of how to handle
cold weather concreting.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:26)

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 Let us see in particular some more details of frost attack which happens mainly at early
ages. So these ice lenses are formed or ice is formed at the surface of the concrete first and then
as it expands like you see on the picture on the top right, you will see that there is wedge like ice
is formed and as it expands, it pushes into the interior concrete and which leading to cracking.
Essentially they end up in fracturing the concrete or leading to cracking.

In fresh state itself this can happen and also in fresh state when this happens the mixing
water is actually consumed which becomes ice and the sufficient water is probably sometimes
not available for the hydration reaction also and what it ends up in is. You have an irreparable
loss of strength which is very important, because if you do not get that strength, then that means
it is irreparable loss. What it means is you cannot really gain it at a later stage and the strength
can decrease by about 50 percentage.

If the concrete is frozen within first few hours of placement or before it attains 3.5 MPa
strength, this 3.5 MPa strength requirement is given in most of the codes. So, in cold weather
concreting, we have to first ensure that the concrete gets 3.5 MPa then you go for protecting that
concrete further by ensuring adequate moisture and temperature. We will cover that later, but
remember this number 3.5 MPa. It’s very important.

220
 Time of the onset of frost damage is also most important that means if the frost damage is
happening after 3.5MPa strength has attained then we can still manage to get sufficient strength
later.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:40)

Let us look at delay in the early strength gain and reduction in the later age strength. So,
this top graph, it shows strength gain of about 40 MPa in 28 days which is this line here, you get
about 40 MPa, but the same concrete when the ambient temperature is -4 0C, it gains only about
10 MPa strength in 28 days. Thus there is significant reduction in the strength. Another
important thing to notice here is after that when the temperature is maintained at about 23 0C,
still it is not able to reach the strength which the other concrete which was exposed to 23 0C from
the very beginning.

So, there is a significant reduction in the strength which I am going to call as irreparable
damage. That strength you cannot gain even after about 90 days because you can see that the
curve is almost flat. So, there is no significant strength gain after that. So, you have an
irreparable damage when we are talking about very low temperature. This is something very
important and let us see in the coming slides how to take care of these issues when you talk
about cold climate.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:06)

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 In the previous slide we were talking about strength, very low temperature can also affect
durability of concrete. How it affects durability is, if you look in the graph here, this is the solid
curve indicating the amount of ice formation and the dashed curve indicates the permeability of
the cement paste or let us say concrete. You can see that the permeability decreases as more and
more ice is formed.

In reality what will happen is, later once this mechanism is over, after some time, if there
is an increase in temperature, and then the ice which is contained within the concrete will melt to
become water. And that water might also evaporate at a later time anyway you will end up in
having more pores or voids, which leads to higher permeability and definitely you will have
reduced durability in such cases. Hence this frost attack is very important to consider not only for
strength but also for durability.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:22)

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 Now, other effect is temperature differential induced effect. You can see here, this is a
schematic diagram showing mass concrete. Imagine this is a cross section of a concrete column
and when the formwork is removed, the heat generated in this blue or the peripheral region is lost
into the immediate environment which is actually cold. But at the same time at the core of the
concrete you will still have reasonably high amount of heat. So, there is a temperature difference
or differential temperature between the core and the peripheral region of the concrete.

Because of this differential temperature, you will end up in having the concrete which
experience significant cracking near the peripheral region. All these black lines this indicate the
cracked region. So, the cracking might happen at the peripheral region. And imagine our case if
you have cracking and if you have reinforcement near the cover concrete, you will also have
corrosion related problems at a later stage.

You don’t want the concrete to crack. So, how do you ensure that this does not happen is
making sure that the heat generated inside is not lost into the atmosphere. So, you have to
maintain a good formwork and a good insulation around the peripheral region something has to
be covered. The concrete has to be covered with a good blanket or some measures.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:09)

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 Now, talking about not that cold, but reasonably cold environment, which is like let us
say, if the temperature is about 10 0C, what happens to the setting time? You can see here setting
time is increasing almost by twice. You can see, final set there is doubled or 2 times increase in
the setting time as you go from 23 0C to 10 0C.

So, this is the 23 0C data and this is the 10 0C data and it is a significant difference. So,
you have to really consider various measures on how to ensure that the concrete is actually
setting fast enough.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:03)

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 So, one way to achieve that is by using finely ground cement. Basically the idea here in
the graph you will see type 3 cement, which is the designation used in the US and you have type
1 or 2 cement, which is the normal cement. So, you can see here that normal cement (type 1 or 2)
which is the Square markers and the triangular one which is type 3, which is the finely ground
cement.

So, definitely in 1 day that is 24 hours you see a difference in the heat release from 175 to
about 250 that is about 75 joule per gram of cement. So, that much heat release difference is
there, when you talk about different type of cement itself. So, that heat is necessary for the
concrete to get cured better or in an accelerated manner.

And also we can use high C3A and high C3S cement which will actually help in making
sure that there are more and more reactions especially in the early stages of curing or hydration.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:36)

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 Now, this image here a graph shows, how the use of this rapid hardening cement can help
in increasing the strength gain in the early period. So, let us look here about 3 to 5 days. And
here also about 5 days, you can see that there is about 10 MPa strength gain or increase in the
strength when you come back from OPC to rapid hardening cement. So, definitely the type of
cement which you use definitely matters.

And the content like if the cement has high C3A or C3S and at the same time if it is finely
ground, then definitely you can resolve some of the issues which happened at the early ages of
curing.
(Refer Slide Time: 20:28)

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 We also have accelerating admixtures until now we were talking about the cement or the
mineral admixtures and how selection of cement can help in reducing the setting time and
gaining early strength. Now, let us look at accelerating admixtures which can help in reducing
the setting time and increasing the strength gain, especially at the early age and this accelerating
admixtures they also actually reduce the liquidus temperature, but not significantly reduce the
liquidus temperature or reduces only by about 2 0C.

What is this liquidus temperature? It is the minimum temperature at which all the
components of a solution can be in liquid state and that means below the liquidus temperature the
mixture or the concrete will be partially or entirely solid. So, we have to have some admixtures
or some way by which we can ensure that the mixing water is available for reaction. I will come
to that later.

But, before getting there, let us see this accelerating admixture. What are the 3 main
categories? They use calcium chloride and accelerators which contain calcium chloride and also
non chloride accelerators. So, I would prefer to use this non-chloride accelerators, probably we
may have to avoid the use of calcium chloride and calcium chloride based accelerators because
that might eventually lead to corrosion which is not a good idea. So, it is better to go for
accelerators without any chlorides in them.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:20)

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 Now, there is also another technology where the admixtures contain seeds of CSH which
function like nucleation points for further reaction to happen and help in setting. So, what you
see here is you will have the CSH seeds, cement grain and then you have water and these are also
the CSH, ettringite needles etcetera. You will see the needle shaped structure. So, here the
picture on the left side is without the CSH seeds and whereas here this is with CSH seeds.

Now, this will help in gaining the early strength and reaching this 3.5 MPa. So that, 3.5
MPa strength criteria is achieved, especially for cold weather climates this is very helpful
because the seeds provide the nucleation point for the cement hydration that is the technology.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:48)

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 Antifreeze admixture is another technology where the addition of this admixtures reduces
the freezing point of the mixing water by about 10 0C. From 0 it might go to – 10 0C. So, because
of that reduction you have more water available for the hydration reaction. And you can see in
this graph here when you have a controlled case where there is no antifreeze admixture this
graph here.

And the red one with antifreeze admixture, you can see that there is a drop from 0 to
about – 10 0C. So, that is the reduction in the freezing point of the 2 systems without and with
antifreeze admixtures. So, essentially what it means is during the cold weather conditions or cold
climatic conditions, you can have more time for construction. Also, that means we can pick a
time and even if the temperature is up to – 10 0C, you can still do concreting with these
admixtures.

These are some of the examples of chemical family which are used. And people have
done some studies on how economical is this methodology of using chemical admixtures for
mixing concrete. People have seen that there can be about 30% savings instead of going for
heating or other conventional methods of cold weather concreting. So, just use a chemical, which
will be added to the concrete and which can reduce the freezing point of the mixing water in
concrete. So, that is the idea here.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:40)

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 Now, how should concrete be protected until the specified strength of 3.5 MPa is
attained, until that 3.5 MPa is attained that means very early stages in the concreting. First thing
we have to ensure that sufficient moisture is available and how do we ensure? By preventing
evaporation of moisture from concrete, because when you mix concrete based on your water
cement ratio you already have the amount of water which is required for the hydration. All what
we need to do is preventing them from getting out of the concrete that is prevent evaporation.

We can use curing compounds also to prevent the moisture loss from the surface. And
one important thing to note here is, when the temperature is in the freezing range like less than 0
0
C, it is not recommended to use water curing because that water which you use for curing will
stay on the surface of the concrete which eventually freeze and which will lead to further damage
to the concrete.

So, water curing is not a recommended idea. Main thing to do here is first protect your
concrete structure with a plastic sheet or something like that. So, that water evaporation does not
happen and then another way is providing a membrane, which is basically the water curing
compound.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:12)

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 How should concrete be protected after the specified strength has attained, not in the very
early stage, but after that. How do we ensure? Mainly by ensuring that sufficient heat is available
or the heat which is coming from the concrete is not lost into the environment and also you can
provide external heating to the concrete in this slide we are talking about external heating, which
is direct heating of concrete, should not be allowed, directly we should not.

So, as you see in the picture on the top right you can see that there is a flame and then
there is an enclosure on top of the concrete surface which provides hot air uniformly on the
concrete surface. So, the uniform heating is essential, not direct heating or a localized heating
and maintain at least 40% relative humidity inside the enclosure because if you keep it too dry
then concrete will dry and it will not have enough moisture for hydration to happen, especially
near the surface.
(Refer Slide Time: 28:22)

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 The other way is by keeping the environment hot or by providing external heat. Providing
external heat by using hydronic heaters or heat transfer hoses and also by providing a blanket.
So, two ways, one is the heat which is generated from the concrete has to be contained and other
is, you can maintain immediate surroundings of the concrete whether it is air or the ground
below has to be maintained at a reasonably higher temperature so that, the heat from the concrete
is not lost into the environment. Here are some key features which you can read later on looking
at what are the qualities to look for when you talk about this concrete blankets or insulation
blankets.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:17)

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 So, good quality concrete is possible, this picture very clearly shows that you can see that
all around the concrete slab which is being constructed you have snowcapped region, I mean
trees and the job site is very clear, there is no snow on the concrete surface. The concrete is well
protected in this picture that plastic sheet which you see around and also the blanket it is going to
keep the concrete well protected from losing the heat which is generated because of the
exothermic reactions.

At the same time the immediate environment of the concrete can be maintained at a
reasonably high temperature. So, protecting concrete is also very important. It is not only the
materials which you put like finely ground cement or cement with high C3S or C3A and chemical
admixtures like antifreezing chemical or accelerating admixtures, all that is fine when you talk
about the material aspects.

Then you have to place the concrete properly and make sure that in the initial stage you
have sufficient moisture available as water, preventing frost attack and then make sure that 3.5
MPa strength is gained and then protect the concrete by preventing further moisture loss and also
heat loss. So, if you do all these things I think we can really have good quality concrete like we
see in normal climatic conditions.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:09)

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 Now, freeze-thaw attack if you talk about which happens at later ages. So, when the
temperature of hardened concrete is below 0 0C, all the water does not freeze immediately. So,
the freezing point also depends on the size of the pores. So, water in the smaller pores need less
than 0 0C temperature to freeze. Example if you are talking about water in 10 nanometer pores it
will not freeze until – 5 0C.

If you are talking about 3.5 nanometer pore it will not freeze until -20 0C and if it is gel
water will not freeze until - 78 0C that is much smaller pore. So, at the same temperature what it
means is, there could be some water which is already frozen and some which is not frozen
depending on the size of the pore where the water is staying or occupying.

And as the water freezes it dilates or expands and compresses the remaining water in the
same pore. What happens is during this process of dilation, it pushes the water and that pressure
is relieved if there is sufficient pathway available for that water to move into another pore or
void. And if no voids are available in the near vicinity, then the pressure may build up, which
eventually leads to cracking or rupturing of concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:58)

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 This is what I just mentioned. Here you can see a little bit of ice is formed, that ice will
push the water near there and this water can actually flow into the void. And if that void space is
nearby, you can see here water is flowing to this and then a small ice is formed. The picture on
the right end shows that how this ice is formed. This is one of the classical images from Berkeley
where they have captured this ice formation inside an air void in cement paste, a very nice
image.

You can see a lot of ice formation happening and so this is what really happens. So if you
have an air void, then it will not exert pressure, but if you do not have air void then it will exert
pressure and lead to cracking.
(Refer Slide Time: 33:52)

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 Now cyclic freeze-thaw exposure can also damage the concrete; I am showing an
example of what happens in the web. This is a picture from the internet but I thought it is a very
nice demonstration. So, thought of using it, you can see here in a small crack in rock, water
collects and after some time that water freezes and then pushes down, you can see it pushes
down and it expands and like a wedge it pushes in and here that rock is now cracked into 2
pieces.

So, something like this will happen depending on the number of cycles of freeze-thaw.
So, for example, this number of cycles depending on the geographic location and climate, I
mean, depending on the climatic condition, it could be daily cycle, like diurnal variations or
weekly, monthly or even annual depending on where you are. The number of cycles is what
matters here not the freezing time.

So, number of freeze-thaw cycles which matters. If it is more then you will have more
and more damage induced into the concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:10)

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 Cyclic freeze-thaw exposure can also lead to popping out. As we discussed this ice will
form inside the concrete, it will push the cementitious system and it will lead to cracking and
popping out, you can see on the picture on the left it is about to pop and then on the right side
you can see that it is completely popped and then you can very clearly see the same aggregate is
also cracked. So, the pressure is so much that it can also crack the aggregate. So, as you see this
is the aggregate which is cracked.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:49)

The cyclic freeze-thaw exposure can also lead to something called D cracking of
concrete. Why this D cracking name? It comes based on the pattern of cracking on a joint at
concrete pavement. You can see here picture on the right side or the sketch on the right side

237
which shows 4 slabs 1, 2, 3, 4 and the joint, this shows like an alphabet D and that is why it is
called D cracking.

And which is observed here; if I draw something like this, you can see that D cracking on
this highway pavement and what happens during the freeze-thaw exposure? The expansion of
aggregate might happen depending on the presence of pores inside the aggregates, it might
expand because of the ice formation inside. And also eventually that expansive force will push
the paste around and which will lead to the failure of the paste.

Parallel cracks away from the saturation points. So, you can see these cracks, these are
the parallel cracks which are actually happening. So, here also you can see parallel cracks, they
are actually away from the joint which is the saturation point. So, this D cracking is something
which is widely observed especially on this exterior concrete structure, I mean exterior elements
such as roads which are directly exposed to the environment.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:27)

Water saturation and cyclic freeze-thaw exposure can also cause internal cracking
especially in cases where the concrete is in direct contact with free water. So, because of the
capillary suction the internal concrete absorbs or sucks in all the water from the immediate
environment and when the temperature decreases that water will become ice not at the near
surface.

238
 But, water inside the concrete leading to multiple micro cracking or maybe in a larger
crack also significant cracking you can see on this picture both the images you can see, even the
aggregates are also cracked. So, all these expansive behavior, the stress induced because of them
is very high, which will lead to cracking of aggregate and eventually of the entire concrete
system.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:32)

This kind of exposure can also lead to near surface scaling. You can see here, picture on
the left side lot of material is lost at the near surface. So, this is again because of the formation of
ice because of the absorption of water into the near surface of concrete and then with that ice
formation it leads to cracking of the concrete at the near surface.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:05)

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 And eventually this surface scaling will happen and then eventually you will have
multiple deterioration because new surfaces get exposed and then it leads to significant loss of
the material as you see in this picture at the center and eventually the entire concrete cover can
be lost due to this kind of freeze-thaw attack and then, once the entire cover is lost, then you will
see, the reinforcement getting exposed and corroded which definitely affect the structural
capacity of the system.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:44)

So, how do we handle? The main approach is to use air entraining admixtures. So that
you provide enough air voids available in the concrete at which ice can form without exerting
pressure onto the surrounding aggregates or the hardened concrete system. So, this picture also

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very clearly shows that, if you increase the air content about let us say 5- 6% you have good
quality concrete or durability factor is increased.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:23)

Now, another damage mechanism or deterioration mechanism is alkali-silica reaction. So,

ASR is the abbreviation of alkali-silica reaction. Some people also call it as AAR, as you see
here alkali-aggregate reaction. Because most of the aggregates are silica rich, we can call it
alkali-silica reaction. What it is? It is a chemical reaction, which happens in the presence of
moisture. And this chemical reaction happens between the active mineral constituents and the
alkali hydroxides present in concrete.

So, what happens when you have water, alkalis and reactive aggregates? This
combination leads to alkali-aggregate reaction or alkali-silica reaction, the picture on the bottom
right shows an example how it looks like, you can see this all these blue colored region that
indicates the gel, which we call ASR gel and this gel induces significant pressure on to the
concrete system or it is expansive in nature.

Which leads to significant increase in expansive stresses and it can even crack the
aggregate. You can see here, an aggregate is cracked. This is also showing aggregate itself is
cracked and also significant cracking in the cement paste. Like we discussed in the sulphate
attack, ASR also induces a lot of cracking of the concrete system or the entire matrix gets
damaged.
(Refer Slide Time: 42:21)

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 Let us look at why ASR occurs in concrete structures? As we know, there are a lot of
hydroxides of sodium and potassium present in cement. And that can react with the reactive
aggregates or porous silica aggregates. Especially when they are reactive in nature, they will
react and form a gel that can absorb water. When it absorbs water, the volume increases and it
induces expansive stresses onto the concrete.

Now there this gel absorbs the water and it occupies all the available pores and once all
the pores are filled then further expansion causes cracking means until the pores are filled, there
is no stress induced on to the surrounding concrete, but once the pores are filled then it starts
inducing stress onto the surrounding concrete and leads to cracking. Let us say there is a dry
environment and then all this moisture gets evaporated then it leads to dehydration of the gel and
that will leave open cracks or voids in the system.

And later on, you can again have more moisture coming into the system and then further
reaction can happen and this can lead to continued formation of more and more gel and leading
to significant cracking. Now, when silica has high surface area and if the concentration of
alkalize are low then you will have some non-swelling gels which may not induce really
significant damage.

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 So, let us look at which type of silica can be selected. So, in this table as you see on the
right side, it indicates if I use a particular type of silica, what is the expected life for that
structure? As you go down on the table you get better and better aggregates.
(Refer Slide Time: 44:34)

Now, what is the reaction mechanism? So, the high pH in the cement paste promotes
the hydrolysis of reactive silica and you can see here hydrolysis of reactive silica and it becomes
Si-OH bonds and then this Si-OH bond reacts with the paste to form Si-O and which further
absorbs or reacts with the sodium, potassium and calcium to form a gel and this is the gel which
we are calling as ASR gel which is expansive in nature or sometimes it absorbs the moisture and
expands.
Si-O-Si + H OH Si-OH + Si-OH
(Refer Slide Time: 45:12)

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 What are the types of cracking which we observe or how can we detect? So, this
deleterious reaction is known for long time in 1940s itself people have identified this published
in 1940s. This picture you can see in 1936 which is one of the first images showing ASR induced
cracks, you can see its map cracking not a specific direction.

And here also you can see, vertical cracks on a column because on the column you have
reinforcement and when there is a reduction in the strength of the concrete the reinforcement will
try to push the concrete or in other words the crack is along the stress path, but it is not straight
line crack, if you look close up you will see that there is lot of map cracks on this column also.
So, essentially what it is telling is, the cracking is happening because of this thrust generated
from within the concrete system and not because of the corrosion or any other mechanisms..
(Refer Slide Time: 46:30)

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 You can see in this picture on the left side you have a bridge column and I have seen this
bridge column on the other side of this same bridge; you do not have any cracking. The same
concrete on one side you have significant cracking and on the other side you do not have any
cracking. Main reason is on this side with a side which is visible to you. Unfortunately, I do not
have the photograph of the other side.

But you can see here there is significant cracking and this is mainly because there was a
drain pipe and it was giving water or providing sufficient moisture for the ASR reactions to
happen. So, as I showed earlier in the bottom left picture, water is also a key factor. So, if you
can keep the structure very dry, you may not see ASR induced reactions.

So, there are other examples like a dam structure and concrete pavement where also you
can see significant map cracking these are all due to ASR induced cracking or you can see the
width this is at least about an inch wide crack there.
(Refer Slide Time: 47:53)

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 And these are additional examples showing how significant this cracking can be. So, on
the left you can see a coin and then the fingers are inserted into the crack and then also
significantly wide crack on slab elements. And main point is all these cracks will lead to or will
help other deleterious elements to enter the concrete and eventually lead to corrosion of the
reinforcement inside which is a big problem later.
(Refer Slide Time: 48:28)

Now, how do we test for assessing ASR? I am just showing multiple tests here. First
thing is looking at the type of aggregate or if there is any ASR gel present in the system. So, this
is one test where urinal acetate is used. You spray this onto the concrete surface and then you can
look through and then see that gel fluorescence test for detecting ASR. So, on this picture you

246
can see this is the aggregate region and you can very clearly see that around the aggregate you
have some different color and that is all indicating the presence of ASR gel.

And there are also other tests like mortar bar test and prism test where mortar bar is
mainly just to look at the cement paste system or even the mortar system, not the large
aggregates presence, but there is also another test which is concrete prisms. So, the picture on the
bottom right side is just to show you how both these mortar bar or prism test is done. Basically a
prism is made and then we look at the change in the length. If it is expanding, there will be
increase in length of the specimen and that will tell you how severe could be ASR. I mean, how
severe ASR type reactions can happen
(Refer Slide Time: 49:57)

Now, let us say you already finished the construction of particular structure and then you
find that there is ASR type problem and how do we mitigate that? I am going to show you
multiple types by which people have tried impregnating the structure with lithium, people say
that is the best technology so far.

And here the first one is by spraying lithium on to the concrete surface, these are concrete
roads, and this is a barrier you can see there and also vacuum impregnation is also applied here
in the first one you spray it. The second over here it is vacuum impregnation where you create a
vacuum pressure to suck the lithium solution into the concrete surface but it is probably more
expensive to do all these, it is not very easy.
(Refer Slide Time: 50:59)

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 Also there are electrochemical methods where you apply a particular voltage, which will
drive the lithium ions into the concrete. But again, just look at here, this particular project for 2
concrete columns, it took almost 8 weeks to impregnate sufficient lithium into the concrete. So, it
is expensive but, sometimes you might end up in situations where it is very important and you
cannot really look at money but to protect the structure.
(Refer Slide Time: 51:36)

Now, how this lithium treatment? What is the idea behind? So, if the lithium to the
(sodium plus potassium) concentration if it is greater than 0.74 then we say the expansion is
minimum. So, this is the typical value used, the ratio requirement how much lithium to be

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impregnated. So, typical dosage is about let us say 4.6 liters of 30% lithium nitrate solution for
every 1 kg of sodium oxide equivalent in concrete.

So, the graph here at the bottom left shows the difference between the expansions
exhibited by a control system that means no lithium treatment and this is lithium treatment for 10
weeks and 16 weeks. So, point is, you have significant reduction in the expansion from about 0.2
to less than 0.15%. I mean, that is significant reduction that is about 30% reduction in the
expansion. And also if you have heavy cracking, moderate cracking or light cracking the amount
of lithium requirement is also apportioned accordingly.
(Refer Slide Time: 53:02)

This is an example showing how this amount 4.6 liters per kg of sodium oxide equivalent
is come up with so you can go through this more details later.
(Refer Slide Time: 53:19)

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 So that’s it, for summarizing, we looked at both the cold weather concreting and
associated issues and the ASR. So in cold weather we were talking about cold weather can affect
the properties of fresh and hardened concrete and finely ground cement and cement with high
C3S or C3A content and chemical admixtures either an accelerator or an anti-freezing chemical
can help in enhancing the setting time and also I do not have it written here but air-entraining
admixtures can also help.

Here air entrained concrete performs better than normal concrete and this figure of 3.5
MPa strength. You should ensure that the concrete achieves 3.5 MPa strength and then further
protection of that concrete is essential by ensuring that sufficient moisture level is maintained
and at the same time sufficient heat is maintained then concrete will continue to develop further
strength.

We saw that ASR is basically the reaction between alkali content in the cement and the
reactive aggregates and different types of aggregate can have different levels of reactivity and
you have to probably choose low reactive aggregates so that such ASR related problems will not
happen and ASR can be identified based on the crack pattern typically map cracking and it can
be controlled by lithium treatment.

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 Also, this is not very easy to do, it is very time intensive and expensive method. So best
way is again like I mentioned in the last class, prevention is better than cure. So, if we can take
care of good quality materials, if we can ensure that good quality materials are used, we can
avoid ASR induced problems also.
(Refer Slide Time: 55:46)

So, these are the references which were used for making this lecture notes. Thank you.

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 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras-Chennai

Lecture 8
Deterioration of Cementitious Systems
(Shrinkage and Creep)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:25)

Hi, this is the second lecture in this module on deterioration of cementitious system. In this we
will focus on shrinkage and creep. This is just an outline of this module. We will focus mainly on
shrinkage and creep in this particular lecture.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:35)

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What is shrinkage? And what is creep? These are basically the time dependent strains that are
caused by similar or same internal processes which involve movement of water within the
concrete. And let’s see what is shrinkage and what is creeped separately. In the case of shrinkage
the movement of water is happening due to the environmental conditions and which induces strain
in the concrete or volumetric change. And then it effectively leads to shrinkage.

In the case of creep, it is mainly because of the load applied or the stress generated in the concrete.
One thing to note here is that both the creep strain and the shrinkage strain are not fully recoverable
when the load is removed or when the concrete is re saturated respectively. Once the creep and
shrinkage happens, it is very difficult to recover the strain which is cost.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:49)

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Now this graph here, it shows both the creep and shrinkage behavior. As you can see, I have put
this red box at the bottom which indicates the creep. The reason for creep, which is loading and
then for creep recovery, we when we unload, we can see the creep recovery. In the case of
shrinkage, which is the blue box at the bottom, the loading is essentially the drying and the
unloading is essentially re saturation.

So, you can see here the free shrinkage curve which is this (the 4th curve from the top) and when
the re saturation happens whatever the strain gain, we are able to recover some of it but not fully.
And in the case of creep in the beginning as soon as the load is applied, there is an elastic strain
over there. And then after that you have this creep strain. And then when at this point when the
unloading starts, you recover some of the creep strain but not fully.

So, you have something which is not yet been not recovered. Now, if you look at the sum of these
2 you can see here this is that graph (2nd curve from the top), where this much strain is not recovered
even after re saturation or unloading. And that is the reason why it is very much important to
consider the shrinkage and creep behavior, especially when we talk about large structures where
the absolute deformation due to this strain could be very large in some of the structural elements.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:44)

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Now, combined effect of shrinkage and creep. Because it is very difficult to separate them because,
as I mentioned in the previous slide, they are due to same internal processes. It is for experimental
purpose probably we can, but in the real structures, both happen at the same time. So, it is very
difficult to separate them and to see the effect of individual either shrinkage or creep. Now,
shrinkage can occur in elements that are restraint and develop tensile stresses.

One example is pavements and slabs on grade. As you can see, here in this picture (1st picture),
you have a lot of parallel cracks here which are essentially the shrinkage cracks. And then in the
second photograph, where you see very large bridge with very tall piers and long span girders, you
can have significant effects due to shrinkage and those effects could be in the form of compression
of the columns or even on the girders, As they could have significant deflection, especially if they
have prestressed concrete girders and the concrete resistance is not very high, then what will
happen is eventually the because of the prestressing forces, the concrete can creep and the length
of the girder could reduce and which will result in the loss of prestress, which eventually will lead
to significant deflection. So, these are very important phenomenon especially when we talk about
long span and large structures.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:38)

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This is just one image which shows different types of shrinkage which could happen in all the
different elements of structures. Where you can see a drying shrinkage on the parapet here and
subsidence and then plastics shrinkage and restrained thermal and drying shrinkage combination
and you can see structural cracks. So, anyway this is just showing different types of cracks which
could form on concrete structures.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:20)

And what are the different types of shrinkage? And when do they actually occur? Plastic shrinkage,
thermal shrinkage, autogenous shrinkage, drying shrinkage and carbonation shrinkage are the 5
different types of shrinkage which we will discuss in this lecture. And when do they occur? Mainly
if you are talking about plastics shrinkage it happens in the first few hours and then thermal

256
shrinkage right after the final setting and you can start seeing thermal shrinkage and then
autogenous shrinkage in the first few weeks. And then drying and carbonation shrinkage it happens
in the long run or long term process whereas carbonation shrinkage might take much longer than
all the other four.
(Refer Slide Time: 07:13)

Plastic shrinkage is mainly happening because of the loss of water when the concrete is still in
plastic state. That means, it is still a fresh concrete. And thermal contraction or thermal shrinkage
happens when there is a decrease in temperature especially after the setting. Autogenous shrinkage
is mainly because of the chemical shrinkage and the self-desiccation, which could happen in the
first few weeks, from days to weeks. Dying shrinkage, it is mainly due to the loss of water in the
concrete after the concrete already has hardened, and loss of water, basically due to the drying of
the hardened concrete.

And carbonation shrinkage, it is mainly because of the reaction of the cement paste with the carbon
dioxide in the presence of moisture. Calcium carbonate which gets precipitated in these space
available within the concrete and even free space available within the concrete which eventually
leads to shrinkage.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:36)

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Now, before we talk about shrinkage, there is one type of crack which is not because of the
shrinkage, but because of the settlement of concrete during the fresh states or in the plastic state.
So, it is not due to shrinkage, but I just wanted to cover this aspect also, as you can see here on the
picture on the top left shows how it is manifested as you can see there, they are actually forming
right above the rebars here.

Also, you can kind of see a pattern which is parallel to the or right above the reinforcement. Now,
how is it happening which is shown in the sketch on the left side, you can see these white circles
which are the reinforcement and then the bleed water from the bottom of the slab moves upward
and what happens is the concrete which is on either side of the reinforcement, it starts settling and
but the concrete right above the reinforcement, it gets obstructed by the reinforcement and it does
not get a chance to settle vertically down. But there could be some horizontal movement, and some
horizontal movement which also leads to crack on right above the reinforcement, and this is
depicted very clearly in these 2 photographs on the right side. So, you can see this crack pattern,
which is just above the reinforcement. And if that is the case, maybe the concrete has a lot of water
than what it is required and a lot of bleeding and that is why it is leading to this kind of settlement,
which is called either plastic settlement or subsequence.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:47)

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Now, this is plastic shrinkage cracking, the first type of shrinkage crack which we discussed, and
you can see here, very clearly parallel cracks and it is on slab on grade.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:03)

And this is another example of plastic shrinkage cracking. Where you can see again the slab on
grade, where you can see here slight crack at the top mainly more cracking at the top and less as
you go down. Now, why this is happening or the mechanism is clearly seen again on the
photograph from the second photograph, where you see this crack happening here this is the crack
and you have more crack width at the top.

259
And as you go down the crack width is less. why I am showing the cylinder photograph here is
this picture on the right end is actually a cut section of a cylinder which is cored from the slab. So,
you can see the top of the slab has more crack width than the bottom. What is the mechanism,
especially these kind of crack happen when the you know the pathways for the bleed water to come
upward is blocked. Which happens when the cement, let’s say for example, if it is having silica
fume, they actually block or clog all the pathways and it prevents the bleed water from coming
upward. And at the same time, if the surface of the concrete is relatively dry, then you will have
evaporation or loss of water from the top surface of the concrete. But that does not get replenished
with the bleed water which is prevented from coming up.

So, multiple actions; one is the surface water evaporates, and then, at the same time bleed water
finds it difficult to move upward and then this condition creates a cracking or leads to the formation
of cracking, especially when you do not have enough water available at the top surface. So, the
top surface or near the top surface cracks more than the underneath.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:20)

And this is another example of a roof structure where significant shrinkage cracking was observed.
You can see lot of cracks over here and then what are these white patches which you are seeing is
actually the water during the curing the top surface of the same slab. Water from the curing actually
seeps in through these cracks, which are present.

260
And then therefore, the salts are leaching out and you can see this white patch on this surface.
Sometimes you can even see like a long crystals being formed through this crack. And one thing
to note here is these are not structural cracks. Because, you can see very clearly that there is no
particular shape for it and it is from the top of the slab to the bottom of the slab, the crack is
continuous.

And that is why you see these white patches also forming and if it is a roof slab then definitely you
will have issues during the rain. So, it has to be protected or treatment has to be done before you
can go further.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:46)

Now, how do we reduce plastic shrinkage? The first thing is that we have to reduce the rate of
evaporation of water. How we can do that by decreasing the temperature of the concrete or by
placing concrete as soon as it is mixed and providing adequate curing. And if there is a wind
conditions we have to ensure that the air movement above the concrete surface is less, because if
you have more air movement, it will carry more and more moisture from the concrete.

And which will eventually lead to fast drying, which is not recommended. And also, we can go by
reducing the amount of cement or optimizing the paste volume especially by using supplementary
cementitious materials like fly ash or slag or those kinds of materials and also shrinkage reducing

261
admixtures are available, which can also reduce the shrinkage. And then also the use of fibers is
also helpful in reducing plastics shrinkage cracking.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:58)

You can see here this is an example of concrete without fibers or plain concrete on the left side.
And on the right side with the addition of fibers very clearly you can see the concrete on the left
side has significant cracking, the one on the right side has very less cracking.
(Refer Slide Time: 16:23)

And how do we control shrinkage cracking in concrete. Look at the word, I’m talking here
‘controlling’ the crack not preventing the cracking. So, you can see on the sketch, where we are
providing or a sawcut. If you have a concrete slab, a very long slab, it will lead to cracking so it is

262
very difficult to prevent cracking in such case especially for a road or highway or slabs as you see
on this pictures over here.

You can see people are making sawcut in or in other words, once the concrete gain sufficient
strength, you cut the top surface of the concrete, like make a cut like that. Now, essentially what
you are doing is you are creating a section with smaller area. That means, when there is a particular
tensile stress generated, what will happen is the concrete will start cracking across that thinner
section. Here, right below the sawcut, whatever the area available is less than the total cross-
sectional area of the slab.

Because of the sawcut you are reducing the area available. That means for the same force, because
the area is less, you will have more stress, and wherever the stress is more concrete is going to
crack there. So, essentially we are controlling the location or we are defining the crack location by
doing this saw cutting. And to prevent other issues, we should also ensure that the sawcut region
is protected because otherwise if there is a crack, and if you have rebar going like this, it might
actually or it will rather corrode right here. So, you have to protect this sawcut or that joint also
from moisture. So, providing a good sealant is always a good idea in such cases.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:43)

Now, this (Picture on the right) is for an interior structure you can see here a slab, large slab you
have saw cuts made like this, and which will ensure that the crack is right below those saw cuts

263
and it is not forming randomly on the concrete surface. So, this sketch (Picture on the left) also
shows similar thing, some typical plan on how we can make contraction or construction joints and
force the crack to happen right below such joints or such saw cuts.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:21)

Now thermal shrinkage, it happens mainly in thick members, as you see on the picture on the top
right, I am showing a typical cross section of a retaining wall, where you can see as you go down,
the thickness of the member increases. And so there will be excessive heat generation, especially
at the bottom portions.

And what will happen is the portion which is mark here like a hot region, and then here maybe
near the surface, it is relatively cold because heat will dissipate into the environment from the outer
surface. Whereas the concrete inside or towards the right side in this sketch will still remain at
higher temperature. Now, this differential temperature condition will lead to cracking. It is very
clearly observed on the bottom 2 images, you can see 2 retaining wall photographs.

Where at the bottom portion of these retaining walls, you are seeing cracking that is it is similar to
this region. So, you can see here this portion is cracked and here also the bottom portion is
cracking. So, very clearly this is due to differential temperature conditions. Now, it is not necessary
that it happens uniformly everywhere on the structure. Before I go to the next slide, let me explain
at what time and why this kind of crack happens.

264
One thing is excessive heat which we already discussed. And now, other thing is when this heat
generation happens in the beginning, the plastic concrete expand due to the high heat generation
in the beginning and as concrete cools down, it tries to contract or shrink and because there is
restraint, or in other words, it is not a free shrinkage which is happening, there are reinforcement
in the concrete and also this concrete is resting on earth or some foundation and on the other side
the backfill is there.

So, there is a lot of restraint provided by the surrounding elements and also the concrete itself. If
you look at the concrete which I showed in the picture, you can see the other concrete can also
provide restraint to this portion. So, effectively there are some region or the bottom portion of this
structures are restrained by the other concrete and the foundation and which leads to cracking. And
that is the main mechanism. If there is no restraint, then you will not see cracking, but you will see
only shrinking, but most of the structures that is not the case, you have a restraint.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:41)

This is just a graph showing how the modulus of elasticity builds up in concrete, and how the
temperature variations happen in the concrete. As you can see here, in the beginning until about
this stage, you have significant rise in temperature, then as time passes, the concrete starts cooling
down.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:06)

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Now, this uneven thermal loads in bridge structures can actually lead to cracking. As you see in
this picture, first look at the bottom portion of the picture which is indicating how the structure of
the temperature conditions. In the morning the top surface and bottom could be of similar could
be experiencing similar temperature, but afternoon where you have you know if it is a really hot
climate you will have the top surface of the concrete bridge might experience a higher temperature
is something like more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Whereas the bottom side could be at low temperature (make sure this is in not in Celsius so, please
that it is in Fahrenheit). Because of this change in the shape, it induces some cracks like this you
can see at the bottom here wherever there is a flexure happening and because of the shrinkage or
expansion of the top surface there is some kind of buckling which is happening and which induces
this type of cracks.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:29)

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Now, this is demonstration of such cracks which is visible at the bottom of this bridge deck. Here
you can see some cracks, these kind of damage mechanisms happen especially on large structures,
imagine in this particular bridge, you have a crack there and there are actually reinforcement,
which goes like this in these cracks. And when you have a crack, definitely that rebar is going to
experience localized corrosion right here. So, definitely this kind of damages will lead to long term
performance issues.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:09)

I mentioned earlier sometimes again because of the temperature variations this crack might close
open, close open, all that might happen. So, this particular example, you can see on the top left

267
image, it is newly cast concrete with restraint on both sides. So, what will happen, crack is formed
when restraint drying shrinkage happens.

So, this you can see the crack forming right almost at the center. And on the right-side image you
can once the crack is formed, if the there is a rise in the temperature, the crack width decreases.
So, comparing to the second step here on the third case you have a reduction in the crack width,
because the concrete is going to expand or it is expanding. So, of the concrete on the left and right
side is expanding and the crack is being closed.

Now, what will happen if there is a reduction in the temperature, the same concrete will now move
outward or in other words it is shrinking, both left and right side concretes are going to shrink and
then it is going to open the crack.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:37)

This is another example, depending on the position of the sun. So, if the sun is on this left side as
you see here, so, this portion of the cooling tower will be at experience at higher temperature than
this portion. So, this is left side is going to expand and that expansion will induce a change in the
shape. So, the expansion on the left side will induce a change in the shape that means, the entire
cooling tower will in a slightly deviate from the circular shape to an elliptical shape.

268
Likewise, you may also see if the sun moves to the other side, if it is on right side like here again
then the expansion will be on the right side of the cooling tower. So, this essentially what it is
showing is all the portions of a cooling tower could experience change in thermal loads which will
induce the movements or shrinkage and it might lead to cracking etc. On this the significant
cracking could happen on these type of structures.

So, the hot side, the warmer side of the element will experience expansion, which will lead to
change in shape. This is just bottom right side you can just see a typical power plant, you see this
thing is basically the water vapor which is coming through this natural draft cooling towers, very
large structures and you know very important structures especially for power plants.
(Refer Slide Time: 28:35)

Now, another shrinkage mechanism is autogenous shrinkage where it is typically a combination

of chemical shrinkage and self-desiccation, 2 processes. And main thing to note here is that this
happens without any loss of moisture to the environment. There is no drying or anything like that
happening. It is happening without any loss of moisture. Now, what is chemical shrinkage? And
what is the self-desiccation? Chemical shrinkage, the name itself suggests it is due to some
chemical reaction which involves reactants and products of course.

And the reactants have volume which is more than that of the products how much about 8 to 12%
so, essentially the cement and water which are the reactants, has a combined volume, which is

269
larger than the volume of the hydrates. Or in other words, the cement hydration reaction tends to
a reduction in the volume by about 8 to 10%. let us say 10% volume reduction.

And self-desiccation is mainly when water is removed from the capillary pores, but not to outside
the concrete system. In other words, the especially this kind of mechanism happen in low water
cement ratio concrete, where you will still have some unhydrated cement left in the concrete. So,
that is why here we are seeing further hydration of cement or you do not have sufficient water
available for the full hydration of the cement system.

So, as and when it is available, it will use. So, the water which is present in the capillary pores is
also used for this hydration purpose and that lead to something called self-desiccation. And here
very clearly water is not lost to the environment. The water from the pores are used for further
hydration of the cement paste. Now in concrete what happens is autogenous shrinkage, when you
talk about cement that is different when you talk about concrete there is a major ingredient which
is aggregate.

So, about 75% or even more 75% of the concrete might have coarse aggregate and then you also
have fine aggregate present in the concrete. Now, look at this picture here you have a lot of course
aggregates and they are actually providing restraint, and which will also you know restrict or in
other words this because of this restraint the overall shrinkage might still be less. So, the magnitude
of shrinkage in concrete could be significantly less than that in the cement paste of 1 order of
magnitude or 1/10th we can say.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:58)

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Now, this is just a schematic showing this volume reduction. Here on the bar on the left side, you
have the volume of unhydrated cement and water and the right side you have paste after the final
set. So, this is the volume, the final volume and so, you have this much shrinkage, note that this is
not to scale, it is not that there is a 50% reduction in volume. It is not like that, because this looks
almost 50% on the right side, but that is it is not that not drawn to scale.

So, there is some chemical shrinkage and then autogenous shrinkage preset and after set and then
this is the final after the final set. How much reduction in accumulative voids are all shown here.
Basically all these white circles on the third bar is that particular volume is accumulated in this to
show you what is the absolute volume of the final products, which is the gray box here.
(Refer Slide Time: 33:15)

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Now, autogenous shrinkage increases when the cement content is increased or when the fineness
of the cement is increased or the concrete temperature is increased. And also, when you have C3A
and C4AF content in the cement. So, these are typically the reasons for increase in the autogenous
shrinkage as you see here, the picture the graphs on the bottom you see a normal strength concrete
and a high strength concrete.

In the normal strength concrete this dark gray region which is this, is the autogenous shrinkage
which is very less as compared to the dark gray region in the bottom graph. So, definitely in the
high strength concrete, we usually go for low water cement ratio, and that eventually leads to this
significantly high autogenous shrinkage.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:16)

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Now, what are the typical values? If you are talking about autogenous shrinkage strain, it is about
40 micro strain in 1 month and about 100 in 5 years. So, most of this is happening in the very
beginning, almost 50, 40% is happening in the first month itself. Now, if you are talking about a
low water cement ratio concrete, autogenous shrinkage is higher. For example, the water cement
ratio with 0.17 this is for experimental purpose.

Because we hardly use 0.17 water cement ratio concrete but you can see here autogenous shrinkage
with 700 micro strain has been reported. Now, but usually when you talk about concrete
autogenous shrinkage is usually neglected or it is included as part of the drying shrinkage strain
because of the difficulties in the measurement. So, total shrinkage is what is reported usually.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:18)

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Now swelling; concrete also swells when it is exposed continuously to water. So, water gets into
the concrete and then definitely there is an increase in the volume and mass and why because it is
absorption of water by the CSH gel which pushes the gel particles further apart. So eventually the
volume of the concrete itself increases.

And another mechanism is there is a decrease in the surface tension of the gel water that further
increases the expansion. So surface tension decreases and which leads to expansion. Now, it could
be in this range about 1300 micro strain after 100 days of submerged so, significantly high strain
could be observed depending on the type of cement paste, when you talk about concrete it could
be in this range.

So, what one thing to notice is when you look for numbers, make sure that you are actually looking
for numbers which are relevant for the concrete system which you are using and not just for the
cement paste.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:49)

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This is an example showing drying shrinkage of a slab, above an asphalt pavement. Actually,
because of the asphalt pavement below, the restraint provided by the pavement is relatively less,
which leads to this type of shrinkage and this is actually a slab which is about 40 feet long and
only 1 crack was is visible on this slab and what you see here is a culvert here and this is actually
on 1 side of the culvert the slab is provided.

If you have a hardened concrete and the air right above the concrete surface is not having sufficient
humidity or it is in a relatively dry or not really humid environment. That is what I mean by
unsaturated condition.

So, what will happen the water which is present inside the concrete will try to diffuse outward and
get into the environment outside or drying happens. And initially this removal of water does not
cause much damage to the concrete. But as more and more water evaporates or as more and more
drying happens, the water which is present in the capillary pores, the water which is present in the
capillary pores are also lost.

And what this leads to is, it forms menisci leading to the capillary stresses in the hydrated cement
paste. Now, you will have multiple locations this is happening, multiple locations within the
concrete this could happen and as further humidity is lost the size of these menisci are reduced.
When the size is reduced, that means, you know the stresses are going to be more and more. So,

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as the size of the menisci smaller the larger will be the stresses generated, which leads to shrinkage
cracking.

And also this C-S-H structure eventually gets compacted that means the entire concrete system
tends to shrinkage and which will lead to cracking because there are presence of aggregates and
rest other restraints which are provided by either the steel reinforcement or the surrounding earth
or wherever whatever the concrete is in contact with. So, all as long as there are restraints, then
this could lead to cracking. If there is no restraint this could just lead to shrinkage.
(Refer Slide time: 39:53)

Now, this graph showing drying shrinkage at where the 3 concretes all the 3 were cured for 28
days. And you see here this is 50%, 70% and 100% after 28 days of wet curing, when the concrete
was exposed to these 3 different humidity conditions, we could see that very clearly the amount of
shrinkage or drying shrinkage is significantly high in case of dry environment.

In this case, which is 50% humidity about 1200 micro strain, when the humidity was about 70%,
the strain is only about 800. That is about 30% reduction, and then when you look at 100% humid
environment actually the moisture from the air was absorbed by the concrete and you can see or
the from the water was absorbed by the concrete and it actually leads to swelling. This is actually
case of swelling. So it is very clear that the ambient moisture condition or the humidity condition
really plays a role in drying shrinkage.

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(Refer Slide Time: 41:24)

Now drying shrinkage cracking in slabs with both sides exposed. See the slab which I showed
here, this was slab on grade. That means the below or the bottom side of the slab is not exposed,
it is in contact with the asphalt road at the bottom. Whereas there may be if you are talking about
a roof element or a bridge deck, where the both sides of the slab are exposed to environment and
this particular example showing here.

It is example from Peter Emmons textbook. You can see here it is a 20 feet long if the length of
the element is 20 feet long and the drying shrinkage is about 600 micro strains, the shrinkage or
the defamation or change in the length could be about 0.15 inches that is shown here, this is the
reduction in the length.

If free shrinkage is allowed, then the length change will happen. But if it is restrained on this side
also if the both the sides are of the concrete restraint are held then what will happen the crack will
form at almost at the center. And so, the same crack width, but 1 crack will form at the center.
Now, if you provide a reinforcement as you see in this picture here there is a rebar which is going
at the center right here.

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Then there is an additional restraint provided by the reinforcement and that will lead to multiple
cracks like in this picture, you see 4 cracks, but the crack width of each of them is relatively less
than the 0.15 inch or 4-millimeter crack.
(Refer Slide Time: 43:38)

Okay, now, this is an example, showing how this curling or warping of concrete slab on grade
happens like highway or a concrete pavement. You can see here 2 slabs 1 and 2 and there is a joint
at the center. Now, what will happen if the top surface is relatively you know, if they are in a dry
environment, the top surface will actually try to contract whereas the bottom surface I am talking
about here the top surface contracts. And whereas the bottom surface remains at the same length.

So, the moisture from the concrete is actually getting out and which leads to drying and shrinking
of the concrete and shrinkage means this is going to contract here, whereas, the bottom portion is
at similar length. So, there is the effectively the ends of the slab will get lifted up. And if this
happens on multiple slabs like this, as you see, when you ride on this road you will feel the moment,
the wheel moves from 1 slab to the other. You will feel that the sound if you have these kind of
problems, then definitely that will need to be taken care.
(Refer Slide Time: 45:06)

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Now, some of the factors which affect drying shrinkage. So, this is just an example to show in the
second column here, these are the cases where shrinkage is reduced and the case in the third column
it shows where more shrinkage was observed. But, I would like to mention 1 thing that do not look
at only 1 parameter. For example, if I say type 1, 2 cement it is going to have less shrinkage and
type 3 to have high shrinkage.

It is not like that, you have to really look at the synergistic effects of various parameters must be
considered while deciding whether which system will have high or low shrinkage, but this table
just gives you a rough idea of some factors which will affect. Aggregate size also, if you are going
for smaller size aggregate, you might have a higher shrinkage.

If you go for a large cement content like 415 kg/m3 instead of 325 kg/m3, you will definitely have
more shrinkage. See, the cement is the ingredient in concrete which leads to shrinkage. So, if we
can reduce the amount of cement in concrete definitely you can reduce the amount of shrinkage,
and curing definitely, if you go for a shorter curing here in this case, 7 day and 3 days.

The 3 days case is experienced exhibiting higher shrinkage and also the quality of the aggregate.
So, all these factors must be looked at, but synergistic effects must also be considered when you
look at shrinkage.
(Refer Slide Time: 46:59)

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Now carbonation shrinkage is the last form of shrinkage we are going to discuss. And this is
observed in some concretes in the very long run, because after a long time when the concrete
undergoes carbonation then it leads to a products which are having smaller volume or it leads to
shrinkage. Let us look at the mechanism. Here the near surface concrete will undergo shrinkage
due to the carbonation.

Because that is the region which actually gets carbonated first and how is it happening? It is caused
by dissolving of calcium hydroxide crystals and the deposition of calcium carbonate crystal in the
space which is free from stress. So, you have calcium carbonate and this is the product of this
carbonation reaction between calcium hydroxide and carbon dioxide, forming calcium carbonate.
And then they occupy spaces available within the concrete which are free from stress and
eventually they lead to shrinkage.

Now, at what humidity level this can happen as you see on the graph here you can see this is
humidity and this is the shrinkage. If in 1 case when the shrinkage was due to drying and
subsequent carbonation, then it showed maximum shrinkage. But when it was simultaneous drying
and carbonation slightly less shrinkage that is here, and then when it was only drying then it was
significant it was further less.

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So, point to note here is at about 50% shrinkage you have maximum carbonation and that is the
humidity level you have maximum carbonation and probably maximum shrinkage also which is
due to the carbonation.
(Refer Slide Time: 49:09)

Now, concrete can creep also and the significant deformation can be experienced in this case here,
when you have large span and heavy load, you can see the size of this concrete, I mean dead load
of this particular bridge is very high. And this picture here as you see, you have a dip at the bottom
here, there is a deflection at the center span, which actually is an indicator of significant creep
because that deflection happened over a period of time.

And what the repair procedure they actually see here lifted up the center portion and provided
midspan was raised a little bit and repaired so that vehicles could drive without a dip on the
concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 50:10)

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Now, these are some other examples showing compression creep, you can see the 2 pictures. On
the top 1 here have a very tall column, or a pier and this it is probably slightly less tall than that
and this is also slightly less and then here also you can see all these columns have different height.
Now why I am talking here is when you have these different heights, the deformation due to creep,
and these are very large structures. So, the dead loads are the loads acting on these columns are
also very high.

Now the deformation on each of these columns, due to creep. Smooth ride on the deck is not going
to be possible because then there will be differential settlement or the deck will not be at the same
level. So, it is very important to make sure that the creep effects are very minimal on these type of
structural elements. In other words, the tallest column here the deformation experienced by the
tallest column and the shortest column should be maintained at a similar level otherwise you will
have uneven riding surface which is not a good thing.

And also in the case of prestressed concrete the because of the prestressing forces the concrete
experiences significant compression and over a long period of time, what will happen is, because
of this compression the concrete will undergo creep and simultaneously as the concrete gets creep
or the length of the element decreases. There is a significant loss in the pre stress which will then
induce deflection of the girder. So, there are long term and important impacts of this creep
phenomenon.

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(Refer Slide Time: 52:21)

Here is another example of flexural creep, until now we were talking about compression creep.
Here you can see an arch bridge, which is now no more an arch. It is not really an arch almost flat
at the center, you can see here and the center span and other places where flexural creep becomes
very important is tunnel elements or because of the huge heavy load acting on the tunnel segments
for the entire life of the structure.

The segment or the concrete has to be designed for creep resistance, this one is an example of cut
and cover section that cut and then cover means above this, this concrete over here, you have either
a soil or a significant load is there. And here also it is another tunnel, where again you will have
significant load on top of the tunnel.

They are expected to last very long, not just couple of decades, but much beyond that so in the
long term, how these type of structures will perform under creep must be studied before we decide.
(Refer Slide Time: 53:54)

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It is not just the immediate structural performance long term performance must be looked at how
we can test shrinkage and creep. This is just a similar graph I showed in the very beginning, you
can see here autogenous this is on hardened concrete the first graph which I showed was slightly
different. So, you can see autogenous shrinkage and then drying shrinkage strain here basic and
dry creep and basic creep strain.

Now, how do we check this mainly when you talk about the autogenous shrinkage, you will seal
the concrete with aluminum wraps I will show that in the next slide. Whereas, when you talk about
drying shrinkage or drying creep, we test the concrete element without covering them.
(Refer Slide Time: 54:48)

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You see the picture here on the left, 2 cylinders, one is exposed cylinder, and other is a sealed
cylinder. And we look at the change in the length as time passes and then see what is the shrinkage.
Once it is sealed that is mainly for autogenous shrinkage which is exposed is mainly for total or
drying shrinkage. And for restraint shrinkage test we suggest to do this ring test, where the steel
ring which is the inside is gray portion here, this one that steel ring provides the restraint.

And then concrete tends to crack like this, see the sketch on the right side and then we look at how
much is the crack width and how the pattern is and all that.
(Refer Slide Time: 55:43)

For the creep test setup, you see here these are typical creep test setup where you can see concrete
cylinders on the right side. This is actually sealed that is mainly to study the basic creep, whereas
on the left side it is exposed concrete specimen which is not sealed. So, you can study the drying
creep in this case and like I mentioned flexural creep is also very important.

So, here is the test setup which we have in our lab, where you can see flexural creep test setup
where 3 concrete beams beam specimens are kept one above the other, 3 beams just to look at the
flexural creep.
(Refer Slide Time: 56:36)

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Now, to summarize, we looked at creep and shrinkage and found that they are actually time
dependent strains that involved movement of water and are not fully recoverable. And different
types of shrinkage mechanisms exist we looked at 5 different types and then restraint into
shrinkage causes cracking in other words if there is no restraint, there will be only shrinkage but
no cracking, but when concrete cracks, it is not something which is good for this structure.

So, we want to prevent cracking. How do we prevent cracking? maybe by using SCMs or low
paste content or cement content and use of fibers and definitely by adequate curing, also shrinkage
reducing admixtures can be used and shrinkage reducing as admixtures forgot to mention that in
this bullet and cracking can be controlled not eliminating tracking but by controlling cracking can
be controlled by providing saw cuts at defined distance.

And then test methods for unrestrained shrinkage and restraint shrinkage are available and
compression creep and flexural creep are also very important. Usually we talk about compression
creep but flexural creep is also very important when we talk about long span structures, especially
long span structures and tunnel elements, which are meant to last for a long time or in 100+ years
of life is expected in case of tunnel even, maybe more is expected.
(Refer Slide Time: 58:24)

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Thank you these are the references used for making this particular presentation.

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 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras-Chennai

Lecture 9
Deterioration of Cementitious Systems
(Fire attack, abrasion and erosion)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:19)

Hi, this is fourth lecture in the module on deterioration of cementitious system. In this, we will
cover fire attack, abrasion and erosion. We already covered how durable systems could be, and
sulfate attack, biofouling and biogenic acid attack, frost and freeze thaw attack Alkali silica
reaction and shrinkage and creep. And now we will focus on these 3 mechanisms fire attack,
abrasion and erosion.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:45)

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This are 2 examples I am going to show you. Some pictures showing how buildings and other
structures get affected by fire. You can see that in the entire building on the left side is engulfed
by the fire and on the right side also, it is World Trade Center and that led to significant damage
entirely the building was completely damaged. So, fire can lead to significant damage.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:14)

Here is picture showing what really happens or different stages of fire attack at the as you see on
this when the first picture (top left) shows a slight spalling of the surface, you can see slightly
rebars out there and in the second picture, it shows bottom reinforcement is now visible, that means
the entire cover is lost.

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And the picture ‘c’, shows both layers of bottom reinforcement, that means more the fire has
attacked more and more concrete, more concrete is removed. And then you can see bottom
reinforcement totally uncovered and you can see here is I am looking at this picture ‘d’, you can
see here the reinforcement are also like any kind of deformed in this significantly deformed,
because now the rebar is are directly exposed to the high temperature.

And then in the picture ‘e’ you can see bottom reinforcement, even a falling down completely. So,
it’s no more able to use. So, the point here is significant damage can be induced by this high
temperature due to the fire.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:43)

Now, this is another picture of a bridge, where actually there was a tanker or a truck with the source
of heat was, solvents burning under the bridge coming from a truck or lorry on the bridge. So, you
can see that significant damage even not only for the buildings, even to the other structures could
be exposed to fire.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:11)

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And here this is an example which shows how crazing and spalling looks like. Crazing is like
initial cracks, map cracks, which you could see on the picture on the left side. And on the right
side, you can see that entire cover is now delaminated, and it is spalled exposing the reinforcement.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:32)

Now, let us see a little bit more detail on what happens when the concrete is exposed to fire or
elevated temperature. When I am saying elevated temperature, mostly it is because of fire only.
Now let us see in the beginning, this picture here in the beginning you see both the upside, top and
bottom of the element is at similar temperature that is 70 degrees Celsius. And as fire damage
happens, the temperature is raised up to about when it is up to about 120 on the other side of the
fire, and at the side of the fire, it is at about 1000 degrees Fahrenheit.

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You can see some localized spalling like some region get spall here, and which can happen in
about 30 minutes. And then as time passes at about 1 hour, you can see some significant loss and
as some of the rebars gets exposed. And as the time reaches like about 2 hours, that is 120 minutes,
you can see that more and more damage happening and the rebar itself is now buckled you can see
here.

The rebar itself is now buckled, means the rebar gets directly attacked by and it starts losing its
properties. And also, the concrete element itself starts deflecting or deforming. So, all this
combined effect you can say that there can be significant damage to the structural system. Now,
let me go through very briefly through the text on the right side. So, what happens fire affects
concrete in extreme ways, some of which are listed below uneven volume changes.

Let us say if you are talking about temperature difference at 1 side and the other side it is much
higher than definitely there will be cracking and buckling and other sorts of distortions can be
visible on the element. Now, another mechanism which can happen is spalling of the rapidly
expanding concrete surface. So, the concrete expands because of the high temperature and it spalls,
especially where the temperature is very high as it was shown in the bottom 3 images on the left
side.

And what will also happen during this time is the aggregate can expand and burst, I will show you
some pictures later on some of the aggregates how it can expand because of high temperature. And
moisture is another thing which is important. Moisture which is available inside the concrete will
rapidly change to steam or water vapor when the temperature increases and which will exert
significant pressure on to the surrounding concrete and then which also leads to bursting of
concrete into small pieces.

Now, another mechanism is the conversion of cement mortar into quicklime at when the
temperature is above 400 degree Celsius. Now, on top of all this reinforcement also loses it is
tensile capacity because the temperature is high and it loses its most of it’s good properties. So,

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that reinforcement cannot take anymore the tensile loads and so, the again the structure starts
deflecting.

And other mechanism is once the reinforcement is exposed that will also try to expand and it
expands at a larger rate than compared to the expansion of concrete and which will also lead to
significant Spalling, buckling and loss of bond. The steel concrete bond is also lost. So, these are
all different type of damages which can be induced during a fire attack.
(Refer Slide Time: 07:50)

I am going to show you these things, especially the moisture action, the item number two which
we were talking, I am going to show you how this moisture attack happens. You can see here on
the picture on the top left, there is a heat flow through the porous medium. So, concrete is
essentially a porous medium. So, heat flows into the concrete from the outside and then there is a
vapor migration which happens the moisture which is available inside the concrete will migrate
outward like this as it is shown here, it will migrate outward.

And but what happens is during this process their zone of saturation starts forming slightly away
from the surface of the concrete. In other words, there is a condensation of water vapor which
happens at a particular zone depending on the porosity of the concrete and pore structure of the
concrete. But then that zone of vaporization we call it and it eventually get saturated.

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And a moisture clog is formed and then that leads to building up of vapor pressure especially at
that region. So, in other words, you can see here in this graph, which is basically showing what
happens that showing that the vapor pressure you can see here this is the point where the highest
vapor pressure and poke a poor pressure is very high and that significantly high pore pressure in
this zone, which is a moisture clog or the saturated zone that will push the concrete outward, which
is what we call a spalling.

So, this is a typical mechanism on how the moisture content inside the concrete will lead to a
buildup of pore pressure and then eventually leads to spalling of concrete. Now spalling due to
large pore pressure, so, we discussed all these points increase in pore pressure at saturated zone.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:24)

Now, just to show graphically that the change in the pore pressure, so you can see here this curve
is the temperature. The right end of this graph is the surface and as you go towards left is as you
go into the concrete. You can see the pore pressure is very low in the beginning, now, let us go to
this graph. Now, here you can see temperature is slightly more slightly increased as compared to
the first one.

Now, here you can see that the slight buildup of pore pressure is happening and then here you can
see again it is increasing significantly high. Now the temperature is further increased and the pore
pressure is also very high. So, this is the region which we call as saturation or the moisture clog

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and here you can see again significant increase in the pressure once the spalling happens that
pressure is dropped. So, at this stage before the stage spalling happens.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:41)

Now, one more thing this just to show that how it happened. This is from an experiment which
was conducted in Sweden by Robert Johnson. I found this thesis is very informative in this case
of fire attack. And now, you can see this is the inside surface and the bottom is the region which
is spalled. So, this is the region which we are calling as the moisture clog. So, you can see a lot of
accumulation of water or moisture in one region and that builds leads to building up of the pressure
and which eventually spalls the concrete near the cover.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:32)

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Now, this is an example of a lab experiment on a field specimen. There was a fire attack in a tunnel
and they took the specimen to the lab and did another fire test. And the moisture content was
maintained at the same level as it was initial, which is about 4%, very low moisture content or we
can say very dry concrete. However, in this particular experiment, they could see about 140mm of
concrete was spalled, and as you see in the picture here you can see significant spalling, rebars are
exposed and also, they are deformed.

These are all what happens and once the rebars are exposed and deformed. It cannot really have
the structural strength as desired, and progressives spalling that depends on how long fire exposure
happens and it is basically showing layer by layer removal. In other words, initially some spalling
can happen then further, the new a new surface gets exposed and then the temperature rise in
temperature inside the concrete is more, and then which eventually leads to spalling.

And typically, the duration could be in longer in case of tunnels because it is like a closed system
or a long structure where once there is a fire, it is not like a building where you have Windows
doors and open space where the heat is dissipated. But in case of a tunnel the heat is contained
inside and it takes very long time to dissipate that heat. So, fire attack could be very severe in case
of tunnels and such structures.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:24)

Now, what happens to the concrete or the stress train behavior of concrete due to elevated
temperature. You can see here; this graph shows the behavior from about 20 degrees Celsius to

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about 800 degrees Celsius. And you can see the first 3, it is about 20 degree which is Ambient and
then 100 and 200 degrees Celsius, not significant change in the property we can say at that stage
first 3 graphs for practical purposes we can say they are more or less same.

Now, one when you reach 300, the triangular markers here this graph, that one you can see that
there is a significant decrease or something happens at about 300 degrees Celsius. And after that
you can say that the graph is significantly changing by the reduction in both the modulus that
means the slope in the initial region and also in the Compressive strength. That means the height
of the graph or the peak of the graph both are actually decreasing significantly.

So, point is once the elevate the temperature is above 300 degrees Celsius, then the concrete starts
losing it is mechanical properties. Now, so, what does that mean? If the Concrete starts losing its
mechanical properties then we have to probably replace the concrete or do significant repair work
so that the structure can retain its capacity.
(Refer Slide Time: 16:02)

Now, what happens to the thermal conductivity of concrete? That can also decrease at elevated
temperature as you see here, when the temperature is let us say from the ambient conditions, which
is here, and it goes to about 800 plus degrees Celsius, you can see there is this about 1.5, this is
about 0.6, almost 50% reduction in the thermal conductivity. So, that is also a significant change.
(Refer Slide Time: 16:35)

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Now, what are the factors which govern the fire resistance? Until now we were looking at what
are the changes because of the elevated temperature, and now let us see how to address those
things. So that we will have less change. First thing is thermal conductivity and then specific heat
of concrete. specific heat of concrete means, how much heat can be absorbed by the concrete
before it penetrates into the concrete.

And moisture content of concrete matters and then mineralogy of the aggregate matters and then
the type of cement hydration products also and of course, the structural design what it means is the
size and shape of the structural element. And what are the design features for dissipating the heat
energy also.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:33)

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Now, aggregates play a significant role on the fire resistance. Aggregates constitute maximum
volume about 75 or even 80% of this concrete could be aggregate considering both fine and coarse
aggregates. If they can absorb the heat without rapidly increasing the temperature of Concrete it is
very good for fire resistant. So, absorption of heat by the aggregate is something very important.

If they can absorb more heat, then per unit volume, that is very good. And aggregates with high
thermal conductivity are poor performers, what that means? If there is a little bit of fire or the
higher temperature and it will be easily conducted into the concrete that means, the internal
temperature of concrete will also rise very easily. So, that is not very good. Now, what is good is
with high specific heat that means, if they can absorb heat the per unit volume they perform very
well under fire and that is dependent on the mineralogy of the aggregate.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:54)

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Now, what are the good performers and bad performance in case of aggregates? Anything which
we say as with really reasonably high pore structure, high porosity then they will perform better.
When you talk about fire resistance, so for example you can say limestone, it definitely has more
pores as compared to granite stone, which is why the granite is not a good performer in case of
fire.

You can see a picture at the bottom left where granite during a fire test the picture here it shows
like flakes of granite or in a knife like edges are also visible on this that can this actually granite
stone broken into pieces. So, under fire, and now on the right side you can see a flint before fire
and this is after fire. The same aggregate pieces are broken into and 1 word here is interesting to
note it splits violently.

They break violently into smaller pieces. That means then if you use flint or granite in concrete,
they can also break like these inside the concrete. So, it is not just the cementitious part which is
breaking, but the aggregate itself also can break into pieces. So, we have to be careful in selecting,
we may not be able to change the aggregate, depending on what is available, we will have to use
those aggregates. So, what we have to do is; what are the other ways by which we can protect the
concrete structures which are vulnerable to fire damage.
(Refer Slide Time: 20:35)

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So, one way of doing that is incorporation of plastic fibers. They can help in relieving the pressure
because the Spalling happens because of the pressure buildup as we discussed earlier the moisture
clog and then it increases the pore pressure and then leads to spalling. So, here is the picture on
the left side, you can see region on the left side of the picture is the cover concrete.

So, if you go up to here about 50 mm thickness, there is no plastic fibers visible but at beginning
there was plastic fibers. So, you can see here some air like fibers visible in that region. Now, what
it means is during the fire attack from the left to the right, as the temperature increases and reached
about 160 degrees Celsius, the plastic started melting and it leaves that whatever the space
occupied by the plastic fibers.

They help in providing pathways for the water vapor to go out of the concrete, that way they
prevent the building up of the pressure inside the concrete. So, this is a good practice which people
used to do especially for tunnel linings and structures like that picture on the right-side shows this,
on the right side the there was a fiber bed, that is a place where the fiber was kept originally.

And after exposure to fire or an elevated temperature, you can see that the fiber started flowing,
that means the molten fiber molten plastic it started flowing and started occupying another space.
So, when it starts flowing into the other space available in the concrete that means, this part is now

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available free for release of pressure. So, this is how the plastic fibers can help in controlling fire
damage or minimizing fire damage.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:00)

Now, permeability of the concrete and the rate at which the temperature rise of concrete happens,
they also influence spalling. Higher concrete permeability leads to less distress, why because then
you have more pathways for the water vapor to get released from the concrete. Now, higher
strength typically high strength concrete will have more compact micro structure.

Especially when you use a silica fume, or low water cement ratio or any other SEMs witch we use
today. They might have a more compact micro structure, which can lead to explosive spalling
under high temperature, because they do not release this, when they do not provide pathways for
the water vapor to move outward. So, then eventually the pressure builds up significantly and
eventually, it leads to explosive kind of spalling.

If we are talking about fire if the structure is probably vulnerable for fire attacks, then we should
make sure that there are sufficient ways by which the heat does not get into this, there are a lot of
coatings available nowadays, which prevent the rise in the temperature inside the concrete So, that
is probably one way to go for because if you are talking about taking a lowering the permeability
or increasing the permeability of concrete, then the problem would be there will be durability
related issues.

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So maybe the better way would be to use good quality concrete, but at the same time, provide a
coating which will kind of function as an insulator, and it will prevent the temperature rise inside
the concrete even if there is a fire attack.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:13)

Now, let us say you are seeing a structure where it is already experienced a fire damage and we
need to know what was the maximum temperature which was experienced by the concrete. So,
how can we do that? By looking at the color change in the aggregates we can identify what is that
maximum temperature and this is possible because of the presence of iron wearing compound in
the cement and aggregates.

And iron undergoes different degrees of oxidation at different temperatures leading to different
colors. So, I will show you a graph on the next slide. And so, this color differences can be an
indicator for the temperature.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:04)

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The maximum peak temperature, which the concrete was exposed to as you see here. If you see a
pink color, then that we can say temperature was probably somewhere in this range that is about
300 plus and if the color changes towards red, then that is up to 600 degrees Celsius and then, if it
is grayish in color then 700 to 800 degree and if it is Buffish color than it is about 900 degrees
Celsius.

So, there are charts like this which shows or helps us to determine what was the peak temperature.
And now, once you know the peak temperature then you can say what is the probable decrease in
the modulus of elasticity, and the compressive strength of concrete. So, as I showed here the how
the stress strain behavior will be different. If you go for this increase in temperature here.

And the stress strain graph, significantly changes are stressed and behavior changes. So, all this is
required, we need to know what was the peak temperature or then you have to go and take cores
or take specimens from the concrete and then do some testing, but the point here is you may not
be able to get core because they are all now spalled and cracked.

So, getting cores also may not be a good idea. So, you have to have these tools available to be able
to relate then to the color and then residual mechanical properties could be.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:46)

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Now let us look at abrasion damage. What is abrasion it is basically wearing of surface because of
repeated rubbing, rolling, sliding or frictional or attrition processes. And repeated action of lightly
loaded rubber tires or foot traffic even in the form of dusting loss of surface texture excess and
polishing so, these are all ways by which we can define what is wearing and how it is manifested
by localized crushing, scratching or attrition and in case of heavily loaded steel wheels. So, where
do we see this? Most often it is visible on either industrial flooring where you have heavy vehicles
moving or on highways, road structures.
(Refer Slide Time: 28:36)

Where you have vehicle movement, that is where we see this abrasion most often. And let us talk
about a little bit what happens. The first step would be you have an intact mortar or a concrete with

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aggregate these round circles. You can see they are all representing aggregates. And then on the
second stage here, what you see is some part some portion at the top is lost and then you have
aggregates are partially exposed.

Now, in step 3, you have some aggregates which are completely lost and then this the surface starts
moving downward, the abraded surface, it keeps moving downward and then more and more of
such aggregates are lost and the entire, so, you can see here the progression of the abrasion in
concrete structures. So, first the fine particles are lost, then you have small aggregate particles gets
exposed, and then more and more aggregates gets exposed and eventually has significant loss.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:53)

Now, this is a picture on the right side very clearly shows this. You can see that aggregate particles
are likely visible and this can also lead to pot holes.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:08)

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Now, after this is a picture showing where a significant amount of aggregates has been removed,
you can see here in this portion, it is only the cement paste is removed, but here you can see
significant amount of aggregates are also removed. So, this is the initial stage and this is the final
stage or later stage.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:31)

Now, what are the major factors affecting the abrasion resistance of concrete? So, compressive
strength, water cement ratio and hardness are the 3 major factors which affects the abrasion
resistance. You can see here on the picture on the left side, the percentage loss by volume it going
here and as the compressive strength of the concrete is less you have more and more percent loss.

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Now, on 2 graphs on the right side this is abrasion erosion loss, again all these studies are done
based on the amount of material loss.

So, here you can see water cement ratio changing from 0.4 to about 0.72. So, as the water cement
ratio is lower, less amount of material is lost. And here you can see for the same water cement
ratio if you draw any line over here, you can see how different aggregates perform with limestone
showing maximum damage and quartzite, trap rock and chert showing less damage. So, definitely
water cement ratio plays a role and the aggregate and its hardness plays a role and also the
compressive strength of the entire concrete also plays a role.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:58)

Now, how to introduce good abrasion resistance? Use high compression strength concrete use
lower water cement ratio, use harder aggregates and well graded sand and instead of fine sand, and
then larger aggregates than smaller aggregate and make sure that the concrete is very well cured
especially that will ensure that the top layer of the concrete is hard enough because when you talk
about abrasion it is mainly the top layer which matters.

So, you have to ensure that the top layer is of very good quality and avoid laitance you can see
here what is laitance, it is a weak layer of concrete on the surface due to excessive bleeding of
fresh concrete you can see so, these kinds of things indicates that the near surface will have very
porous structure. So, that will lead to significant abrasion damage.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:54)

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Now, erosion and cavitation especially these are happening in hydraulic structure because you are
talking about water body there. So, these are the typical structures where this will happen. Open
channel, closed conduits spillways, gutters, Aprons, stilling basins, sluice waves, all these are part
of hydraulic structures, you can see here significant damage on this. So, these are type of structures,
where there is a flow of water along with debris etcetera you can expect a significant erosion and
cavitation.
(Refer Slide Time: 33:28)

Now, how this erosion happens? There are 3 actions in this one is abrasive action, the second one
is cavitation and then there is also a chemical action. Abrasive action is because of the presence of
debris in the water which is flowing and the cavitation is because of the intense local stresses which

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are formed due to the air cavity formation and collapsing of those air cavities. And we will discuss
that detail later. Then chemical action is basically dissolution of the hardened cement concrete
which can happen so, all these in combination gives this erosion damage.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:11)

So, what is the abrasive action? You see on the picture here, there are huge rock boulders which
are percent on the, this is a bottom portion of a spillway, you can see large boulders, they actually
abrade on the concrete surface and lead to damage as is shown in the picture on the right side here.
You can see a large particle hitting the concrete it locally damages the concrete and when multiple
actions come and then eventually the entire concrete surface get eroded or the abraded and get
damaged..
(Refer Slide Time: 34:46)

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This is a cavitation plus abrasive action because all this water you might also have either debris or
sand particles. So, particulate matter will be present in the concrete and if that is the case you can
have abrasion. Now, let us see what is cavitation? mainly this happens When there is a change in
the shape or, if there is an irregularity in the concrete surface.

So, because of these irregularities, so, for example, here as you see on the picture on the top right,
you can see there is a small region which is a air void formation or vapor forms in low pressure
which leads to formation of the air bubbles. And then eventually, some of the air bubbles will
coalesce and then become a large air bubble. And then what happens eventually is that they start
imploding like you see here in the 3 and 4.

This air bubble because of the water pressure, it collapses into 2 smaller air bubble and then there
is a jet of water which is hitting the concrete surface as is seen on the Case 4 here you can see here,
there is a jet of water which is hitting locally and that kind of action leads to significant damage to
the concrete or cavitation damage.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:22)

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So, again the same thing what I just discussed them putting it in text. Cavities will form in running
water, whenever the pressure in the water drops below the vapor pressure. And when these bubbles
collapse under high pressure they do so with great impact. And as the bubble collapse the space
gets occupied by high velocity water extremely high pressure is generated in a small area for a
fraction of a second or momentarily and then cavitation damage is more pronounced when large
number of various small bubbles coalesce is to form large bubble which then collapse as shown in
this sketch over here.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:09)

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Now, these are some examples showing how big this cavitation damage could be, you can see
some people standing here and the size of the damage and this is also a large significant damage,
here also you can see significant damage on a spillway.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:26)

And this is a very huge such damage experienced in this Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona in 1980s.
And that significant damage you can see people standing here and the size of this damage is so
huge.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:46)

Now, this is another example, this happened in 2017. And there was a spill way you can see the
dam structure here and there is a spillway here which was failed, and you can see.

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(Refer Slide Time: 38:03)

How the damage started, initially there was very small damage here and then it eventually led to
significant damage. The bottom portion of the entire spillway was completely lost.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:16)

And this is repair of that structure. You can see the entire spillway was removed and then now
rebuilt. Now it is looking good, but a lot of money spent. So, you can see here the damage started
from here and then led to huge damage the entire spillway was lost.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:41)

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Now, some sketches showing the details on how this cavitation can happen. You can see here,
there is some erosion at the bottom portion here and then cavitation. This is happening because of
this irregularity on the surface over there and then natural roughness of the surface can also lead
to cavitation. And here you can see a change in the surface profile that also lead to cavitation.

So, any uneven surface or irregularities on the concrete surface which will lead to cavitation. Even
if it is very small, because of the high velocity of the water, it can lead to colossal damage. So, it
is something very important especially for hydraulic structures to be taken care. These sketches on
the right side also shows offset into the flow. So, flow is from here, you have a projection of the
structure here that leads to flow of water like this.

And which leads to formation of cavities like this and which eventually lead to damage in the
downside here. So, like that here, you have flow and the structure is like this. And there is a sudden
moment of downward creating cavity here and which leed to damage here below. So, likewise in
all these pictures you can see surface irregularities lead to significant damage on the concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:09)

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How do we protect concrete structure against cavitation? High strength concretes containing
smaller aggregates and then smooth concrete surface with minimal irregularity this is the most
important thing I believe, because that will prevent the formation of cavities and good aggregate
paste bond, the aggregate should not get dislodged from the concrete and hardness is not as
important for cavitation resistance unless erosion or abrasion resistance.

Now, sudden increase in velocity of water should be minimized but that will happen because of
this shape or irregularities on the concrete surface. So, if we take care of this concrete, ensure that
the concrete surface is very smooth and there are minimal irregularities, probably the risk for
cavitation is less, or the probability of cavitation to occur is less. The purposeful aeration this is
something new technique which have been really you know, adopted in many structures nowadays,
I can show you some pictures.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:21)

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So, this is how it is you can see here, you are basically pumping air into the water body so, that
there are more air bubbles and also introducing steps like this so, it is the see on the right side
picture here there are steps on the spillways, which helps in dissipating the energy and so, that the
pressure which is acting on to the concrete is relatively less and it avoids the damage due to
cavitation.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:50)

So, major difference between erosion and cavitation is, in cavitation surface highly irregular and
pitted whereas in case of eroded surface, it is more or less uniform or more uniform than the
cavitation damaged concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 42:08)

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This just showing another repair, you can see here, again, they are making sure that the surface is
very smooth, because that is the one which is very important to ensure there is no cavitation
damage, very smooth transitions no irregularities should be there.
(Refer Slide Time: 42:27)

To summarize, now, first we talked about fire damage. And moisture movement, we discussed
about how moisture moment happens in concrete during elevated temperature. And then we talked
about moisture clog, which leads to building up of pressure inside the concrete which eventually
leads to spalling at high temperature conditions, or especially when there is fire, mechanical and
thermal properties of concrete can get affected because of fire attack and concretes and aggregates

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with high porosity perform better in case of fire because they provide pathways for the moisture
to get released from the concrete.

And strength of concrete influences abrasion, erosion and cavitation resistance and shape of the
structure and minimal irregularity. These are the 2 things which we have to really worry about to
prevent erosion and cavitation in hydraulic structures. I think with that we will stop today.
(Refer Slide Time: 43:37)

These are the references used for making this lecture. Thank you.

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 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras-Chennai

Lecture 10
Condition Assessment of Concrete Structures (1/3)
(Exposure conditions, visual inspection, on-site concrete testing)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:23)

Hi, today we are going to start this module on condition assessment of concrete structures. There
will be 3 lectures in this and this is the outline of the module. We will cover service and exposure
conditions, visual inspection and testing of concrete at site, which will be in today's lecture and the
next 2 lectures we will cover testing of concrete in laboratory and testing of rebars and its corrosion
in concrete structures.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:45)

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Now, service and exposure conditions, you can see this picture on the right side, where I am
showing one concrete element and which is exposed to water on both sides you can see, but you
can also notice that some portion of this structure is not exposed to water. For example, this is not
directly in contact with the water body, this portion is not in direct contact with water body you
have soil, see on this on the left side you have soil and on the right side you have water.

So, here you can see water table so, that means, moist or you know a wet the soil is probably
saturated in some time and during the summer season it’s water level can go down and that it
means basically the X the surface of the concrete is might experience a wetting and drying action
which will lead to something called Wick action. And at the same time when the water table is
very high, it might experience permeation because of the pressure head and on the right side you
see a tidal zone here which the tidal means that water level can increase and decrease.

So, it can go up and then go down sometimes. So, depending on the condition, whether it is in wet
condition or a dry condition, this region can also experience wicking action. I will also like to
mention that let us say a way bottom over here, if the exposure condition is really wet, you can
also have diffusion because once the water or the chloride solution gets into the concrete and then
it gets deposited at the near surface of the concrete.

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It happens here also. So, once the chloride get deposited on the near surface, then that chloride can
diffuse into the concrete surface. So, you are looking at wicking action, diffusion, permeation all
these mechanisms can happen on the same structure, but at different locations depending on the
type of exposure condition, for which the structure is exposed to.

So, point is, it is not that if you have one concrete structure every element or every portion of that
concrete structure is not going to be experiencing same deterioration or same level or same rate of
ingress of chlorides but it depends on what is the surface conditions. If it is experiencing wetting
and drying, its Wick action if it is experiencing continuous immersion on it is a different
mechanism.

You can have permeation because of the pressure head, and once the chloride gets into the concrete
then there is also a diffusion action. So, all these have to be considered while evaluating exposure
conditions.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:13)

And when you look at temperature you can say like there are various durations depending on the
geographical locations, you can have long summer days or sorry long summer period or a long
winter. So, this duration of this summer and winter or rainy season, they all really matter in when
you talk about temperature, I am going not really including the rainy season we are all only looking
at the temperature condition.

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So, summer or winter and then what is the frequency? that means the if you are talking about freeze
thaw cycles for example, how many freeze thaw cycles you will have and what is the maximum
temperature and the minimum temperature the structure is exposed to and duration of that exposure
including solar exposure and basically a hot summer season. So, all these have to be looked at or
thought through when we evaluate the exposure conditions, which particular structure is
experiencing.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:24)

And we also have to look at moisture conditions for example, if as we see in the picture on the top
right it is a concrete column which is actually standing in seawater it is a jetty structure. And you
can see it is immersed in seawater and also you can have rain, but difference is when you are
talking about seawater you might have splash zone so, wetting and drying etc can happen and the
same structure which is exposed to rain, after the rainy season is over you might have summer, so
you do not have much of humidity.

So, how do we know what is the humidity which the steel inside the concrete is experiencing. So,
that is very important to know because corrosion phenomenon depends heavily on the moisture
conditions, especially in the cover zone or in particular at the steel concrete interface. So, there are
some humidity sensors also available in the market today. So, you can use all that to get an idea

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about how much is the humidity level at the steel concrete interface, because most of the corrosion
mechanism, moisture condition is very, very important.

And how long I mean, then if you look at the chemical attack or exposure conditions for example,
if you are talking about Chemical Plant where if it is made out of reinforced concrete structure
reinforced concrete elements. So let us say you are talking about the plant which is making
hydrochloric acid, so, the entire local environment will be rich in HCL or chloride is abundantly
available, or depending on type, if you are talking about sulfuric acid then maybe you will have to
think about sulfate exposure or sulfate attack.

So, this again the local environmental condition, and what chemicals are present, what temperature
and what moisture conditions are there and what chemical conditions are there, all these have to
be really assessed before we go for further details on the condition assessment. So, these are all
background information, which are necessary.
(Refer Slide Time: 07:51)

Now, when you talk about service condition, which is essentially the structural loading conditions,
you can have moving loads or static loads, dead and live loads and then you can have impact load,
vibration, depending on structure, if you are talking about a bridge structure, you can have
vibration and there are also examples of impact where the flyovers gets impacted by, as you see

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on the picture on the bottom right, you can see it is actually a bridge in Florida, which was impacted
the column was hit by a ship.

So, such impact load even though very rare, you can actually have them and especially on bridge
structures, and then looking at the size and magnitude if we are talking about overloading, how
much over loading and was that overloading very frequent or it was just occasional. Such
information on history of loading also is very important to get you can look at this bridge element,
I mean, preliminary investigations were saying that this is because of overloading but I still do not
have more details on this recent incident, this particular bridge failure.

So, and also frequency and duration of such loading. That is what I mean by how frequent and
how much occasion, I mean is it very rare incident or very frequent overloading all these
information on such things have to be collected before we go for further detailed inspections.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:41)

Now, when you talk about condition assessment, globally, you can say these are the steps which
we have to follow, the first thing to do is have a visual inspection, mainly walkthrough or you to
really feel the structure, what is the type of damage, because if you are depending on the
information given by others, sometimes knowingly or unknowingly, you might not get full
information. So, it is always better to ask for visual inspection.

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And you must visually inspect the structure before going for detail or before making opinions on
details. Otherwise, you must say that these opinions which I am giving is actually without having
a visual inspection. So, the reader of your report can also make judgments on that.

Now, reviewing of engineering data, sometimes you have to collect all the construction drawings,
but in most cases, you may not have these drawings that is also important to note. So, if you do
not have, then you try to prepare, or get whatever documents are available and then make meaning
out of them. And then you have to have operation and maintenance records, and then concrete and
what type of materials were used, or test data during construction. But again, let me tell that most
cases, because when you are talking about repair, you are talking about old structures. And at that
time maybe people might not have saved all the data.

So, you may sometimes you have to work with what you have, so it’s also reality is probably
different from the ideal cases I am explaining here what all you should have. But if you do not
have then you have to make your own engineering judgments. Then previous inspection reports if
available and talking to different site person, this is very important because when you go to a site
if you can actually talk to the people there, you might get much more information than what is
actually available on the reports etc.

So, which could really give you an insight into the problem and history of loading and repair etc.
I already told these are also very, very important. Even if some excessing loading happened just
once, that might have induced some cracks or some deformation etc. which are very important to
know. Now condition survey, you have to actually go to the structure and then survey the structure.
You can make maps on various properties along the structural element.

One example I can tell is, let’s say if you are talking about delamination for example, you can
actually map the entire surface of the concrete and on concrete surface and then say this region has
more delamination than this region, these all will help in avoiding unnecessary repairs and at the
same time ensuring that repair is done at right place and in the right way. And then based on all
these we can give final evaluation and recommendations on to go for whether a partial repair or a
full repair or it is better to actually replace the structure, demolish and then replace or reconstruct.

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(Refer Slide Time: 13:38)

Now, in more detail on visual inspection, first what all things we have to really look for when you
go for visual inspection. First thing is even if possible before itself you have to get the where you
are and this information should be also recorded. And there is a nice ACI guideline available on
how to conduct with visual inspection in concrete structures, ACI 201.1R-08. You can look for
guide for conducting a visual inspection.

Now, description of structure and then type and size of the structure. Who is the owner, who is the
engineer, who is the contractor, sometimes you might also say that there are multiple contractors
are involved because maybe the first contracted contractor started the work and something
happened they walked out and then a new contractor came in so, all these information is also very,
very important when we talk about what all information have to be collected.

And then photos and identification of specific regions in the structure which is experiencing
distress and also the main information on what type of material is used? steel, even the type of
steel, is the steel already corroded? What is the residual strength possible or how much steel has
been corroded I know it is very difficult to estimate a cross section loss, but getting some
photographs etc. would help in making engineering judgments later on.

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And then concrete and aggregate type what type of aggregate is used, what type of admixtures
were used, mixture proportion, compressive strength and other properties. So, whatever the
materials are used, we also need to know more details about the materials used, and environmental
and structural loading and what are the indicators of the distress. So, all these have to be
documented. It is not just talking to people and then gaining information.

But at the same time, we have to document it maybe for your own future assessment or for
somebody else. If they are coming on board, they can you can pass on the information much easier.
So, ordered collection of information is also very, very important. So, I would say before going
for visual inspection, you need to know what you want to inspect for that is very, important to
know. Some idea on what to inspect for must be there before you go for inspection.

Now, distress cracking, staining, surface deposits, leaking, alignment of structure, all these things,
you should have an idea on. These are the things I should look for, which are indicators of
something which is happening inside the concrete or inside the structure. So, it is very important
to have a good understanding of the material deterioration mechanisms, which we had detailed
modules on that on both steel and concrete. So, once you know the deterioration mechanisms or
the corrosion mechanisms, then you can actually have an idea on what to look for when you go for
visual inspection.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:16)

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And also, what is a present condition like this particular guideline which I was talking ACI 201.1R-
08 provides representative images of different type of damage or deterioration which concrete
structures can experience. As you can see here in these pictures, you can see a lot of this deep
cracking which we discussed in freeze thaw. And this a significant cracking here you can see an
ASR type cracking map cracking pattern.

And here you can see a shear failure and diagonal cracks. So, this document is a very good source
for looking for getting an idea on what to look for when we go for visual inspection on various
types of structures. Now, also I talked about previous repair if something was done earlier what
was done, whether it was just patch repair or something else was also done, did whether a surface
coating was provided or sealers.

So, what type of repair work was done already and then how many times they were doing; they
did all those repair work. So, again, you have to collect a history of repair works also history of
construction, history of loading, history of exposure conditions and history of what repair has been
already done on the concrete structures all these are very important.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:05)

Now, visual and exploratory in what are the effects, which we have to look at cracking and crazing.
And this is a picture how the different cracking is, maybe you will have a deep crack. If you are
talking about crazing, it is very fine crack that is what the major difference between cracking and

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crazing. Crazing means fine cracks and network of fine cracks, as you see in the picture here, and
then surface distress. You can look for spalling you can look for disintegration of the concrete
cover.

And then you can look for probably honeycomb and scaling all these examples I am showing on
the picture here and again water leakage. If you are talking about dampness you can see on this
wall inside the house and then here it is an exterior element where pipeline coming from the
restrooms or bathrooms, and the nearby regions are somehow getting the moisture from these
pipes. So, that is also not a good thing.

So, these all are indicators or manifestations of something which is happening inside the concrete.
Because if you have moisture, then you can say some other problems will occur if you have crack
then you can say something wrong happened even structurally sometimes in this structure, and if
you are saying honeycomb, then you can say of course, that has to be filled up with something so,
this will help in taking actions.
(Refer Slide Time: 20:46)

So, some more effects or demonstrations or manifestation of something happening inside the
concrete. So, if you are talking structural, you can say there could be deflections, heaving or
settlement. You can see in this nice picture (picture on the top right corner), nice picture but the
building is not good. You can see here the inclined cracks on the building, which is definitely an

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indicator that this right end of this building is actually settling down or this particular slab over
there is not able to take that cantilever load which is acting on it.

And then metal corrosion rust staining as here you can see that the brown stains which is a very
good indicator for detecting corrosion or to confirm that corrosion is happening inside. But I must
say one thing here, when we are talking about prestress concrete structure, we will have a separate
lecture on that we already covered, basically saying that the idea of looking at rust stain as an
indicator for corrosion is not really good for pretension concrete structures. Because by the time
the rust stains from the strand due to the strand corrosion reaches the concrete surface it will be
too late because, as we discussed already the 7 wires which are there in a strand, you have a space
in between in between the 7 wires, that space gets filled up first and then only it will exert pressure
on to the surrounding concrete.

So, the rust straining is not a good indicator for prestress concrete structures. For other
conventional concrete structures, we can say that is a good indicator but not for the prestress
concrete structures. Because by the time rust shows up on the concrete surface it will be too late.
So, this I would say for the strands, we should not look for we have to go for other techniques to
detect corrosion or we should not even allow corrosion to happen in pretension concrete structures.

Now, other miscellaneous, blistering if you are talking about coatings, then you if you have these
blisters like this, then effectively these coatings are of no use. And then disintegration you can see
here severe damage and this is like point of no return where even the entire rebar is completely
exposed we can actually see what type of rebar is used, what is the spacing, all the detailing can
be understood without any non-destructive equipment. But that is not something which we want
to reach so, all these a visual inspection everything we should think about doing it early enough so
that we do not reach this point of severe corrosion.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:10)

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Now, this just summarizing, or listing all the different type of effects and causes for those, so if
you are talking about defect, we are looking at mainly what are the design problems or material,
not meeting adequate requirements and then sometimes also construction, poor construction
practices all this can lead to defects in concrete structures when you talk about damage.

It is mainly something which happens immediately, like overloading of a structure or a chemical

spill. Let us say you have a tanker which is going on bridge, and then spills all the chemicals. There
are cases like that, very rarely, but it can happen. An earthquake fire these are all immediate effects.
When you talk about deterioration, it is mainly a long-term process, which is corrosion of steel
freeze thaw it again takes time, erosion, it takes time, then alkali aggregate reaction or ASR it also
takes time, sulfate attack these are all long-term deterioration mechanisms.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:22)

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Now, should we repair or protect? This is a big question because money is involved in this and so,
how do we decide? you are to first look at public safety and then safety of the structure itself and
then leakage whether there is significant leakage or if there is a small leakage which is leading to
a large problem, then we can just arrest the leakage and that will take care of the or that will prevent
further damage to the structure then effects on environment.

And then functionality and aesthetics all these you have to ask questions and then you have to see
what is important for you and then accordingly you have to decide whether we need to protect the
structure, or repair the structure or it is better to demolish and reconstruct another structure. Of
course, money is also an important factor. So, this is just a flowchart, looking at this so these
questions which are put on the left side, you can say, these are the causes and then look at what is
the effect.

See you have to define the scope of the work is very important because that sets the boundary to
work. Like if you are talking about a large bridge structure, you have to say, I am going to take
this portion alone, and then look at it. Sometimes you have to go for a pilot work and then see
whether that repair work, which you are suggesting is actually good for the entire structure and
then go for a larger portion of the structure. So, it is all that time consuming processes but judicious
judgment have to be made.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:05)

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This is a list of various test methods available for evaluation or condition assessment of reinforced
concrete system plain and systems with steel in it, you can just go through this list later and this is
also some more list on such various test methods available.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:28)

Now, what are the different types of tests which we can do on site. I mean go to the site and do the
tests right then and there. So, in case of visual and exploratory investigation, visual means you just
look through walkthrough inspection and the exploratory means you take sometimes, some small
specimens from the field.

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Or you remove some concrete so that you can see what is inside, things like that. But it does not
really involve laboratory tests I am talking. Basically, in this particular lecture, we are going to
look at things which we can do at site.

Now, locating delaminated concrete, so, that is 1 major task and locating voids, cracks,
honeycombs, etc. and remote viewing. Remote viewing means, if you have a structure where you
want to see what is happening inside the structure like a tendon if you have on a bridge element,
what is you know what happens inside tendon. So, you can put some camera which can go through
like endoscopic technology, and then you can see what is happening inside. Then locating
embedded reinforcing steel, where is the reinforcing steel is what is probably the diameter of the
steel, what is the spacing of the steel. So, that is also sometimes very important. In-situ compressive
strength; not the test results which you get from testing cubes, but what is actually the type of the
strength of the concrete which is used on the concrete structure.

And then resistivity of the concrete and the moisture and air permeability of the concrete and then
corrosion activity. So, these are all different type of tests, which we can do at site.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:31)

Now, physical condition. If you are talking about delamination and voids, if you want to detect
that, these are different things. Hammer sounding because by looking at the type of sound, if it is
a metallic sound which is coming, then you can say there is no delamination if it is a hollow sound

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by hearing you can whether there is any delamination or not. But again, this depends on the person
who is listening. That is also something important to consider. Chain drag is an old technique. You
can see in this picture here, there is 4 chains there so they are actually dragging it by hearing the
sound, they will decide whether the region is delaminated or not.

Impact echo. It is more sophisticated instrument. But for special cases that could be useful. And
then UPV or ultrasonic pulse velocity which kind of tells you whether the concrete is integral or
not. And then or if there is a crack inside the concrete, I will cover that in detail later.

And exploratory removal, you remove the concrete just to see what is inside. And remote viewing,
which is mainly by inserting a camera or something into a small hole and then see what is inside.
Not a full-scale damage, but just a small hole to see what is inside the concrete element. And
infrared thermography that is something which is very useful to see where the moisture is and
basically idea is here to look at the temperature profile on the structure.

And then based on that you make judgments and uniformity in an ultra-sonic pulse velocity can
also be used for essentially to look at the integrity of the structure. So, for what it means is if you
have air voids or something inside or if you have a honeycomb that test can tell you that the
concrete is not really same everywhere, because if you look do the same test at different locations,
based on the test results which you get you can say whether the uniformity of the concrete how
good it is across the surface.

And core testing if you do large number of cores from various locations on the concrete structure
then you can actually see what is a scatter in the test results and then that will indicate the quality
of the material, quality in terms of uniformity also or consistency across the structure.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:12)

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Now, let us go through one by one, I am not covering all the tests, which we said but some of the
tests we can cover.

Locating the delaminated concrete, how do we locate? So, this is an instrumented hammer, which
can be hammered onto the concrete surface, as you see here, this person is hammering it on to the
concrete surface. And you can determine whether there is the delamination or not by looking at
the force the hammer pushing on to the concrete. How much is the force and the hammer being
pushed out so when you hit it how is the reflection from the concrete surface. Or by looking at
mainly on the force calculation that instrumented hammer it will calculate the force acting and
then if the graph which you see over here on the bottom left, if it is a skewed graph, then you can
say it is kind of there is the sign of delamination.

And so, based on this force which we measure, we can actually develop a contour plot as you see
on the bottom right. So, you can see all these red regions are be laminated and the yellow regions
are about to get or there is a doubt whether it is delaminated or not and the green regions you can
say it is clear or intact surfaces and then the next step could be to go and do a detailed inspection
on the delaminated region or you can remove the delaminated region alone, instead of removing
the entire concrete stuff surface so, that is the idea here.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:04)

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And then this is the old technology the chain dragging. Once you drag the chain you can see there
are grids marked first here, all these white spots are grids. And then after that, you drag the chain
and then mark the region with which indicates delamination. And then you can again create a
contour map like this, which is shown on the right side and then decide what to do next.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:34)

Another way of locating the laminated concrete let’s say you are talking about a structural element,
where you cannot really reach or it is too far away like the picture on the top right, you can see
that it is very difficult to reach to the top of that bridge. So, if you can have a camera which will
take image of the concrete surface with standing in a remote place.

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You can take these images of various concrete surfaces. And then look at the image, the image
itself is very clear here you can see some region is red, some yellow, some green. So, that will kind
of tell you which region is delaminated and which is not delaminated. It is working on the principle
that if there is a delamination then you have an air layer between the surface concrete and the
substrate. So, this air layer is essentially a poor conductor of heat.

So, that will give you a different curve than the region with intact concrete. So, you can see in the
graph here the blue curve indicates the good quality concrete or sound region and where the
delaminated region is indicated by the red curve and then you compare this for different locations
and then see how different it is and that will kind of give you an idea of which region on the surface
is delaminated and which is not delaminated.

And very useful for large structures like bridges where otherwise you will have to have a lot of
manpower and the time required will also be very long. Bottom you can see a infrared camera
fitted on a car or a pickup truck, then you can actually ride on entire road surface, it can be mapped
and you can do this in the morning in the noon, evening, night and then collect the data and then
have an analysis and then see which region is actually delaminated.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:46)

Now, this is a contour map which can be used later. So, you can see here, these circle regions are
all indicating some kind of suspicion on whether there is the delamination or not. And so, these

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images can be created and which is very useful especially when you talk about very large surfaces
for inspection.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:13)

Now, if you are talking about large structures, you can see here on this bridge, you can see here
the laminates are applied this here and you these this IR images or infrared images. And that will
tell you which location as you see on the pictures on the right side for this portion is that this is the
image and for this corner, this is the image and definitely in this corner here, there is some problem
in this corner here, it kind of tells you that the gluing is not really well done.

So, this can be brought into the contract documents itself that you will do this test after the work
is over. And so, if there is some percentage area if it is delaminated, you can give penalty and if it
is all well done, you give bonus. So, definitely the quality of work will be much better.

In such case always you have to incorporate, some kind of post installation inspection that is very,
very important and then only we can really improve the quality of the repair work.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:39)

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Now, again, looking at other techniques, there are GPR systems, ground penetrating radar systems,
which comes in different frequencies. So, when you talk about this kind of tools, It is very
important to look at, whether that particular structure or the thickness or the cover concrete of the
particular structure, whether the particular instrument is able to measure take good measurements
on the particular structure looking at the thickness of the structure so that is very important.

So, it is not that all GPR system will work for all concrete structures. So, you have to really look
at the thickness and then have a judgment on ask this question very specifically when somebody
says GPR based measurements. All these non-destructive type measurements you should ask this
question very specifically to the instrument manufacturer that whether this will give you a good
high-resolution image on this particular type of structures given the exposure conditions, etc. That
is very important question before just buying an equipment.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:47)

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Now here also another contour map showing different regions made with the GPR. You can see
that areas of a bridge deck, you can see very clearly only some regions have problem. So, when
you talk about replacement of the cover concrete and relaying new concrete, you do not really have
to do it on the entire bridge, that that will save a lot of money. So, you these are very good tools,
when you talk about large structures, very good tools to help reduce the amount of repair work and
that amount of money spent also.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:29)

Now, if you are talking about crack or some kind of integrity related issues in concrete, ultrasonic
pulse velocity test is a very good one. As you see on the picture here on the right side, you can see
there is a transmitter and a receiver. So the wave is going through the concrete and then you look

342
at basically how long it takes to pass through the concrete if there is a honeycomb or a void
something inside the concrete, it is going to take long.

Because the paths of the concrete as you see here, the path of that concrete is not straight line
anymore. And if you have a crack again as you see here, there is a deviation in the path of the
waves and if it is right at the crack, if the wave hits, it reflects back and it does not even reach the
receiver. So, all this kind of gives an indication on the integrity of the or the general quality of the
concrete structure or concrete element and what are the factors which influence the quality of the
measurements.

So, coating contact surface is very, very important. You have to prepare the surface very well and
the transmitter and the receiver should be in good contact with the surface. So, usually we provide
a gel, that is what you see on the photograph on the top right, you can see this these markings,
which are nothing but the gel, they are not holes drilled or anything they are just that gel, silicone
gel, which is provided to ensure continuous wave propagation.

And then length of the path, the longer the length it takes more time for the way to reach from
transmitter to the receiver, and temperature and moisture content that will change the rate at which
the wave propagates through the concrete and then presence of reinforcing steel that will also affect
because if it is going through the steel, there is an interface between the steel and the concrete and
if the interface has some air then there could be reflection and so that will also influence the type
of readings which you get.
(Refer Slide Time: 42:53)

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Now, how do we assess this? So before assessing, this pulse velocity is function of elastic constants
of the material through which it passes, and then how do we assess if we say that those pulse
velocity or the velocity by which the wave is passing through if it is greater than 4.5 generally we
can say it is very good or excellent and as the speed of the wave reduces, then you kind of tend to
say that the concrete is of not that good quality.

So, 3.5 to 4.5 we can say it is good, 3 to 3.5 medium and less than 3 it is doubtful there are some
serious problems with the structure that could be cracked that could be honeycomb or some
external materials also I have seen even cases where bricks are there inside a concrete. So, you
know, depending on the quality of construction and the inspection which was carried out.

So, all these you have to think or there could be some, if you are talking about elements which are
very large these are very useful information to give you an also to sensitize people at site that you
will do all this. So, they have to make sure that the quality is very good. This should be told to the
people who are actually doing the work so that they know that if there is some problem, if there
will be honeycomb then they will be questioned later.

So, this kind of watchdog approach would really help and we have to be upfront we have to tell
the contractors that we will actually have these kinds of inspections. Even for repair work we will
have these kinds of inspections later on. So, if you have a good job will give you bonus or if you

344
do a bad job, then there will be penalties. So, those kinds of statements can be brought into the
contract documents. Once you put statements like that, then definitely it is going to really sensitize
the workers, engineers and they will do a much better job.
(Refer Slide Time: 45:25)

It becomes important to investigate whether a crack is a dead crack or a live crack. Because that
will change the way you repair the structure also. And so, one example here is first thing is we will
have to measure the crack width, so this is a crack card which is available to it is just like a credit
card, which has already different markings with different crack of different width so, all these
black lines which you see has different thicknesses.

And then you place this card on the crack and then you can actually measure what is the crack
width. And this is a crack scale. And then you can also measure depending on the size if you can
also use a Vernier caliper to measure the crack. And also, there are tools available where you can
look at both the movement see this way, if you install this on the structure, so, this is glued here
and then glued here so, as the crack moves, then there will be movement inside. There are some
systems which come with a gauge is fixed on one side, the other side it is free to move and also
there are gauges which are available where you can look at both the movement in both directions
like perpendicular directions, let us say x and y. So, a movement in this direction and at the same
time movement in this direction which will also give you significant information on what type of
damage mechanism or what type of movements are happening in the structure.

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(Refer Slide Time: 46:58)

Now, we mentioned a little bit about remote viewing, these are some equipment’s available where
an articulated camera can be used to see what is happening. I will show the examples images on
the next side slide. So, basically these cameras you can look at what is in front of the camera what
is on the side of the camera and at any angle. So, very useful tools especially for inspection of very
important structure.
(Refer Slide Time: 47:34)

So, first 3 images are images taken on pipes or tendons where there were voids inside the tendons
and you can see that very clearly. You drill a small hole and put this endoscopic camera into the
hole and then look at what is the condition inside and if you see voids maybe it is not good always

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or whatever is inside you can actually see this picture shows here on the left bottom left that this
kind of things can also be used for inspecting.

If you know what is happening inside the wall because sometimes you have the walls with panels,
where there is a space in between the inside and the façade elements. So, you can drill the hole and
see, what is the condition inside.
(Refer Slide Time: 48:33)

Now rebound hammer, widely used equipment which can be used for testing in getting an
assessment of the compressive strength. But I must tell that this is very sensitive to the surface
because it essentially depends on the quality of the near surface, based on the quality of the near
surface you get a particular reading and then you correlate that reading to the compresses strength.

So, if you have a dust particle on the surface, it will give you very low strength even for a very
good quality concrete. So, you have to make sure that the surface is very well cleaned and your
tool is kept perpendicular to the surface. If you tilt it is probably going to give you a very different
result. So, all these have to be taken care. Make sure that the surface is very clean and smooth and
clean while you test this, and also at the same time, the correlations are rightly used.

So, you should not blindly use these numbers that is one thing which I would like to tell you how
to really also see where that give, make sure that you have photographs at the time of testing. So,

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that will probably give you a hint where the quality of testing. Because it is sometimes you might
get numbers which are not really good, but the concrete is actually good, but because of the poor
testing procedures, you do not want to say that concrete is of bad quality.
(Refer Slide Time: 50:12)

Now, extraction of core, for preliminary investigation. Make sure you use a good coring bit,
because if the coring bit is not good, if it is worn out, it will really induce a lot of vibration and
then that might also induce cracks in the concrete core which you are collecting. That is also not
good idea so good use good tools. That is very, important. Sometimes we tend to keep on using
the same tool.

Even if it is worn out, we still tend to use the same tool, but what really happens is you waste a lot
of time. When you get the specimen, it is of bad quality because of some cracks which we induce
just because of the poor-quality tool. So, having good tools is very, essential, if you want to do a
good inspection or good condition assessment. Now, if there are cracks in the core, there if you
have this kind of crack or if you have this kind of horizontal crack or if you have this kind of
vertical crack.

You have to really think how these cracks will actually influence the test result which you are
going to get if this is the in the first case here, there will be influence, because as you compress the
core, this crack might open up in the second case number 2 here, this, this is first case, in which

348
you have an incline crack. In the second case, you have a horizontal crack or a perpendicular to
the direction of application of the force or in a compression load during the testing that will close
the crack.

So, it will not really affect that test result. In this case, when you apply something like this, this
crack is going to open up this crack is going to open up and that will really influence the test
results. So, you have to really look at all these before taking a testing the cores you have to see if
there is any cracks on the core specimens also another most important very important thing is you
have to avoid cutting the steel rebars concrete the coring is done to actually assess this condition
of the structure.

And you should not do something which will actually damage the structure cutting the rebar is
essentially damaging the structure. But yes I understand in some cases the rebars are so congested
that you may not be able to avoid cutting this rebar but again that must be done with thinking
whether you really want to do that do cutting or you want to go for other non-destructive techniques
in such cases.
(Refer Slide Time: 52:52)

Now, if you have happened to have a concrete core which already has a rebar here as you see here,
in this picture, you can see there is a rebar and now very clearly when we tested this specimen,
you can see that the crack initiates right here, where the rips of the bar is you can see here there is

349
a crack initiation and here also that the both these cracks are initiating right at the rebar, which
might tell you wrong lower strength than the actual strength of the concrete.

So, there are some correction factors available, which can be adopted before we conclude on the
test results. And also, when you have rebars it is important to avoid this cutting of the rebars.
(Refer Slide Time: 53:43)

There are instruments available which can detect the location of the rebar and even there are
instruments which can tell you what is the approximate diameter of the rebar. So, these kinds of
instruments which some of them are based on eddy current principle and some of them are based
on ground penetrating radar systems. So, you can use these types of tools to see where the rebar is
and make sure that you are not coring at that location you are coring or taking the core from a
location away from the rebar.

So, if you have a grid like this, if you have a rebar grid like this make sure that you are coring
something like this, these are the locations where you can core and not something like this is not a
good idea okay. So, you should not cut the rebar while trying to inspect the concrete structures.
(Refer Slide Time: 54:39)

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To summarize, we looked at different exposure conditions and different load conditions also,
especially overloading whether it is frequent overloading or occasional overloading, and different
type of exposure condition looking at temperature moisture, chemical attack etc. and then what are
the steps for evaluation or condition assessment, generic steps which we can adopt visual
inspection then getting the available documents, maximum information on the structure, history of
the loading etc.

How do we collect this information and then how do we record this information, and then also
looked at different test methods to detect the delaminated concrete and how we can minimize the
amount of work. If you get let us say large structure how these instruments can help in getting a
contour plot indicating delaminated region, which can later on help in reducing the amount of
repair work. For example, instead of repairing the entire structure, you can say only these 20% of
the area is delaminated.

You can actually go and do a repair in only those regions, and then we also looked at various on-
site concrete evaluation techniques and what some standard test method I gave you a list of that
and should be chosen based on the requirement. It is not that all and non-destructive testing
techniques are good for everywhere in order also the type of instrument which we select should be
able to give you reasonably sufficient resolution of the images for that particular.

351
For example, if you are talking about a very thin element, some instrument may not work, so, you
have to really look at for the specific applications or specific structural element, size and shape or
exposure condition, whether it is wet condition, dry conditions, such cases, which instrument will
work, and that is very, very important to see rather than going and doing all sorts of testing on the
concrete.

So, a judicious selection of the test methods or testing instruments is very, very important. Because
that will definitely reduce the amount of money to be spent on inspection. It is very, very important
because many places people do all sorts of tests, which are not really required. So, this I would say
that it is very important to select what type of test you need to do so that or you need to know what
type of information you want first, and then do a specific test for that information.

Thank you. I think we will cover 2 more lectures on this, we will be looking at laboratory test also,
and for both concrete and then looking at corrosion test on steel. Thank you.
(Refer Slide Time: 57:44)

These are the list of the references.

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 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras-Chennai

Lecture 11
Condition Assessment of Concrete Structures (2/3)
(Evaluation of concrete in laboratory)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:25)

Hi, today we will have our second lecture on this module on condition assessment of concrete
structures. In the first lecture we covered the service life and exposure conditions. And then
visual inspection techniques, what are the things we should be worried about while going for a
visual inspection and also we looked at testing of concrete at site. Today in this lecture, we will
be looking at testing of concrete in laboratory. This could be on specimens that are prepared in
the laboratory or also on specimens which are extracted or obtained from the field structures. But
the point is that testing will be in laboratory.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:00)

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Now, first test which we are going to discuss is this resistivity test, which is a Wenner 4-probs
resistivity test. As you see on the picture on top right this is the how the test is being done and
you can see those 4 points which are in contact with the concrete surface. And the schematic is
shown on the left side, where you can see that there are lines of current flow between the two
outermost probes. And then you can see there are equipotential lines which are indicated by
dotted line or curve and then, the idea is you measure the potential across the two inner probes.
So, pass a correct between the two outer props and measured the voltage or potential difference
across the two inner probes and that is the idea.

Now how it is helpful is, the resistivity which is measured can be related to the concrete quality
or in other words, the resistivity of the concrete influences the corrosion rate which rate of
corrosion which can happen in concrete structures or rate of movement of any deleterious
elements into the concrete like chlorides. So, this can be a good indicator for many other
potential deterioration mechanisms. So, the table is given at the bottom left on the criteria, which
can be used based on the resistivity or the surface resistivity which measure we can see whether
the concrete belongs to good, normal, poor or very poor quality.

But I would say one thing here, even though this specification or these criteria provides to decide
whether good, normal, poor or very poor, but you have to be careful because good for a
particular case could be just a normal condition quality for another case. So, that also has to be

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sometimes related to the exposure condition which you have. So, an exposure condition and the
desired service life. But this table here is just a rough idea for you to guide you on how to use
this resistivity to assess or to define the quality of the concrete but in addition to this, you should
also try to link this to the specific exposure condition to which the concrete will be exposed and
also the desired service life. So, some sort of quantitative estimate is required, but still this gives
a good starting point.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:04)

And this is some more examples to show how this resistivity test is done you can see on the left
side it is done on asphalt or concrete pavement, where you can see that, even on a large area if
you want to cover you can still do this the and the thump rule is the higher the resistivity the
lower the corrosion rate. Now, once you do this test on a large surface area, you can actually
create a contour plot of surface electrical resistivity and then we can say, okay there are some
region with low resistivity and some with high resistivity and then we have to take care of the
regions with low resistivity, there could be a probability of higher corrosion in those locations.
So this chart which is developed by Rutgers University, you can see more details. But something
like this is very useful for a quick assessment of large a surface area, if you want to see how
good the quality of the concrete is.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:14)

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Now, what are the merits and demerits of this test? For merits we can say that this is low to
medium level of expertise required because it is not really much complex to do this test, you take
this concrete suffers, you put the probe on that and you take the reading directly you can get the
test results. So, not much of, skill level required is not very high. Then testing is repeatable. And
if we can maintain quality of the conditioning of the testing surface or the concrete, that then the
test can give you good repeatability and that means the error in the test results could be much
lower low or the scatter of the test results which you get could be much small.

Now, what are the demerits? Demerit is, how to interpret the data is becomes sometimes
challenging because it is impacted by a number of parameters including environmental
parameters for example, the moisture condition, salt content, porosity, because all these
influences the electrical resistance of the concrete, if it is more porous, then the resistance will be
less, if you have salt content again that means a lot of free ions present in the concrete that will
also reduce the resistivity. So, all these have to be considered while interpreting the data which
you get. And the measurements are influenced, if there are coatings or overlays, if you are
talking about asphalt road, there could be bitumen overlays, you cannot really take the
measurement concrete underneath, when you have a layer of bitumen on top. So these are the
some of the challenges associated. And also if you have coating on the concrete surface like just
took representative image here. If you have a paint on the concrete surface, you have to really
take care because the paint will also provide some good resistance and that should not influence

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the assessment of the concrete resistivity. So, you have to make sure that wherever you are
placing the probe, you are placing the probe on the exposed concrete surface as it is shown in the
cube over there. There cannot have any coating or an insulating layer on the concrete surface.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:03)

Another test which is very useful is oxygen permeability index test. Now, it is also in many of
the standards including Indian standard, it is going to come very soon. What is in this test you
can see on the right side there is a test cylinder and a gas cylinder which is the oxygen gas
cylinder and you have the specimens like this. Essentially the idea is you have a pressure cell
which is this and over here you have a dried concrete sample. Basically this disk like specimen
which is shown on the bottom right, you prepare a specimen like that, and then close the pressure
cylinder. That is the end pressure vessel here, you can say it is containing oxygen and then you
pump in oxygen into the pressure cell, now close it and close the valve here and then you see
how much air can leak through leak through the concrete cap.

So the concrete cylinder which is made is essentially used to close the pressure cell like a cap
only. So if there is a release pressure release happening, this can be measured using the pressure
gauge here and if the release is more that means the concrete is more porous, if the pressure
release is less, the rate of pressure release is less than that means the concrete is much more
compact or, more impermeable. So, that is how the oxygen permeability index can be
determined.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:56)

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Now, based on test results which we get, we get the coefficient of permeability and then from
that we get OPI or Oxygen Permeability Index. Now, once you get the oxygen permeability
index this can be related again to the general quality of the concrete. You can say if the test result
index is more than 10 then I can say the concrete is very good, then good, poor, or very poor. So,
four different categories you can assign to the various concretes. Again this is a good test and it
has been shown to be having very good correlation with carbonation rate or carbonation depth.
Especially in Portland cement systems.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:38)

So, what are the merits and demerits? So, merit is it has good correlation with carbonation front.
It does not really alter the composition or micro structure of the concrete system in other words

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during the test, you do not really change the concrete or you do not really induce a micro
structural changes in the concrete. And then useful to assess the state of compaction, how
compact the concrete, is there any bleed voids or other channels or pathways through which air
can get released, and the degree of interconnectivity of pore structure. All these can be assessed
in a rough way using this particular test.

Now, what are the demerits, demerits it is very sensitive to macro words, if there is any crack in
the concrete or if there are any macro void, then there will be a significant drop in the pressure
and that will probably indicate that the concrete is very bad, but that bad that is mainly because
that is the presence of a particular crack or a macro void. That may not be the case for the entire
concrete system which you are talking because here you are essentially looking at a material
property of the bulk concrete. So, this presence of such cracks and macro voids in the specimen
should not be influencing the test result. So, that is one demerit or the best way to get over this is
you make sure that the specimen which are preparing has no macro voids or cracks in it. And so
it is sensitive to the preparation of the specimen. Now, it difficult to conduct this test for concrete
having very good micro structure like high performance concrete because then you will get
greater than 10 OPI, you will come into that range, the finer categorization becomes a little bit
difficult but you can say all this concretes comes into that category of very good.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:07)

Now, another test is carbonation. Especially when we are talking about today’s concrete there is
a concern about concrete with supplementary cementitious materials, they might have higher

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carbonation etcetera. But we have to really test them before concluding on such observations
which are mostly based on a short term test results. So, here I am going to show a relationship
between short terms or accelerated test and natural carbonation test.

So, it can be well, you can see here at two sets one is sheltered and unsheltered. Why it is
important to show you this as you can see here, this is a sheltered, there are specimens inside this
small box and then the unsheltered specimen because this creates a difference in the moisture
condition and the carbonation is very much influenced by the moisture condition inside the
concrete. So, in the sheltered case and unsheltered case you can really have a different rate of
carbonation.

In the case sheltered case, especially in tropical environment you will see that the carbonation is
much more than what you could observe in an unsheltered case where the concrete gets dried
also, very fast. Now, the graphs at the bottom, it shows how we can use the accelerated test to
assess the performance of concrete in long term carbonation. Now, you see here in the graphs,
you can see that these are natural and then these are accelerated. If we know the accelerated test
result, you can easily correlate that to a natural test result. We have two equations for unsheltered
and sheltered case, the point is if you can get the accelerated test result which takes usually
about, let us say 4 months and from that you can estimate how good that concrete will be if
subjected to natural carbonation.
Knat-us = 0.42 Kacc-1%CO2
Knat-s = 0.48 Kacc-1%CO2
So, let us look at this example here in the bottom case, which is for natural case and sheltered
case, you can say that the coefficient is almost 0.5 of the accelerated carbonation coefficient.
Why this is important because if you talk about natural carbonation it takes very long time many
years to do the test, nobody would want to wait for that long. So, you have to have something
which is which can be which can give you results in very short term, let us say 4 months. So, it
us a good test to adopt. More details are provided in this RILEM technical committee 56.
(Refer Slide Time: 16:39)

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When people test carbonation on concrete, usually this phenolphthalein test is done, which is
basically you spray the phenolphthalein indicator on to a fractured specimen, as you see and then
a look at the pink color. In the previous slide also I showed this is basically that pink color,
which I am talking about. And you see that interior of the concrete is more pink than the
peripheral region that means, in this particular specimen, this much region is highly carbonated,
and as you go inward there is less carbonation. So, it is a good test, phenolphthalein indicator.

And here, I am trying to show you, if you are saw cutting a specimen and if you are actually
fracturing a specimen, these two will actually give you different result. So the test method or the
procedure will have an influence on the test result which you get, which is not a good a good
thing. So you have to know that or make sure that saw cutting is not done when you talk about
carbonation testing in the field.

Now the first picture is a fractured specimen where you can see very clearly this much region is
carbonated. And whereas in a saw cut specimen, as you can see here, it is not very clear on the
image. So what happens when you saw cut is, the blade itself smears the powder, and it spreads
this powder in the entire surface after that when you spray the phenolphthalein indicator on to it,
you really cannot see because there is a lot of cross contamination from point to point happening
on that specimen. So, point from this slide is that you have to fracture the specimen. You can
even take a core and then do a split, take the core and split into half and then spray the

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phenolphthalein indicator on the fractured surface that is also very easy to do. But in whatever be
the case, you should not adopt this saw cutting of the specimen. So, this is not a good idea to
practice that will give misleading information.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:25)

Now, there are also other indicators available like a rainbow indicator. Phenolphthalein indicator
is widely used, which gives this change in color from around pH 9. But if you are talking about
rainbow indicator, then you can also get a wide range, you can see whether the pH is at 13 or 11,
9, but it is not very easy to distinguish between these colors, but if some if somebody is really
want to see exactly what is a pH this is one way to go for.
(Refer Slide Time: 20:08)

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And water permeability test is another test which is widely used to assess concrete quality.
Mainly, this measures the resistance of concrete against penetration of water when there is a
pressure and it is looking at the permeability. Permeability is mainly with the driving force is the
pressure. So, if you are talking about a dam structure or any water retaining structure, you will
have a hydrostatic pressure or if you are looking at sub structure, exposed to or water table is
above the concrete level, then also you might have some pressure exerted onto the concrete
surface, in such cases, this is very good.

Now, test is done at about 28 and 35 days and this is the pressure which you apply and then what
you look at is that what is the penetration of water into the concrete? As you see in this picture
here you can see color difference in top region and that indicates the presence of water or the
penetration of water and how much it has penetrated. So, if you have multiple concretes with
different penetration depth, then you can say concrete A is better than concrete B something like
that.

What is the merit it is very simple test, easier to do and gives broader picture of moisture
transport properties. Demerit is you have to have a core specimen and also then the equipment
which you need an air compressor because you are talking about pressure. But these are all, part
of the facility itself. So, really there is not much of demerit, but it is a very good test to adopt for
assessing the water permeability of concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:14)

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Now, another mechanism which happens when you talk about moisture is sorption. So, as you
see in the picture on the bottom right, you can see that the concrete column and stirrup at the
bottom of the concrete column, is actually corroding very severely, but, in this particular column,
there is no other space which experience corrosion. So, very clearly this has something to do
with the concrete because it just coming out of the ground and that is where you have corrosion
mainly because of the capillary suction.

You know, the suction of moisture from the ground and then it keeps the moisture available for
corrosion reaction to happen. This is something which needs to be addressed also. So the type of
concrete which you use, if it is highly resistant against sorption then maybe that is one way to
decide on the type of concrete and so, we can actually avoid these kind of problems in our
structures. Now, this is classification criteria where different waters sorptivity ranges and then
which is then related to the quality of the concrete.

Now, how to do this, you can take course of the specimen and then basically a small tray in
which the specimens are kept with a few millimeter from the bottom which is in touch with the
solution and then you see the change in the weight of the concrete slices or in are disk which you
see on the picture on the top right.

And then you look at the weight change and if the change in the weight is more that means more
water has been absorbed or is sucked into the concrete which is not a good idea. So, the amount
of water which is sucked into the concrete should be low that means the concrete is of high
quality.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:33)

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Merits are it simulates a natural condition and then can be performed on cores which are actually
extracted from the structure and you can also do it on specimens before even construction if you
want to assess the quality of a particular mixture proportion. And then demerits, it is against us
sensitive to macro voids and cracks like we discussed in the case of oxygen permeability and it is
very sensitive to the micro structural properties, pores structure, pore distribution, not only the
total porosity, but the how the ports are distributed and connected. And it is a semi destructive
test.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:16)

And then another test is rapid chloride penetration test, where you again take a concrete cylinder,
as you see here, and then there are two cells on either side of the cylinder, one cell is with the

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sodium chloride solution the other cell is with the sodium hydroxide solution, and then you
connected to a power source. When you apply 60 volt, essentially what happens is, it drives the
chloride ions from the left side to the right side as in the picture. The negatively charged ions in
the left side cell, which is the chloride ions, it moves or gets transported into the concrete, based
on that the that you actually measure is the charge passed. So, you have a power source
connected, then you have this chloride movement and then you measure how much charge or
electrical charge is passed during the test.

And then you apply this current for about 6 hours and then you measured the charge passed and
relate that amount of charge fast to the permeability of the concrete. If it is very large number of
charge passed, let us say in this case greater than 4000 then the permeability is very high that
means a concrete quality is very low. So, in this table here, the higher the permeability that
means the quality of concrete is not good. So, if you have a concrete which is let us say in less
than 1000 or less than 100 this range then you can say the concrete quality is very good.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:16)

And on top of this, the same specimen after the testing you can take, the disc which is used for
this RCPT (rapid chloride penetration test), same specimen can be taken after the test is done.
Now you know the charge passed and on top if you want to know what is the depth of
penetration of chlorides you can actually take the cylinder split into half by splitting and you can
then spray silver nitrate solution on to the fractured surface and if there are chlorides it will react
with the silver nitrate and then form silver chloride. So, the white patch which you see on the

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cylinder indicates the presence of silver chloride that means, approximately up to about this
depth in the yellow box, you have that much of chloride penetration.

So, this gives a very visual assessment of the depth of penetration of chloride or how good the
concrete is resistant to the penetration of chloride. It is a very good test because there is no
calculation or anything which is involved you can directly see what is happening. That is a good
indicator.
(Refer Slide Time: 28:47)

Now, what are the merits? It is a widely used test and then it gives a qualitative classification of
concrete. Some demerits of this test is there are multiple mechanisms act together, and in this
particular test you the migration is also there and different types of chemicals present in the
concrete, then there is a problem. This is mainly on the assessment based on the charge or the
coulombs, so, the charge passed is related to all the ions in the pore solution and not only the
chloride ions. If you have some other negatively charged ions in the concrete that may also get
transported when you apply that 60 volts and what will happen is the charge passed is based on
the combined effect of all the negatively charged ions and not only the chloride ions. And also
when you have high voltage 60 volts, there could be an increase in the temperature especially the
quality is low and then this will also accelerate ionic movement. So, these are all other
complexities are the associated with this RCPT test and if the assessment is based on purely on
the coulombs, the charge pass, you have to be a little bit cautious before concluding. So, and it
may not be valid for concrete with SEM or corrosion inhibitors because the chemistry is much

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more complex in that case and especially if you have fibers in your concrete, we have seen test
reports which shows RCPT test on fiber reinforced concrete which is not a good idea to do. I am
showing a picture which shows the small fiber you can see. So, what happens is, imagine you are
taking a concrete specimen and that specimen is something like this and which has a fiber, which
is aligned to the axis of the cylinder or if it is reaching from one surface of the cylinder to the
other surface then definitely the ions will pass through the interface between the fiber and the
concrete. So, that gives an easy pathway for the chloride to penetrate. So, which is not something
which is good, especially when you apply the voltage in this test, you apply the voltage but in
reality you do not apply the voltage. So, and also in this test you are talking about assessment
based on a small disc where in reality you are talking about large concrete the travel traveling of
this chloride to a larger depth also depending on the type of structure you are talking.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:20)

Now, rapid chloride penetration test this is also a very fast test which can be used to assess the
chloride migration properties especially the known study say migration coefficient and here in
this test you have invoice tank like this you can see and then you have this item number 4 in the
sketch is the concrete cylinder and item number 5 is a mesh which is kept on the one on one
surface of the cylinder. And then I the bottom of the cylinder you have another mesh which is
connected to the power source and then you supply the current and then eventually you can
measure the chloride migration coefficient. And make sure that when you this measured the
bottom of the cylinder there should be sufficient liquid available or electrolyte available over

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here. So that there is no air trapped and that is one reason why the cylinder is kept in an inclined
form. So, that whatever there will be no air trap that the bottom of the cylinder.

So, it is a finely designed test setup and also something which you should not be doing. See the
concrete Surface available for the migration to happen as to include in the calculations right. So,
you can see here there is this a part of the silicon which is applied it is actually smeared on the
concrete surface, which is not a good thing, it should only be sealing the gap between the mold
and the cylinder, it should not be smeared on the concrete surface. So, this concrete surface
should not be this portion should be free from this silicone. So, the preparation of the specimen is
also very important and in all these tests, the specimen preparation plays a significant role. If you
do not do a good job in specimen preparation, the results which you get might get altered
because of the preparation, poor quality preparation. So, these are all very important to think
when you do experiments again. Even here you can see that, only this much portion is available
for the migration to happen whereas, some region here is actually covered by the silicone caulk.
So, quality of specimen preparation is very important and that also places, if it is not well taken
care, this will change the test results which you get and you might make wrong conclusions on
your test.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:34)

Now, here also you can see penetration of chloride into the concrete and the same silver nitrate
test, which I explained earlier a few slides ago can be repeated, even on this concrete and that is
what you see here. After the test, you can fracture the specimen and then spray a silver nitrate

369
and see what actually penetration depth of chloride is. And here is comparison where the non-
steady state migration coefficient is linked to the concrete quality. Again let me emphasize, when
you look at these tables which are linking a particular property, transport property to the concrete
quality, make sure that the exposure condition, the specific exposure condition where the
concrete will be used and the desired service life both these parameters must also be considered
before giving a name like this or a category very good, good, normal, poor to the concrete. It is
very important to consider the specific exposure condition and the besides service life.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:53)

Merits of this rapid chloride migration test it reduces the problem related to the heat of specimen
as you have it in the case of RCPT, because here the voltage we apply is determined based on the
initial test which we do and the voltage is much lower than the 60 volt which you apply in rapid
chloride permeability test. And the variation in the test result is also much less in this case as
compared to RCPT.

There are of course, some demerits, if you have a conductive materials like fibers or something,
it will affect the test which we should not anywhere practice and then many transport
mechanisms act together like in the case of RCPT and quantity of sodium chloride solution, these
are all small things, but I just wanted to mention all these also when you site the demerits. And
you need to have actual cylinders to be tested. We can say it is destructive or semi destructive in
nature and also you cannot reuse these concrete cylinders for any other test. For example, if you
are talking about oxygen permeability test you can actually use that specimen for other tests even

370
after the test, but when you talk about chloride penetration test or rapid chloride migration test,
you cannot reuse those specimens again for anything else. Because the test procedure itself
contaminates the chloride and cannot be applied on site because you have to take the power
source there, but you can always take a core from the site and bring the core specimen to the lab
and then do this test.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:47)

Now, service life, when you talk about service life estimation, there are different parameters
diffusion coefficient of chloride, carbonation coefficient, chloride threshold, pH threshold these
four things matter a lot here we are going to talk about them. If we talked about diffusion
chloride, and then we talked about carbonation coefficient, we talked about chloride threshold,
we did not talk about pH threshold, but we assume that it is equal to about 9 for most cases.

Now, what happens in the case of corrosion initiation or during the service life initially? So, it is
during the initiation phase, you have the chloride from the surface penetrating into the concrete
and it eventually reaches the steel surface and initiates corrosion. So, chloride threshold is also a
very important parameter and diffusion coefficient of chloride in that particular concrete is also
very important parameter to estimate when the initiation will happen or when the concrete will
start corroding.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:01)

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So, chloride diffusion coefficient is something very important to estimate. As you see on the
picture here, you can see an instrument which is a profile grinder, which is attached to the wall
surface. So, why I showed this picture is you it really tells that you can actually take powder
from the concrete surface and you take the powder and then do a chemical test in the lab and
then that will help you to tell how much chloride is present at different depth within the concrete.

So, as you see in the graph here, the depth from the exposure first and the chloride concentration.
So, this graph will help you in determining the diffusion coefficient if you know the time of
exposure and the surface conditions etcetera. So, but this graph will really help in determining
the chloride diffusion coefficient of concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:59)

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So, in fact in we can do this on specimens for any project if it is already exposed to chloride
environment for some time, so, that the time and then you can extract the core specimen from the
structure, this is just to show you actually a bridge monorails a bridge structure and then you get
the core specimens from the structure. And then you do a test basically, you can either slice the
concrete or take powder at different depths in the core specimen and then develop this profile
and then from that you can determine diffusion coefficient of the concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:54)

This is an example graph showing that this diffusion coefficient could be or the profile could be
different depending on the type of concrete which you use. And you can see here with a black
one is an OPC mix and the red one is a fly ash mix and the green one is an LC3 mix and from

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this data we can use this Fick’s second law of diffusion and then eventually come up with what is
the diffusion coefficient of the concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 42:27)

And once the diffusion coefficient, then you can really estimate the service life of concrete
structure this is just to show the difference in the diffusion coefficient of different concretes. As
you see here, if you are talking about an M30 concrete fly ash and LC3 systems or the systems
with supplementary cementitious systems can have very low diffusion coefficient if it is properly
mixed and made. And even in M50 case, you can see significant reduction in replacement mix
also with the common mix design.

So, the idea of this graph is to show you that OPC mixers perform much worse than the
corresponding mixes with fly ash or LC3 when I say corresponding I am talking about concrete
with similar strength grade. And in the third set here, it is basically looking at concrete with
similar mix design not necessarily of same strength. But if you are talking to a structural
engineer, and if you are saying that, I want to use fly ash or slag or silica fume or any other
concrete for that matter. They will want a concrete which will have similar strength grade, but
with different materials. So that is the importance of this study here, where we looked at M30
and M50 type concrete and we clearly see that for the same strength grade you can have much
better quality concrete by the use of SCMs. And when I say better quality, here I am meaning a
lower diffusion coefficient. That is the key point here.
(Refer Slide Time: 44:10)

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Now, in the previous slides, I showed that, you can get this profile like the we said depth and
then chloride concentration and we saw a graph something like this. And this graph, at different
depths on the x axis. The profile can be obtained by grinding powder from the concrete specimen
and if you do not have a grinding tool, you can also take slices from the concrete specimen and
then the determined the chloride concentration in each of these slices as shown here,
A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I all the slides slices you can take and then you estimate the concentration of
chloride in each of the slice. When you go for a slice, it may not be a perfect test as you compare
to grinding because in the case of slice, getting the actual chloride concentration for every
millimeter depth may be very difficult, but which can be easily obtainable if you are talking
about a profile grinder, where you can get the powder from every millimeter if required. So, the
one shown on the right side is a more sophisticated way of doing it and one shown on this left
side is, less sophisticated way of getting chloride profiles.
(Refer Slide Time: 45:44)

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Now, we can also do micro structural assessment of concrete. Let us say you have a case where
you see an unexpected cracking after some period of time in the concrete structure and then you
want to know what the reason for that cracking is. So, where, if you want to really investigate,
you have to look at what changes have happened in the micro structure of the concrete. And so,
you have to look at phase changes in the micro structure, is there any specific elements which are
present in the concrete which was probably not there in the beginning and then something from
the external environment penetrated into the concrete and then, and also you can look at the
crystal shape and pattern. So, you can take the core specimen and then make smaller specimens
and then do a micro structural study and then which can probably tell you what type of chemicals
are present in the concrete. And which can then be related to the degradation mechanism, which
we already discussed in our previous module. And now, basically from those information look at
it for example, one case I will tell here, if you are talking about a delayed ettringite formation
DEF, we can see if there is ettringite present in the concrete and maybe that you can relate that to
the DEF and the looking at the type of cracking. All these different information how to be put
together and then we can conclude on what went wrong in the concrete systems. And there is a
very detailed course on this how to characterize the construction materials and system, offered
by Prof. Manu Santhanam and Dr. Piyush Chaunsali. So, that is something interesting, if you are
more interested in microstructure assessment,
(Refer Slide Time: 47:40)

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And then looking at the mechanical properties, until now we were talking about durability
related test and of course, compressive strength is there I am not covering that here but, split
tensile strength, typically we say that the tensile strength of split tensile strength of concrete is
about 10% of the compressive strength and how do we do you take a core and then you try to
split the core into half. As you see in the picture here on the right, you can see that there is a
crack which is happening at the center and that splits into half and then from that you can say
based on the load applied, the split tensile strength.
(Refer Slide Time: 48:27)

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This is a flexural strength test, especially becoming more and more important when we talk
about fiber reinforced concrete and things like that, where you have to get the toughness
characteristics also.
(Refer Slide Time: 48:43)

And this is an example how the flexural strength can be related to the compressive strength of
concrete. As you see on this graph, this is square root of the compressive strength so you get the
straight line. So, if you are actually plotting with compressive strength goes with modulus of
rupture or flexural strength, then you will get square root curve.
(Refer Slide Time: 49:06)

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To summarize these test methods to evaluate concrete durability and mechanical properties were
discussed, we looked at electrical resistivity of concrete permeability of oxygen through the
concrete and looked at water permeability, chloride permeability and then accelerated
carbonation test and split tensile strength flexural strength all these we discussed, there are
specified test methods available.

This is a very good handbook where various durability related tests have been put together. So,
this handbook it is available if you are interested you can get it from contact through this email
contact ICI, Indian Concrete Institute through this email. The good thing about this handbook
case it gives all the information related to the principles behind various tests and how the tests
can be done more details.

And then also how what are the things to look at when you actually do in a critical evaluation of
various tests. And how this the test results can be used for design purposes. So all that is covered
in this Handbook, I think it is a very good collection of information.
(Refer Slide Time: 50:29)

And these are the references which were used to make this lecture note.
(Refer Slide Time: 50:37)

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And in the next lecture we will look at how to assess the corrosion and the properties of steel in
concrete.

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 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology – Madras

Module No # 03
Lecture No # 12
Condition Assessment of Concrete Structures (3/3)
(Mechanical and Corrosion Testing of Rebars)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:25)

Hi this is the third lecture in the module on condition assessment of concrete structures. In the
first lecture we covered service and exposure condition, visual inspection and testing of concrete
at site. And in the second lecture we covered testing of concrete in laboratory on both the
specimens prepare in lab and obtained from the field. And today in this lecture we will cover
testing of rebars in field and laboratory and we look at both mechanical properties and corrosion
properties.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:57)

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Now before getting into the various tests we will look at what is the need for non-destructive
corrosion test and mechanical test. Here in this first picture on the left side, it says concrete wall
with no visible corrosion or no stains of corrosion is visible. The same wall after removal of
concrete cover, significant corrosion was found in all the rebars which are visible now. And the
third photograph is showing a close up view which very clearly shows that almost nothing is left
in that particular rebar. So the point here is that even though you may not see corrosion stains on
the concrete surface there could be significant amount of corrosion could happening inside the
concrete structure or steel might be corroding in a hidden manner. So we need to have techniques
which can be utilized to deduct corrosion as early as possible and non-destructive techniques are
very much useful in such cases.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:28)

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I already discussed this in one of the previous lectures on pre-stress concrete but I just want to
recap on that. The first picture is this one it shows how the cracking can happen in case of
conventionally reinforced concrete with a solid rebar. And the second one is on how the system
is in case of pre-stressing strand. So what happens in case of pre-stressing strand is the initial
corrosion products will occupy this triangular space available between the 7 wires and until that
space is filled up with corrosion, there won’t be significant expansive stress on the surrounding
concrete which is not the case of solid reinforcement. So what it means is there could be a
significant delay in the generation of expansive stresses, corresponding cracking and
manifestation of corrosion product at the concrete surface in case of a pre-stress concrete system.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:58)

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Now this is a again the same slide which was discussed in one of the previous slides. So
basically showing a one important aspect that until about 6% of cross sectional loss there may
not be significant visible signs on the concrete surface in case of pre-stress concrete. So it is very
important for pre-stress concrete to employ non-descriptive testing and detect the corrosion as
early as possible because in case of pre-stress concrete once the corrosion starts it is very
dangerous. So we have to take a preventive maintenance approach in case of all the structure, we
must be able to detect corrosion as early as possible or even before if possible. We should be
able to judge when it will start corroding so that we can take preventive measures.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:05)

Now let us say you left the structures without any monitoring and eventually you will reach a
stage like severe corrosion and then you will have to assess the residual capacity of this structure.
Typical practice is that, if there is about 10% metal loss then we say okay the rebars should be
replaced or should be taken up and replace with the new rebar or some kind of major repair or
retrofitting has to be done And the point here is the challenge which the engineers are inspector
face is, on the document they will say 10% area loss of the rebar but how do we really estimate
or measure this 10% reduction? It is very difficult just by looking. You can only say there is
significant corrosion but if somebody wants to tell exact amount of percent in a mass loss it is
quite difficult, the correctness of the assessment is not well established.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:23)

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I am going to show you something on what the effect of such change in cross sectional loss on
the stress strain measurement which you take is. I am not saying stress strain behavior but I am
telling if you take a corroded bar and do a tensile strength stress and get a stress strain behavior,
how correct that could be? That is what the idea here, I am not trying to show you that there
could be significant changes in the true behavior.

Let us say this bar here, as you see on the bar on the left side there is significant change in the
cross sectional along the length. And as you see on the picture on the right side you can see, over
here there is a significant loss over here. So definitely when you put axial load on this bar, the
stress experience by the region inside the red markings will be much more than the stress
experience by the region outside those red marking. So, different point experiences different
stress.

Let us say in this bar, if you are actually testing, if you put an extensometer like I showed here,
let us say this is E1 I am going to call first extensometer and then another extensometer you put
here E2 and then one more if I put E3 okay. So there are 3 extensimeter if I attach to a particular
rebar and then do a tension test I will get very different stress strain graph by the data which I
procure based on these 3 extensometer.

385
Basically you are taking an average of the strain within that region. So that leads to a lot of
problems, which does not really tell you what is actually happening at various points on the
corroded rebar system.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:40)

And like I mentioned earlier there is also a difficulty in assessing what is the cross sectional loss?
So I am just showing you multiple methods which we ourselves did it in our lab and we found
that the most of the methods do not really give a reasonably accurate or sufficiently accurate
cross sectional area loss. So first one you can see on the picture on the left side, you have Vernier
Caliper you can measure, but imagine it will measure only the diameter not really give you
information on how the cross sectional look like. So you cannot even assume a circular shape. I
will show you in a next slide that how the shape at various locations of this particular bar. And
then the second is method liquid displacement method. Even here what we tried was we put a
graduated cylinder then you place solution in that then immerse rebar and then try to see how
much dislocation. How much displacement means how much water displaced and even that will
not give you much accurate results. Even we tried with kerosene, even that did not help much
then we also tried with wax molding, making a mold out of wax and then try to get some idea on
how the cross section varies along the length of the rebar. But these are all very difficult to do
test and it does really give sufficient accuracy in the readings, it does not really help at the end in
estimating how much cross sectional loss.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:40)

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Then for a research purpose we did this study on a particular bar. You can see there are 13
specimens of corroded rebars were collected and then most severely corroded cross sections
were selected as see on this white dash lines. The top of this drawing, you can see that how the
cross section is, it is never circular in nature; all these are of different shape. So imagine now if
you were using a vernier caliper and trying to measure the diameter assuming it to be a circle,
how wrong that diameter could be. So bottom line is it is very difficult to measure cross sectional
area loss especially over a length of the rebar and in future there may be better way estimating
that. But at this moment the rapid prototyping techniques seems to be useful, but the challenge
here is we cannot do this site. We have to extract the specimen, bring to the lab and then test,
very tedious procedure in getting cross sectional variation along the length.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:07)

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When you talk about a corroded rebar like I mentioned earlier, different points on the rebar
might experience different stress depending on the cross sectional at this particular level and so
DIC or digital image correlation technique is useful technique which can be utilized to see is the
variation in the stress at various points on the rebar at a particular loading condition.

So you can see here digital image correlation, here you have un-deformed region and then the
deformed region. So basically the idea is in the un-deformed region before the testing starts you
apply black and white the speckles, speckle surface, basically you have a black surface and on
top you spray white then take an image and read the pixel by pixel and then during the tensile
strength test you can see how each pixel is moving. And then based on that we determine what
the local stress strain behavior is.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:46)

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So basically, during the test we capture several images using high resolution camera setup and
then post the testing we can analyze the data and then see how the stress strain behavior in
different points on the bar. This you can see one example video I am going to show you here,
you should look for the change in the color. So more the reddish means higher the stress and then
more bluish in color then that region is experiencing less stress. So in this video you will see that
the stresses at different points are different and I will take you through until the failure of this
specimen.
(Video Starts: 14:41)
And also along the horizontal section itself there is a lot of variation now you can see in some
region especially here there is a stress concentration and you will see that the stress at this region
is going to build up and eventually it is going to fail. So that is a critical cross sectional which we
have to worry, now the specimen as broken. So how do we get that in the very beginning is very
difficult. So rapid prototyping is a good way to really understand what is happening in the steel.
(Video Ends: 15:15)
(Refer Slide Time: 15:15)

389
Now here also you can see all these different specimens, look at the solid curve which shows the
engineering stress. You can see same rebar but are actually braking at different load conditions
and the elongation experienced is also difference. So it is very clear that the stress strain behavior
at the different points on the rebar corroded bars.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:57)

Now ASTM – C876 test is something which is widely used for assessing the probability of
corrosion in reinforced concrete system. This method basically relies on the principle that if there
is a more negative potential that indicates more or higher probability of corrosion. So you can
see here this is a ATSM standard but it says that if the potential is less than -350 millivolt or -
0.35 volt then probability of corrosion is about 90%, if the potential is more than -250 millivolt

390
then there is no chance of corrosion, basically 90% chance of no corrosion or 10% chance on
corrosion. And if it is something in between then you have to really make your engineering
judgment.

So let us look at this sketch at the bottom how it works. You can see the rebars and then with the
rebar is directly connected to the positive terminal of the multi meter and the other terminal is
connected to the reference electrode. What is a reference electrode? It is an electrode of which
the potential is always fixed, it does not change. So wherever you take this particular electrode
the electrode has a particular potential. So it is does not matter which electrode you use, all you
have to do is you have to make the corresponding adjustments. Electrode mostly people use is
copper - copper-sulphate electrode and these numbers are actually based on copper – copper-
sulphate electrodes.

Now I will show you this picture, here this man is actually taking measurement using a wheel
electrode. Where is the wheel electrode useful? When you have a large surface area to cover then
such electrodes are very useful because you do not have to go for point by point, but you can
move you now faster along the surface.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:10)

So this is a simplest schematic showing how this particular potential measurement works. One
main thing in this you have to really get a actual electrical connection to the rebar, so how we

391
do? We drill a hole at some point on the reinforced concrete structure and connect to the rebar
and then the other terminal is connected to the reference electrode and a good contact with the
concrete surface is also required. And then you have the concrete here so the moisture condition
of the cover concrete plays a significant role in the measurement which you get. So if it is
relatively dry you may get very different results as compared to relatively wet concrete cover. So
if you are comparing test results, you must ensure that the moisture condition of the concrete
cover is also similar range for both the test measurement, otherwise you will get unnecessarily
worried about the scatter in the data which is not really what is happening in the concrete
structure. So corrosion measurements are very good but you have to interpret and understand the
ways which influence the corrosion measurement otherwise it is very difficult to get meaningful
information out of it. Understanding on how to interpret and what are the necessary conditions of
the steel concrete systems are very important to consider.
(Refer Slide Time: 20:19)

Now here is an example which showing how this particular test can be useful for judging
probability of corrosion. You can see here in the photograph on the right side, there is a pipe
going here at the bottom and then there is a vacuum drain container. So, these two are shown in
the contour map on the left side so that you can easily compare these two. As you see that on the
picture on the contour map on the left side that there the red region indicates kind of high
probability of corrosion or more negative. If you look at the numbers closely, this is -500
towards that pinkish region and then you have -400 here and -400 here and then as you go

392
towards the green it is more positive or in other words less probability of corrosion. And there is
also a blue line which is showing the crack and this crack is reproduce as a white line which is
not the sealant or anything they just to show where the crack was.

So these types of test helps you in telling what is a probability of corrosion, but it does not tell
you anything about the kinetics of corrosion. It is only thermo dynamics of corrosion and so only
probability you will get not the rate of corrosion. So that is something important to remember
you get only probability of corrosion and nothing about a time, what is the rate of corrosion
because if you want to estimate the service life you need to know the rate of corrosion, that is
something different I will show you that later.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:17)

But before that this is another example of potential mapping of large concrete structure, you can
see there, again it is actually a wheel electrode, all these vertical wet regions where the potential
measurements were taken and map contour map was developed. And after the measurement the
concrete was removed and compared with the section loss. The comparison of these two plots is
shown on the right side.

If you compare these two plots on right side you will see that wherever there is a high risk
mentioned there you have more and more delamination in that region. Here also it is kind of that
region is showing higher risk of corrosion and after concrete removal it was proven that this test
is actually useful. But one thing is the moisture conditions is something very important. If you

393
maintain an equivalent moisture condition of for all the measurement points then you will be
able to get good data and then be able to compare.

It is not just you take this tool and hand the tool and then go to the site and then put it on the
concrete surface and take reading and say that this is my corrosion potential measured. And so
you may end up in having a lot of scatted data which may not really give you anything useful at
the end. So quality control of measurement is very important when you talk about these kind of
tests.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:06)

Also an important thing to tell is this particular standard ASTM C876 the values which I showed
you earlier, these values -350, -250 and all these criteria or guidelines where developed based on
steel and concrete used in 1970’s. But today we have a lot of other types of steel, different type
of concrete, different type of chemicals, corrosion inhibitors even we have coated rebars used. So
there may all have influence on how to judge or interpret the data because, you cannot use the
same criteria given in ASTM C876 apply it on all sorts of steel reinforced concrete systems
which will give you very negative interpretation. So as you see on the top right, this is a RILEM
recommendation which is telling basically corrosion level can be consider negligible if the
corrosion rate is 0.1 micro amps centimeter square 0.1 to 0.5 it can be considered low 0.5 to 1 it
can considered moderate and greater than 1 it can be considered as high.

394
Now if we consider this 0.1 and above act like an active corrosion and less than 0.1 micro amp
per centimeter square we say it is no corrosion happening. So we did some test in our laboratory
with mild steel with OPC concrete and TMT or QST steel with OPC concrete and also with
corrosion inhibitors and pre-stressing steel with fly ash of different dosage. So different type of
SCM’s, corrosion inhibitors and two types of steel all these were looked at and then we found
that there could be significant misleading information if you blindly follow ASTM C876. We
cannot blindly follow ASTM C876 because C876 says that if the potential, this is the critical
potential let us say that -350 millivolt, below that then there is 90% of corrosion but what we
found is it is not really the case with all the steel rebars.

So you have to really have different ranges for different steel concrete systems. That is still not
available and we are working on it. But the thing is at this moment what we should do is, if you
are given a structure how do we use this technique of potential mapping? Instead of blindly
looking at this -350 millivolt as criteria what you have to do is develop a contour map and then
say that the more negative regions are having more probability of corrosion than the more
positive regions. I think that we should do at this time instead of blindly looking for this -350, it
is not a good approach. So we have to really go for a comparison between various points on the
structure which are made of same steel concrete system.

And another thing is if you make periodic measurements, let us say after every couple of years,
we are making potential measurements depending on the importance of the structure, then we
can say from the previous data that now the potential has changed to this much so there is
something different happening, like during the previous inspection there was no corrosion and
now there is corrosion.

So this is something very important about this potential mapping, we have to be very careful in
using this numbers and this criteria of -350 millivolt should not be blindly used we should rely
on comparative measurements and looking at which area is more positive and which area is more
negative and then say that more negative region has higher probability of corrosion.
(Refer Slide Time: 28:51)

395
Now let us get into another very important parameter which is chloride threshold. We already
discussed this slide and we are talking about chloride threshold which is a crucial factor for the
initiation of corrosion.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:10)

Now one widely used test method is ASTM G109. The test method itself does not say that it can
used for chloride threshold, but people have started using it for determining chloride threshold
based on the time of initiation or whenever the readings showed initiation of corrosion. And this
is heavily dependent on the macro cell corrosion between the top rebar and the bottom rebar.

396
So you can see 3 rebars on this specimen 1, 2 and 3 so the 2 and 3 are connected together and the
top rebar is the one which is expected to corrode and here is the reservoir where you will place
the chloride solution and then chloride solution penetrates into the concrete and reaches the first
rebar or this top rebar and that rebar will start corroding.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:27)

The electrical circuit I will show here you can see here the circuit 1 which is happening in most
of the experiments with the relatively older concrete with more porous micro structure and you
can see here this is the anodic bar at the top this is bar number 1 and this is bar number 2 and bar
number 3 as I showed in the previous slide. So the circuit 1 between the anodic rebar at the top
and the cathodic rebars at the bottom is what is usually happening in this kind of testing.

So this bar corrodes and this is the cathode, top is the anode the bottom is the cathode. And so
the resistivity of the concrete in this region plays significant role in completing this electrical
circuit, the circuit 1 which was in the blue color in the other slide which is showed. So if you
have a very high quality concrete what will really happen? When I say high quality highly
durable very dense metrics or compact micro structure then what will happen is that the
corrosion circuit is something different than the blue circuit which is across the top and bottom
rebar. So what will happen in such case is there might be corrosion but you will not notice that in
the type based on the type of measurements you are taking.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:13)

397
So as it was very clear from this more than a year testing of different type samples, you can see
on the first two blue graphs is of OPC, the red is for fly ash base system and black one is a very
highly resistive LC3 concrete system. We did this testing and then found that when the resistivity
is very high, the corrosion indicated by the measurement which you are taking is very low and
how do we take the measurement? We take this Icorr and we measure the current between the top
and bottom rebar and that is very low. So but is that okay to conclude that the system is
performing well? May be not always because what is happening is in this particular test we
usually measure the current in the circuit 1 which is the blue circuit, corrosion is happening with
both anode and cathode formed on the same top rebar, which is the circuit 2.

So corrosion is happening on the top rebar itself but when you take measurement across the
resistor between the top and bottom you cannot really make any judgment on that. So it really
again gives you a false reading and how we proved when you open the specimen we could see
that it is already corroding, you can see the close up here there is already rust on that but the
measurement taken across the resistor is not all reliable.

So these type of test are very good for OPC type concrete but not good for some of the fly ash
based concrete with very low water cement ratio or any other the higher resistive concrete
system like LC3. So more the resistivity of the concrete, less the reliability of this type of ASTM
G109 test testing.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:33)

398
Now in the previous case we found that the corrosion is happening like this circuit 2. So, one
rebar is enough to determine or to study the corrosion performance of the concrete system. So
how can we develop a test method or something? So there are another techniques which are
available which can provide instantaneous corrosion rate or basically linear polarization
resistance test can be done.

It is basically what it does is gives a very small voltage or perturbance to the steel surface which
is embedded in the concrete and then it measures the current associated with it. And then the
slope when it crosses that 0 current access is measured and higher the slope it means higher the
corrosion lower the slope it means lower the corrosion rate. So and then we take multiple
corrosion rate measurements and then try to determine the time at which there is an increase in
corrosion rate and then at that time we can autopsy the specimen and then determine what is the
amount of chloride at that particular moment.

So as you see from here to here the chloride concentration keep on increasing, we are exposing
this specimen to more and more chlorides and at one particular time the amount of chloride good
enough or it is equivalent to the chloride threshold and at that moment there is an increase in the
corrosion rate and that is how chloride threshold can be determined.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:21)

399
This is the typical test setup for doing this type of test with once rebar like you see in the
diagram there one rebar embedded inside and this is how the specimen looks like, we call it lolly
pop type specimen and it is kept in a small beaker you can see that here and multiple testing. So
this is a typical corrosions cell test set up and we need a potential stat to take the measurements.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:52)

And these are more details on this test is for both linear polarization test and also electro
chemical impedance spectroscopy because for systems like coated rebars and highly resistive
concrete systems, LPR may not be a good choice. In such cases EIS or electro chemical
impedance spectroscopy would be a better choice.

400
But whatever be the case the bottom line principle of this test method is that you expose the
specimen at through wetting and drying and to chlorides, incrementally chloride concentration at
the steel surface keep on increasing and correspondingly you measure the corrosion rate at every
cycle and then find that one point there is statistically significant increase in the corrosion rate
and that is the time when the passive state changes to the active state of corrosion. So we can say
at this point corrosion initiated then at that point we open or break the specimen and see what is
that amount of chloride at the steel concrete interface by doing chemical test and then you can
easily determine. And that particular chloride concentration is equal or defined as the chloride
threshold.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:24)

Now you can see the chloride threshold is not just a function of the steel it is also has a function
of the type of the cementious system used. As you see here there about 3 systems used A, B, C,
we can very clearly see there is a reduction in the chloride threshold as a function of the type of
cementious system. So if the chloride threshold is not just a function of steel but for each steel
concrete system you have to determine chloride threshold and then we have to combine that
chloride threshold result with the chloride diffusion coefficient results which we discussed in the
previous lecture.

So the combined effect or synergistic effect of chloride threshold and diffusion coefficient both
are required to assess that which steel concrete materials system can used. For example to think
about our balanced approach which we talk in the very few early lectures, both the qualities are

401
the quality of both steel and concrete are important. You have to combine effect of both these
and then determine the service life and then choose a steel concrete system which will actually
give you the desired service life.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:53)

Now once the corrosion starts and then there is something called propagation phase which we
discussed earlier. Here you can see this red region here that is the propagation phase. So there it
is very important for us to know how much is the residual service life. Like let us say the
corrosion already started, now the next step the engineers wants to know or the owner wants to
know is that how long I have before the reinforcement lose let us say it is 10% of cross section
area.

So we need to know what the rate of corrosion is. So how do we determine the rate of corrosion?
So these are some of the technique available to determine the corrosion rate and most of the
available instruments are based on this guard ring technique where the area of measurement as
you see on the bottom picture you can see a circular you now electrode and you can see in the
person on the bottom right he is actually putting the similar type of another electrode on the road
surface.

And then you take the measurement so there are instruments with direct contact is available and
also the non-contact instruments are available but again you have to really look at the reliability
of these different type of instruments based on some pilot studies. Anyway the idea is you

402
confine a small region on the reinforced concrete system that is the region just below this circular
electrode, as you see here. There are rectangular type electrodes also.

But the point is that just area below the electrode you have to confine and then take the
measurement only in that region. So that is this guard ring technologies. So as you can see here
this is the rebar and then you have counter electrode over here and another counter electrode, the
center counter electrode and then you take the measurement. So this is the circular counter
electrode so both this and this are same piece, so this is the circular counter electrode and then
you have another counter electrode at the center.

And then you take the measurement then may be able to determine what is the rate of corrosion
and once the rate of corrosion either by assuming an uniform constant corrosion for the wet
period and then for dry period some other rate and then you can actually determine how long it
will take for the reinforcement to lose x amount of cross section. And then that will help to
budget money for that particular repair work if necessary.
(Refer Slide Time: 43:06)

Now we discussed various test for concrete durability and then various test for steel. How do we
ensure the quality of a new construction or a repair work? This is one way and which was proven
to be very successful that is a criterion which was written in the contract document itself. You
will have a contract document whether it is for new construction or for a repair project in that
you see some criteria, this is an example with oxygen permeability index criteria, but you can

403
develop similar criteria based on other test also. So here the idea was if the OPI, oxygen
permeability index the what the owner told to the contractor that after the construction is over,
we will do a performance test at random locations on the constructed facility and if the oxygen
permeability index is greater than 9.70 then the contractor will get 100% payment, if it is
between 9.25 and 9.70 then the contractor will get only 85%, that is 15% penalty, if the OPI is
between 8.75 and 9.25 then there is 30% penalty and if it is less than 8.75 then the concrete is or
that particular structure element is not acceptable means no payment.

So when you put conditions like this or attach durability to the money, the payment then
definitely it is like a watchdog, the person at work will definitely know that if I do a good job I
will get quick money or there will be no delay in the payment or no reduction in the payment but
if I if the performance of the concrete is not that good then there will be some impact on the
payment.

This particular projects which was done in South Africa and what they found is almost all the
concrete elements where having an OPI or greater than 9.7 that means no issue and at the same
time the concrete structure also was found to be highly durable in nature. So this is one way of
ensuring that durability for either for new construction or for repair.

So all you have to do is you have to define a particular performance indicator or a performance
test and then put it in the contract that post construction or post repair that this particular type of
test will be conducted at random locations and then based on that only payment will be released.
So if that kind of contractual agreement is made then definitely we will see much more durable
concrete structure and much more durable repairs also.
(Refer Slide Time: 46:46)

404
So this is how we look at different test and a combination of the test parameter. So for example
here this is one case, if the surface resistivity is greater than 20 and the RCPT charge passed in
the RCPT test is less than 1000 and then any of these three. So what we can do is we can come
up with a combined conditions, a combination of different test result and see if a particular
combination if it is met then classify the concrete according to that rather than just looking at one
particular test method.

In the recent past we have seen that more and more structure people are actually getting more
and more serious about doing durability test. Not only compressive strength test but also other
test are becoming more and more popular and the main reason is that we are seeing more and
more failure of our structure much before the design life is achieved and that is a big concern for
everyone. Because as we build more and more structures we have to ensure that they will also
achieve their design life and not experience pre mature corrosion. So it is very important to adopt
durability based testing and come up with performance based specification in the contract
document itself and if we can connect then to the payment then it will be really great. Yes it is
very difficult but somewhere we have to start thinking in that way.
(Refer Slide Time: 48:50)

405
And also preventive maintenance approach is very important. As you see in this building on the
left side you can see there is lot of damage and lot of small trees are actually growing, a tree
growing on top of a chimney. So what is the engineer who was in charge of this building doing,
who is responsible? So we need to really have preventive maintenance strategy, we do not want
this tree growing on top of the chimney for any reason I think. So we really have to stop these
things from happening or routine maintenance is very important and preventive maintenance.
What it means is maintain the structure and do things by seeing what will happen in future and
do things to prevent those deterioration mechanisms from happening.
(Refer Slide Time: 49:49)

406
So to summarize we today we discussed about residual cross section and stress strain behavior of
steel. And then we also looked at how to measure half-cell potential and corrosion rate and how
they can help in determining the probability of corrosion and also the remaining service life
respectively. And then service life when you estimate we must look at both chloride threshold
and diffusion coefficient. Do not make judgment or selection of materials based on one of them
you have to really look at both chloride threshold and diffusion coefficient and see how the
combination influences the service life and then choose appropriately. And then acceptance and
rejection criteria, connecting money or the payment to the performance indicators and that will
be something very useful to ensure that this structure which we built and the repairs which we
need are actually going to be long lasting.

And finally we discussed about preventive maintenance there is nothing is better than preventive
maintenance. So that will really save a lot of money in future because corrective maintenance is
usually much more expensive than preventive maintenance, it is similar to prevent prevention is
better than cure which we all know.
(Refer Slide Time: 51:26)

And this are the references used for this presentation. And this will end the module on this
condition assessment and next we will start looking at various repair strategies.

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 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology - Madras

Module No # 03
Lecture No # 13
Strategies and Materials for Surface Repair

(Refer Slide Time 00:32)

Hi. We will have 3 lectures in this module on strategies and materials for surface repairs and the
first one is on root cause analysis and various repair strategie, then the second lecture will be on
selection of repair materials and then the third will be on compatibility of repair materials with
the substrate.
(Refer Slide Time 00:45)

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So first let me show you how unsuccessful a repair can be if the root cause is not well addressed.
This is the picture showing leakage, the rust stains coming through the repair motor.
Unfortunately within very short period of time you have significant rust stains that means the
repair is not really functioning or it is not durable.

So why? probably the cause was not very well addressed and probably the surface preparation
was not done adequately and also the bond between old and new materials was not adequate
because of which further entry of deleterious elements could have happened through the
interface between the old and new repair and the substrate. And also for some reason the
corrosion continue to happen and then the end result is that the repair was really not successful.

So main thing in this whole lecture I will be focusing on is looking at the root cause. We have to
really find what lead to the failure in the first place and then try to avoid that source of the
problem. And then based on this root cause we have to design the durable repair system. So root
cause analysis is very important.
(Refer Slide Time 02:30)

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Now one more term I am going to introduce here near surface. This is to emphasize that in the
entire lecture the surface means not the very surface of the concrete surface but the cover region.
So I am going to call it near surface repair. It is a very complex task because most often you will
be using some special concrete materials which will have different chemicals and the robustness
of the mix is an important thing. So, precise material design is most often required. Because
repair means the exposure was somewhat aggressive and that is why in the first place the
structure started showing degradation. So those elements might still be existing. So you have to
consider that also, aggressive environments. And atmospheric pollution and deicing salts or anti
icing salt, deicing salts and anti-icing salts are very relevant for the places where it is very cold
climate, also you can think of other sources of salts like marine exposure or coastal conditions or
even chloride contaminated soil or ground.

Now placement techniques and tools are critical. You are not mostly talking about the large
quantities of the materials but very small quantities but the way in which it is placed is very
important. Adequate and specially designed tools are sometime very critical to complete the
work on time with less effort and to ensure that the work is done in a quality manner. Now
durable material repair technologies, this durability of the repair is also very important because
you do not want to keep on going back again and again to the structure and keep on doing the
repair at the same location. So durability of the repair itself is something which is very important
to be considered.

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And less redundancy, again that depends on how much money is available and how important
the structure is and how important that particular repair is to the structure. Let us say if you have
a very important structure it will be very difficult to get permission or access to do a repair. So
when you get a chance you do a good job and make multiple systems to function together that
means redundancy. So if there it’s a not a very important structure then maybe you can reduce
the number of redundancy but if it is very important structure then you have to really go for
multiple systems so that the one system fails at least the other system take care of the structure
and ensure that the repair is durable enough. Now success of a step depends on the success of the
others. When you are talk about redundant systems there may be also cases for example let us
say you are talking about providing a repair material and if the surface cleaning, which is the first
step to do, is not well done then the next step which is the placement of the material and ensuring
a good bond will not happen. So every step in the process of repair should be given adequate
importance and because each steps has its own role.
(Refer Slide Time 06:23)

Now what are the different types of repair? Mostly it is either for cosmetic purpose or for
structural purpose. So when you are talking about the protection or just appearance like a surface
coating or something it might have a durability related issues also. But people look at some time
just appearance, so we can call it as cosmetic purpose. Painting for example, it is the first word
which comes to my mind when they say maintenance but there is lot more than that when you
talk about maintenance. So appearance is very important and then the load carrying features or

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the structural repair if you are talking, you have to consider live loads then barrier to unwanted
environments then aesthetics, wear resistant, impact loads, dead loads all these different things
which need to be consider while thinking about structural repair. And you will see both cosmetic
and structural repairs in many places and sometimes both have to be also consider, it not only
cosmetic features or not only structural features because even if the structure is very good you
want the structure to look good. So cosmetic is also very important to consider. And at the same
time in the reverse way you should not worry only about cosmetic because the functionality is
the main thing and that should also be considered and given equal importance so both are
important.
(Refer Slide Time 08:04)

Now general procedure for surface repair, how do we split the whole action into various steps?
The first thing is understand the root cause or get to the root of the problem and then see whether
that problem is a major problem or a minor problem and then determine the repair method of
what is the suitable method for that particular exposure condition, for that particular structural
loading and for that particular problems.

So you will have lots of options when you talk about repairs and you have to really see which
method is the best in terms of functionality, durability, feasibility, and economics. All those have
to be looked at and then decide on a suitable repair method. The once you decide what to do then
the next step is to prepare the surface of the concrete or to prepare the existing concrete for the
repair work.

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And then apply the repair work and then make sure that whatever the repair material is used is
also very well cured. Like we discussed in the case of concrete construction, curing is very
important. It is not only use of good quality materials like fly ash, slag or silica fume or anything
for that matter, but at the same time you have to provide enough moisture or you have to provide
enough water for the hydration reaction to occur. So, you will really be able to use the full
potential of the repair material which is used. So what I just discussed is given here as in the
form of a flow chart. You can just go through it in more detail later.
(Refer Slide Time 09:57)

Now anatomy of surface repair, how this is happening. This is a nice sketch which shows what
happens. So in case of a concrete reinforce concrete structure, first you will observe some cracks
happening. You can see here these are the rebars 1, 2, 3 and initially there is if there is a slight
corrosion happening then there will be some cracks and then this crack will further grow or the
further corrosion will happen which will lead to delamination of the concrete which eventually
spalls the concrete. And then once it is spalled then you have to really do a major repair and
basically remove the loose concrete and then cut the concrete as you see in the section here, then
clean the reinforcement surface and then apply the new repair material.
(Refer Slide Time 11:07)

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Now let us look at the types of the stresses which act on a structural element. Here I am showing
an example of a bridge element with beam, column and a slab on grade setup where if you can
see here shear will happen between the slabs and thermal loading will lead to expansion and
shrinkage and then live loads from the vehicles and then moving loads we can lead to abrasion
and removal of concrete surface. So and here if there is a difference in the moisture conditions or
the temperature condition then you can see a lot of shrinkage happening. The grey portions here
are different material or repair material as compared to the white region. So you can see that
something happens and different type of repair might be required, for example here in this case
here if I am actually replacing some concrete at the bottom of the bridge that what are the things
which I should worry about? I must ensure that these red arrows indicated for the bond between
or the shear stress between the existing and the substrate. So you have to really think about how
compatible that material is whether that new repair material is going to shrink as compared to the
existing material or the substrate. So you have to really look at many factors before just placing
the new repair material.

So it is not only strength some times because most often we see people talking about just
strength and then we know put micro concrete and say that this repaired. But you have to really
think about the many factors. Ensure that the bond between the existing substrate and the repair
material is also very good. So that you do not have many problems later on and you will end of
doing into repair of repair later.
(Refer slide Time 13:26)

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Let us look at the type of stresses between the old and new material or concrete. So as you can
see the sketch here we are looking at basically the shear bond, tensile bond and flexural bond.
Let us first talk about the shear bond and in case of a composite overlay let’s say on a bridge
deck you will have an additional layer then when you select this additional layer which indicated
by white region, the bond between the overlay and the substrate is very important otherwise you
will see probably delamination not because of corrosion, in some cases even water can get in and
then it will create significant debonding of the overlay. And also by the flexural action or the
bending, both the overlay and this substrate concrete, both this system should bend together, it
should not bend like a laminated system. Both should act together so for that to happen the bond
between these two are very important.

So in another case if you have settlement, let us say the brown color in this picture indicates the
soil below and if you have a cavity or something below one of the slab then again you will have
a shear force acting at this intersection or the joint between the two elements, between element
number one and element number two, you do not want such things also. And if you are talking
about the temperature variation and if the coefficient of thermal expansion for this material is
different than for other material then also you will have some expansion or contraction
happening, differential expansion or contraction happening which again lead to shear stresses
between the top and bottom will layer in this particular system. So we have to really think about
the shear bond and how well these elements which are in contact are bonded.

415
So similarly, tensile bond is also very important. As you see in this case here you can see there is
an overlay and let us say there is some traction or some kind of lifting force is acting, tensile
bond plays. Traction is horizontal. Let’s say if there is a lifting force acting on the overlay then
the bond here that is the tensile bond is very important to consider, not the shear bond in that
case but the tensile bond.

Now flexural action again if you have an uneven support, the system will try to bend and then
how well the joint will function during that bending action. So right now here the joint should be
intact to take care of even when the flexural forces are acting.
(Refer Slide Time 17:17)

So now let us look at the type of stresses within the new material that means here you can see the
sketches are having only the dark shaded or the grey shaded elements. Like in the previous case
we had both dark and white or grey and white that was mainly to indicate old and new materials.
Here what we are talking is what type of stresses could exist within the repair material itself.

So here also we will have internal stresses develop maybe because of some chemical action
happening inside or maybe because of shrinkage like due to the temperature variation or due to
the moisture conditions and also you might have concentrated strain or in other words near the
crack locations that is. And maybe you may have all this combination also happening in the

416
repair material. So compressive, shear, tensile and flexural all these have to be consider and these
kind of stresses might be exist within the repair material.
(Refer Slide Time 18:25)

So let us look at primary repair performance requirements or crucial performance requirement

for a column slab joint. So the main things is the surface repair, if it is deep enough, imagine this
grey shaded region in this have actually got damaged and then you have to repair that region
because it is near the support you have to ensure that the new material which is provided will
also be helpful in handling the shear loads at that location.

When you talk about the repair material, what the existing system was actually on supposed to
take care of, what type of loads and the new material should also be able to take that type of load.
Or you can think about what lead to the failure and what is the failure and If I put the new
material what is the type of load which will be acting on that new material. So in this case there
will be significant shear load so the material the new material should have good shear strength
also.

Now you have in this case the reinforcement which is inside. So if you have reinforcement here
that also should be able to transfer the load from this portion to this portion. So the repair
material has to protect the steel reinforcement and at that same time is able to transfer the load
from one point to other point through the repaired region. Now protection also is very important,

417
in other word we should not have a very poor quality material which will not give sufficient
protection from corrosion especially for the rebar.
(Refer Slide Time 20:36)

Now let us look at the beam column joint again, typical corbel support as you see here. Now here
also it must transfer the structural loads which are coming from the beam to the column. So the
load transfer is from here has to be transferred to the column. So we have to see what type of
stress is acting and at which point in the corbel system. And if you are in repair project you have
to see how you repair with minimal effort that is also very important. Because you may have
many solution but the solution is feasible or not is also something important to look at. So as you
see here in the picture of the bottom right you can see how the cracks are. So ideally speaking I
can say I have to put something like this reinforcement or a tie to take care or to close the crack
and then to take care of those loads in the direction perpendicular to the crack.

But, when you talk about constructability that may not be a good way to do so, it might be easy
for anybody to actually provide something which is horizontal as you see in the picture at the
bottom. In this particular case there are two post-tension ties are provided. You can see one here
and then one at this level and both are horizontal because that is easy to work with and install. So
we have to really see what the feasibility of the repair is. It is not just providing a solution and
that is where it is become very important for the person who designs. They should also think
about how the design can be implemented or in practice.

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(Refer Slide Time 22:28)

Now this is a case study on this kind of repair where whatever I just discussed you can see here,
this is the support coming and this is the tie provided. So again in this particular case if the corbel
is very large, if the width and depth of this is very large then maybe this tie going from one side
to one end to the of the corbel or from this end to this end might be very difficult to do. If it is
very deep then you can even think of how to provide an anchor without really drilling a hole
through the corbel, a full depth hole. Maybe you can provide something up to here and then you
have some kind of anchoring system depending on until where you can reach and particular
loading conditions and the crack locations etcetera. And also in some cases you may not have
access to the back side of the corbel. So in such cases also you may have to see whether some
kind of anchoring inside or embedded anchor system can be used.

So anyway point is that you have to look at these site conditions, what are the constraints at the
site and then come up with a design methodology for repair. Now in this particular case there
was demand for increase in the load carrying capacity by 5 times or 500%. One important thing
to note here, stressing short strand is very challenging. Because when you talk about a very short
strand if you have slit of let’s say just a millimeter or 2 or something then that might significantly
reduce the residual stress on the strand. So you have to really think about, if it is long strand then
it is easy for anyone to stress even if there is a some seating laws something like that it might not
significantly affect. But in case of a short tie there you have to really think about whatever the

419
initial slippage or seating laws etcetera are not significantly high so that still sufficient stress is or
pre-stress is remaining in the system.
(Refer Slide Time 25:07)

Here I just wanted to show you an example where a damage has happened because at the time of
erection an impact load can happen and then also improper edge designs. So you can see the
damage at the edge is very significant, exposing the reinforcement which will also not look good
but at the same time it will also lead to other problems. So erection is also something very
important to look at. During the erection we should not allow any impact load to happen.
(Refer Slide Time 25:53)

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Now another thing is repair performance and what are the requirements when you talk about
surface repair. They must protect the embedded reinforcement that is one thing and then it should
look good or aesthetically pleasing. And the repair material should be adhered well to the
substrate. Now this one on the right, side the sketch is a very typical damage which we often see
in wherever we go staircases you are in a railing you can see that to provide maximum space
available on this surface there is a tendency to move the railing to the edge as much as possible,
to the left end in this case and which provide very limited space for the material outside of the
rail. So in some cases this becomes so thin that it is very difficult to prevent the cracking. As you
see on the picture on the bottom you can see that if a person is leaning like this there is a
significant stress acting at the concrete right next to the bottom of the rail and there is a cracking,
you can see here there is this origin is cracked. So to prevent this type of cracks what we have to
have is significant material on the outside of the railing. As you see here you can see all the
entire railing or the particular repair region should be well addressed. And it should be able to
take the structural loads coming from the railing system. So if you know that this much load is
coming maybe you can actually use a higher strength material and without really increasing the
size of the element you can still get the strength which is required.
(Refer Slide Time 27:58)

Ok now when you talk about the load transfer through surface repair on a column, you can see an
example here at the bottom right where a column was experiencing significant corrosion. And
the entire cover concrete is removed at this particular stage and gone for replacing with a new

421
material. The stress level in the concrete should be noted. That means if the amount of removal
of the concrete is very less or concrete is removed only near the surface then the surface repair
may not require carrying the structural loads because these vertical lines which you see here are
actually the stress path (next slide). And then what you see is even if the repair material which is
the grey shaded region, is not taking any load still there may not be significant increase in the
stress level in the remaining portion or in the substrate concrete.

But if the amount of repair material is more like in this case you can see here (above slide) or in
other words the there is a significant damage and more cover concrete is removed and then you
are replacing that with repair material. This is probably the case as you see in this picture that
significant amount the entire concrete cover is removed in this particular column and then you
are providing a whole new cover concrete. In such case if the cover concrete is not taking the
load then the stress taken by this concrete which is marked by the blue ellipse at the center that
might be significantly high. So it becomes very important for the repair material to be a able to
take the load. So the load should go through the repair material. In other word load transfer
should happen through the repair material.
(Refer Slide Time 30:29)

If the thickness of removal of material is less then it is not always. But when you go for a deeper
repair then definitely the repair material should take the load and should be able to transfer the
load. And when I say transfer the load this point number 4 is very important, they must be able to
carry the structural load.

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(Refer Slide Time 30:58)

Now how to ensure that this proper load transfer is happening because repair material is a new
material and the column which is already there is of old material which might have under gone
all the shrinkage, all sort of such mechanism and further deformation might be less in that
material, but in that case of repair material it is still new material so it might have might
experience shrinkage unless you ensure that the repair material is having very limited shrinkage.

So anyway let’s say as a theory if it is going to experience some shrinkage, this shrinkage will
develop some shear stress between the substrate and the repair material and that will lead to
reduction in the height of the repair material and it might also happen, let’s say coefficient of the
thermal expansion of the repair material is different from that of the substrate concrete and
maybe there is some expansion happening let’s say there is a lot of moisture getting into this
column and then the repair material expands then you will have shear stresses because of the
expansion. So both expansion and contraction you have to consider. So basically the dimensional
variations can happen. Now how do we ensure that even if there is a dimensional variation there
is still a stress transfer or load transfer? We can provide a rebar as it is shown here, provide a
rebar which goes through the repair material and transfer the load to the substrate. So this is also
something very important especially when you are talking about structure which has significant
loading etc.,

423
So the selection of material becomes very crucial here. You have to use a material with minimal
volume change that means either due to shrinkage or due to creep and then essentially you have
to have good strain compatibility also.
(Refer Slide Time 33:40)

Now this is an example showing more details of this particular repair work. Probably there were
lot of capillary pores in most of the concrete columns and that absorbed moisture from the
ground during the raining season. You can see that columns are all damaged about 1 or 1.5
meters mainly because of the capillary suction of the moisture from ground and maintaining it
wet and then that leads to significant corrosion. Because why I am saying that this portion of the
concrete is intact it does not have any problem that. So definitely moisture is the problem here.
So if you want to repair this structure you provide a new concrete and make sure that that new
concrete is actually having good resistance against capillary suction also or water sorptivity of
the concrete can be checked before using it.
(Refer Slide Time 34:47)

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Now it is another example on column repair, a case study got this from the internet, but I found it
is very interesting and good case study to discuss. You can see the picture here which is before
repair how it looks at the top. You can see that top of the column is good but at the bottom of the
column this is how the situation was. You can see significant corrosion and which led to
delamination. This was a factory, a chemical plant where there was significant variation in the
temperature and at the same time the ambient environment had significant amount of chlorides.
So chloride ingress was high especially where the temperature was more and which was at the
bottom there was some equipment which are pumping high heat. So you had high temperature
and at the same time chloride environment which led to ingress of chlorides especially at the
bottom of the column and then eventually led to steel corrosion and how do we repair?
(Refer Slide Time 36:09)

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The first thing is to put shoring, basically the column is destressed or there is no stress or load
acting on the column. Let me just go back to previous slide here also you can see that the load
acting on the column is completely released, you can see shoring on this over here and these are
the supports provided the steel props. Releasing the loads from the columns is very important
when you talk about repair. So here also you can see there is this shoring to release the load from
the column and then column is prepared for high strength concrete pour.
(Refer Slide Time 37:13)

What I mean bY prepared for is surface preparation. You have to remove all the loose materials
and clean the reinforcement, remove the spoiled concrete and then provide nice form work. And
also in this particular case they changed the shape from rectangular to circular shape and the

426
concrete in this case is SCC was poured because it is a chemical plant so always you will still
have the aggressive environment which existing from earlier. So we have to consider that the
environment is not going to change. So the only this is we can change is quality of the concrete
cover. Thermal cyclic stresses to be considered, the particular concrete which used was selected
with very low coefficient of thermal expansion and at the same time covered with a metallic
casing. In this case you can see stainless steel pipe is provided so it looks very good right now
(Refer Slide Time 38:10)

So another example for a beam repair, you can see how the stress flow can happen first. If the
repair material which is the grey thing here, either shrinks or expands, in this example I am
showing the shrinking, what will happen is it will get disconnected from the substrate, you can
see here this is a shrinkage happening, and there will not be direct load transfer through the
repair material when it is trying to flex or bend.

So what will happen is that stress will be more on the substrate or the remaining concrete will
have more compressive stress or in other words this region will experience more compression
because the repair material is not taking any load. So how do we prevent this from happening?
First thing is you have to provide a shoring, lift the beam or girder upward and get the horizontal
shape or all the deflection have to be removed, made it to zero and then you place the repair
material so that when it tries to bend again that repair material will also come into action. You
can see very clearly on the bottom picture, these arrows are provided inside the repair material
that means the load is transferred through the repair material also. So again the picture on the

427
right side shows an example where something similar to shoring is done. Again in this picture we
are talking about the repair at the bottom surface not on the top surface.

Shoring is important then you have to see what type of material and where it is applied. Release
all the load acting on the member, apply the new material and then ensure that the new material
is in contact with the substrates. So that when the load is applied it is taken by both the new
material and the substrate concrete.
(Refer Slide Time 40:46)

Now how to ensure the load transfer through surface repair underneath a beam? Now here you
can see a rebar also provided because here when we talk at the bottom because the type of the
load is tensile load which is coming there. When there is deflection in this beam tensile load
which is coming so that repair material should be able to take provide adequate protection for the
rebar because most often the rebar has to take care of the tension. So you provide a rebar and
ensure that the rebar is actually well protected so that it can last long and then provide that the
adequate or the additional tensile strength required.
(Refer Slide Time 41:45)

428
Now this is another example you can see a very highway with a significant volume of traffic. But
the bearings were worn out. This is something which happens in many bridges the neoprene pads
or shoes in a those joints element get really degrade very fast because sometimes they do not get
sufficient importance at the time of construction and also it gets overloaded or especially for the
fatigue type of loading or repeated loading if they are not well rated then those materials will fail
where the girders or steel probably are performing well.

So point I am trying to make here is every element in a structure is very important. It is not that
only the big the large girders or columns are important even the connections are also equally
important for good performance of the structure. Because if the connections do not perform well
then that will induce the additional loads on to the structural elements and the joints might fail.
And then you will see this significant deflections and girder comfort will not be good and you
will also see the impact loads acting. So these are all something more serious attention need to be
given even for these small elements.

Here also you can see shoring is done, the load from this deck this girders is directly transferred
to the ground so that there is no load acting on the on the column and bend cap here. So repair is
actually happening on this and the bend cap on either side.
(Refer Slide Time 43:43)

429
Now you can see little bit closer image here this is the portion where repair is happening. And
this is a good support, the load is directly transferred from the steel girder on the top to the
ground and you have a concrete bend and the concrete column.
(Refer Slide Time 44:04)

I can see here this is again the concrete girder beam which is repaired and you have concrete
columns also. And here the load from the steel girders is directly transferred through this,
through these steel columns and into the ground.
(Refer Slide Time 44:27)

430
Now analysis of the problem, first thing when you go for inspection, What all thing we need to
look for? And then try to access the primary and the secondary effects which is probably visible
when you are at the site, you can see what things are visible no deep thinking at that time but
first you see what is visible to you. One thing which should be visible is the steel reinforcement
is corroding and the other things, because of the reinforcement corrosion you may also have
cracking delamination falling etcetera.

Now what to do you may have to go for a solution which could be a surface repair. And if you
say these are the primary and secondary effects which are manifestation of the problem and you
can actually see them. Now why they happen that is the cause when you look at again you can
split the cause in to primary and secondary. If you are talking about chloride from this salt or
whatever the external environment marine’s environment or chloride rich ground water whatever
it is there is presence of chlorides and what that will do in case of more presence of moister is it
will lead to corrosion and cracking. If the rebar cover depth is very limited or the quality of the
concrete is very bad then this chloride will ingress. If you do not have moisture, if you do not
have cracks, if you have sufficient cover and if the concrete permeability is very low then even
though there are chlorides outside the concrete they may not be able to enter it so easily.

So it is a combination of both primary and secondary causes, must be looked at and identify then
accordingly figure out what is the repair strategy and then the preventive maintenance, because it
is not just repairing and after repair you had to ensure that the repair is not going to experience

431
the same problem. So that is why here there are two things, one is repair solution and then also
preventive maintenance for the repair. And all these have to address in the future times. So again
this corrosion or the structure got damaged because of something which was not done earlier. So
learning from the lesson, we should repair and make sure that such repairs are not needed later
on. So that is why preventive maintenance strategy is very important to know.

(Refer Slide Time 47:17)

Now after all these if you are talking about what are the strategies which we should adopt
because in the next lecture we will talk about different type of the repair strategies. Here I am
showing 5 sketches on the right side where you will notice that the black or the grey portion is
the repair material, you have reinforcement going through and on the first one here you will see
that there is green coating also which is coating which we provided to the reinforcement and so
in the system one or strategy one you are seeing one redundancy that means two repair system
are there. One is the repair material itself which is the grey shaded region and the second which
is the redundant system, the coating. So both this will help in preventing corrosion of the
reinforcement.

So why we are calling redundant is let’s say the repair material itself, even though we
recommended a good material, for some reason did not function very well and the chloride
penetrated through and reach the rebar. Now for giving the protection for the steel, there is an

432
additional coating available, if it is in good shape, if it is in intact or crack free or damage free
coating then that will protect. Which is the idea of good quality fusion bonded epoxy coated
rebar but some times that they do not work because of cracks and etc. on the rebars or the
damage on the rebar or even UV exposure of the rebar so these kinds of things you have to
ensure.Point is there are two systems working there to protect the steel from corrosion.

In this strategy two where you have one redundancy, now the two systems here are the repair
material which is the grey shaded region which is this and also you have a surface coating
provided or coating provided on the surface on the concrete not the surface of the steel
reinforcement. So first protection here comes from the surface coating and if that fails then you
have a good quality repair material which will provide additional protection to prevent the entry
of deleterious elements from the external environment and which will eventually lead to
corrosion.

So multiple strategies can be adopted and of course we cannot provide all this strategies for all
the repairs available, but we have to think about the money available. And at the same time we
also have to think about are is it really required, how important the structure is or how easy it is
to do. Let’s say you are suggesting all the 3 repair system like as you see here in the strategy 5,
but it is not really an important structure and it is probably very easy to go back and repair after
some 10 years or something. In such case you may not want to go for all the redundancies, but if
you are talking about a very important structure, let’s say the bridge which is in down town or in
a very important intersection or a fly over where it is not easy all the time to go and repair to get
permissions to repairs and also there is lot of heavy traffic so in deviating the traffic is not that
easy. In such cases you want to have uninterrupted traffic system. In such cases you may want to
go for multiple systems which will function, if one fails the other will take care of this structure
and then it will help in enhancing the life of the repair itself. So these are multiple strategies or
different types of solutions available, depending on the money available and depending on the
importance of the structure and we have to decide which strategies to be adopted.
(Refer Slide Time 51:55)

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So to summarize, when you talk about strategies and repair materials, the first thing is you have
to look at the root cause of the problem, what lead to the problem in the beginning and then
prevent the same in future that is also very important. One example, let’s say the corrosion
happen because of a broken drainpipe, the first thing to do is before even repairing the structure
that you have to go and install a new drainpipe so that the moisture attack is not there. So which
we often see in many cases that you do not really address the root cause but keep on repairing the
structure. So from now on I request you to look at root cause of any problem and address the root
cause first. And we talked about different type of repair, sometimes it could be structural reason,
sometimes just cosmetic and some time we have to consider both structural and cosmetic. And
then we looked at type of stress acting on the repair materials, sometimes the stress is because of
the reactions happening within the material and sometimes it might be because of two elements
or between the two elements, in other words between the repair and substrate. So you have to see
what are the type of stresses acting, you have to think about the shear bond, tensile bond, flexural
bond etc., sometimes in a compressive stresses.

So these stresses will lead to some interaction between the two materials which might affect the
bond. So bond strength between the material systems is also very important. And we looked at
also the performance requirements of a repair material like this bonds strength etc. that is
important. And also we talked about, when you repair a column or a beam first thing to do is
release the existing load and then go for repair so that the repair material will also help in
transferring the load from the substrates through the repair material to the other portions of the

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concrete. So load transfer is very important. The repair materials are not there just for cosmetic
purpose but they are also supposed to take part in carrying the structural loads.

Now lastly we will discussed about the different strategies, there are multiple strategies are
available. But you have to look at the economics and also importance of the structure and
importance of the repair and then decide whether to go for redundant protection system or not.
(Refer Slide Time 55:10)

I think with that we will stop and these are the references used for making this presentation
lecture. Thank you.

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 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology – Madras

Module No # 03
Lecture No # 14
Strategies and Materials for Surface Repair

(Refer Slide Time: 00:26)

Hi this is the second lecture in the module on strategies and materials for surface repair
and in the first lecture we looked at root cause analysis and repair strategies and in this lecture
we will be looking at how to select a repair material looking at various type of forces that will act
and what are the requirements of a repair material. And then based on those inputs we select the
repair material and then in the next lecture we will look at compatibility of the repair material
with substrate.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:00)

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 So, first this selection process itself is very complex because you have to look at various
things, what happens during the repair activity? What happens after the repair is done? And so
we have to come up with some criteria for selecting the repair materials first thing to look at is
what are the requirements set by the owners and engineers or the people who actually build or
construct? And then what are the in-service and exposure conditions?

And also what technique you will be adopting to apply the repair material? So, all this
have to be looked at and corresponding criteria have to be framed while preparing tender
documents for the selection of repair materials. And also we have to look at loading conditions
on the repair and substrate materials. If you are talking about a repair material for a bridge as
supposed to repair material for a house or building there are 2 different conditions could be very
different.

And also for example in the case of bridge you might have an additional feature which is
essentially looking at the vibration or the load induced vibrations on the repair and substrate
materials. So, all these are very important and then we also have to look at the dimensional
changes of repair materials and substrate materials basically looking at the shrinkage, creep and
other characteristics and then cured and uncured state how the repair material will behave in the
early ages of application or after the application and once the material has cured and then how
the moisture condition, temperature, creep, shrinkage etc., or how the material will behave under
these various conditions?

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 Finally, after looking at all this performance requirements and comparing properties of
different materials we have to really look at the cost. The cost is also very important and how
they perform in the long term not short term but in long term because that is the whole game we
have to be good enough to select materials which will actually perform good in long term not
just for couple of years after repair. So this is all very important and this is the reason why we
think it is actually the selection process itself is very complex.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:09)

Now how do we streamline this you have to have a set of procedures to come up to
simplify this process of material selection? First let us look at some of the questions which you
can ask during the analysis of various strategies available. And so far how do you do that? First
what are the user performance requirements? and then this are some 7 questions I am going to
show you a little bit more details on this questions in the next 3 slides and then what are the load
carrying requirements? What will be the exposure conditions or in-service exposure conditions?
And what will be the operating condition during placement and curing? That is during the
construction.

And what placement technique can be chosen? And what are the characteristics required
for placement? And then has the original cost of deterioration being addressed? that is very
important to look at because if something went wrong in a structure and you are repairing with
the same old materials without really thinking about the root cause and then just doing some

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repair then the answer to the last question would be no and which is again going to be a problem
later on.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:41)

So, let us look at little bit more detail. First question I told in the previous slide was what
are the user performance requirements? So look at here, as a user. It is not necessary that user is
always a civil engineer. So, there could be anybody so what is the appearance? For example non
civil engineers are in particular non material engineer or non-concrete technologist; they would
worry about appearance significantly.

So, maybe you will have to make sure that the repair itself is hidden or not visible.
Sometimes the people may agree. It is fine to be visible and maybe crack free surface structures.
So these are different things which could vary from user to user but when we think about
selecting repair materials we should think about putting all these things in perspective so that the
end product or the repair at the end is actually meeting the requirement of the user.

So user is the key term here and how will the repair work interfere with the use of the
structure? In other words after the repair will the structure be able to; let us say you are talking
about a building and where you have a beam and then if you want to repair something, let us say
increase the capacity of the beam or something then if you are saying I am going to put a column
at the center may be repair will still function but that is not necessary that will actually interfere
with the use of the structure.

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 So that is something which we have to think, the functionality cannot be changed or
should not be affected. So again what example I just told was of a structural repair but similar
things can be thought also for repair materials. For example if I am talking let us say there is a
repair material, if it is releasing toxic gases because why I am saying this is I have been to a
building where they used some repair material which was injected into the wall and then people
were not able to sit in the room for 2 to 3 months because there are lot of this toxic elements
from the repair material was coming into the room and it was not possible to sit in that room.

So you have to think about what are you doing it for and is it going to affect the end user.
So that is not a good repair if it is going to affect the end user in an adverse manner. And also
you have to look at the turnaround time. How long the repair will take? So you go to a site, do
the work and then get out of the site. So what is that? That is what turnaround time is. So how
long it takes to complete and transfer the site to the user for using.

Now, what is the expected life in other words durability is it that you want to repair this
and then you expect that every 5 years you can actually afford to go and repair again or you want
no more repair and one time get it done in a good way at first time itself. So that, we can really
say it is a long or durable repair so that means looking at the maintenance interval how
frequently you can actually go and maintain? If it is an important structure and then where you
do not really want to interfere with the functionality maybe the maintenance interval should be
kept as very long.

And what is the tolerance for a repair failure? Means if the repair fails is it really going to
affect the structure significantly or the user significantly or some questions like that. So these
types of questions should be asked before we select repair materials. So these all information
should be there before selecting repair material.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:07)

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 Now, we also have to look at what are the load carrying requirements? In the previous
slide we looked at what the user requires. Now here it is more of a structural phenomenon where,
what type of loads will come or you need to know what type of loads will be acting on the repair.
So we have to look at what is the dead load, live load and that is mechanical load and then also
service and exposure condition which is essentially environmental loading.

So, what type of immediate atmosphere is there for the concrete structure? For example if
I am talking about a chemical plant then definitely this condition is going to be very important. If
we are talking about ammonia plant or any chemical for that matter you have to see what that
repair material will be exposed to that is something very important and again chemicals are they
going to be in direct contact if we are talking about again a chemical plant where you might spill
chemical on floor which is usually the case in food industry or any chemical industry for that
matter there will be lot of toxic which will be thrown on to the ground and then you might have
some concrete elements also there.

So all these things we have to look at and if you are talking about external exposure; UV
exposure is something which is important and what moisture condition and temperature
conditions? And if there is any external loading coming then we have to also consider those in
particular. This external both mechanical and chemical or environmental loading are included.
So this load carrying requirements and basically mechanical and environmental conditions have
to be assessed.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:08)

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 And then what about the conditions during placement and curing that means in the early
time and then what about the placement techniques? What type of technique should be adopted
to place the repair material? And then also looking at geometric configurations, what will be the
operating conditions? So for example: access or you know, wind. What is the velocity? Is there
any heavy wind conditions?

And then if you are looking at temperature what is that temperature which the concrete
substrate is exposed to or experiencing? And what about the immediate environment and is there
any significant temperature differential and then if you are talking about moisture again looking
at the moisture condition on the substrate and on the ambient air and turnaround time I already
discussed in the previous slide and then loading.

If you are talking about a bridge definitely vibration is something which is very important
to look at because, you imagine a case where you are actually repairing a bridge structure while
the traffic is on, in that case there will be significant vibration and you must sometimes you may
not be able to even stop the traffic. So, at least one line will be going on. So, that can induce
significant vibration which will dislodge or de-bond the repair material from the substrate.

So, these conditions must be looked at. So what we will have to do in such case maybe a
material which will get bonded very fast and in such cases or in other words before the vibratory
loads come, you will have to ensure that the bond strength is significantly high. Now, what is the

442
chosen placement technique? So if you have different thing you can place it by hand, you can
place it by using a pump. So different techniques we have to look at what is the chosen
placement technique?

Now, what characteristics are required for placement? If I am talking about placing repair
material, let us say you want to use SCC for placing repair material in a concrete beam which is,
let us say you are repairing an auditorium. For example if you have a beam right in the middle of
the auditorium which is not easily reachable or even in a girder of a bridge which is also not easy
to reach.

So, you will sometimes use concrete pump and if you are using pump, even for repair
mortar. If you are using a pump then what are the characteristics of the mortar which is essential
to be able to pump that mortar. So, segregation resistance that is very important, you have to be
able to handle the viscosity, have a low viscosity. So, all this have to be really thought through
different material properties for that particular application.

So for example flowability and it should not sag in first state especially and set time
should be reasonable you do not want to wait for too long and another thing is what the
geometric configuration of repair is. Exposed surface area, if it is too much or very large surface
areas then you have to think about the moisture loss from the repair material or the shrinkage
could be high in such cases.

So, all those have to be again thought through. Thickness of the repair, how thick that
repair element is, if it is too thin then there may be a high chance of shrinkage and in such
cracks. So, how to have sufficient thickness and then or design the material even if it is very thin,
design the material in a way that even if it is very thin it will not crack. And size of the exposed
reinforcing bar, spacing of the reinforcing bar and clearance between reinforcing bars and
substrate that is basically the under cutting which we are talking about and then clearance
between reinforcing bars and expose surface that is basically the amount of new repair material
which is going to be covering the reinforcement.

So, these different aspects are very important which need to be really thought through
before selecting. I just remember one thing, I would like to say that there is a practice now a days

443
that we let the material suppliers to tell us what type of material we should use? I think that is
something which is not at all a good thing. As engineers we should be able to think through what
the material will experience? What type of stresses? And environmental conditions or exposure
conditions the material will be exposed to and we should know in such environmental conditions
or such structural loading conditions.

What are the properties that are very crucial for the material to resist damage and
deterioration during such cases. And as engineers we should be telling that I want this material
and should have these properties and we able to tell measurable parameter. So, set limits with
measurable parameters, it is not always good to say something should be high or low and all that.
You should be able to come up with a specific range of values for the parameter.

For example, if I am talking shrinkage resistance. I want something which is very good or
having high resistance against shrinkage. I should be able to say what is the upper limit and
lower limit or in quantitative terms. We cannot just simply say it should be highly resistant
against shrinkage; high for me may not be high for somebody else. So you have to be able to
give objective specifications in the contracts very clearly when you should say what are the
upper and lower limits?

And if you are saying the upper and lower limit, you have to really think through the
problem then only you will be able to say. So in that case you will really learn about the subject
and then engineers will be able to dictate what is required to the supplier and then they provide
that supplier rather than letting the suppliers decide on what is required.
(Refer slide Time: 19:12)

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 Now, material selection process questions for repair strategy. Three questions main
things it is again in similar lines what we already discussed but put it in a slightly different way
because here we are talking about the strategy. So what properties are required to meet the
conditions and requirements it is exactly what I just mentioned. Engineer should be able to
decide on the properties and their magnitude to meet the condition requirement. I am just going
to write here and the magnitude or upper and lower limits.

And also another thing which is very important is when we say these properties they
should be measureable parameters. Because whatever we say this, when if it is in a lose terms
then it is easy for anybody to interpret in different way and then the end result is not always as
expected. So when you put things as black and white. I want to measure this property or this
parameter and then these are the numbers or the observed results should be in this particular
range.

So things are very clear and so when you set a demand to the supplier or the
manufacturer they will actually meet the requirements. You know, most of the time we do not
tell exactly what we need. So they just try to sell what they have. So this is again, what materials
or systems will provide the required. So this is again part of the selection and how to choose
materials and systems with optimum cost, performance, risk and especially when I say
performance long term performance is something very important.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:14)

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 Now, level of influence if you are talking about different service or exposure conditions
like I said exposure to the sunlight you can think about UV exposure if it is exposed to chemicals
like gases or liquid especially it is very important when we talk about either a pipe line or
chemical plant where the concrete elements might get exposed to different gases or a liquid and
temperature depending on whether it is an outdoor environment or an indoor environment or if it
is a factory where, local temperature conditions are slightly different from the ambient
environment conditions.

And then of course, structural loading is also very important. Now, here you can look at
the picture here. If surface defects are very important to handle then you can provide surface
coating so that let us say level 1 and then the repair material effects. If we are talking about this
black arrow here which is again talking about the repair material itself and if you are talking
about the reinforcement effects the corrosion of the reinforcement.

Then something can be done at that interface between reinforcement and the steel and
also interface between the repair material and the substrate that is the red arrow showing this
region here. So that is essentially looking at the bond between the repair material and the
substrate and also looking at the effect of a substrate itself whether that is itself is still shrinking
or expanding or whatever damage happens to the substrate itself.

446
 So these are the different exposure conditions and different strategies adopted or different
systems adopted for repair. So, these are the different systems shown in the sketch.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:21)

Now for the load carrying properties, bond to substrate seems to be very important as you
see in the picture at the bottom, you can see that the substrate here and then repair material here.
If the repair material shrinks definitely there is a significant shear stress acting between the
substrate and the repair material and it will shrink and then if there is no other mechanical
interlocking effect it will just easily come out and flick off from the substrate and it will
delaminate.

And detachment of the repair from the substrate so both is same thing. So that is not
something which is expected. So, if you want to prevent this type of failure what are the
properties you have to look for? Make sure that there is a good tensile bond because if the tensile
bond is very good it will not move in this direction; the movement in that direction will not
happen and also keep the internal stresses low that means here the internal stresses mainly, let us
say one example could be shrinkage.

So, if we can have the repair material which has a very high resistance against the
shrinkage then the shrinkage stresses will be very low. So, effectively you will not have this kind
of problem. So again the fourth column here, this one it is essentially saying what are the things
that we should look to avoid this type of problem? So high internal stress caused by thermal

447
incompatibility should be avoided and drying shrinkage should be avoided. That means this
material should have high resistance against the shrinkage and high resistance against the
thermal volume changes due to thermal effects.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:20)

Now, same thing continuing load carrying capacity as intended by the engineer and then
the question is what will happen if a wrong material is selected? And what happens in this
picture as it is shown on the bottom? You can see that there is dissimilar deformation means in
this particular case this plate and this is another plate. If the top and bottom if the entire column
is deforming to the same level that is what I have marked here as similar deformation then what
we can say is that the stress experienced by depending on this stress-strain behavior of the 2
materials.

So, let us say you have 2 materials here stress-strain behavior is something like this. And
if they have similar deformation, for example assume that it is something like this, if it is stress-
strain graph. If they have similar deformation and of course we are talking about the entire
structure here but still for the understanding purpose we can say, when I say similar deformation
I am going to assume it as same strain level and then what I can see here is 2 materials will be
actually experiencing different stress.

So, that means at the same loading condition 2 materials will experience different stress
and one might be still in its elastic region while the other is already started cracking and all that.

448
So, this is something which we have to think about making sure that either the repair material or
the substrate both of them should be kept within the elastic range and so that way we can actually
avoid this significant increase in the shear between the materials also.

Anyway point is both repair and substrate should be maintained within that elastic limit
the stress applied for both should be within the elastic limit..
(Refer Slide Time: 27:44)

Like in the previous one we showed that there is a stiff plate on the top and bottom. Well
in this case if the support or if the top and bottom are not very stiff and then what will happen is,
there is dissimilar deformation in the substrate and the repair material or the 2 materials and in
such case, if I redraw that graph, let us say you have 2 materials which are having different
stress-strain behavior.

So, if it is a dissimilar deformation that means probably at the same load you might have
something like this at the same load condition you will have different strains experienced by the
2 different materials system. Now that also might when I say two different strain level that
means that there could be some shear stress developed between the 2 materials and which can
also create problems and this main reason could be actually due to the creep effects.

And over a period of time the repair material can relax under creep deformation. Now,
what should we look for? We should look for extremely low compression creep that means that

449
deformation will be very minimal so that still both the materials will have similar strain. So high
compression creep should be avoided we have to get used materials which are very resistance
against the creep deformation.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:25)

Now, this is an example again we looked at drying shrinkage in the previous slides. If the
drying shrinkage is significant eventually that means there is a significant reduction in the
volume of the repair material and which will eventually leads to the loss of contact between the
repair material and the substrate which essentially reduces the ability to carry compressive load.
Imagine this case here where the load is coming from the top down and then if there is a disjoint
like this shown here. If the repair material is shrinking then it is not able to transfer the load from
top to bottom.

So that is not something which is desirable. So the repair material should be able to
transfer the load. So, we can provide a rebar in other words modify the system by introducing a
rebar which then will help in transferring the load directly from top to bottom through the repair
material region. So, how do we select when we have a problem like this make sure that drying
shrinkage is very lows.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:56)

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 And if you are talking about temperature changes again shrinkage stresses can happen, if
there is temperature decrease then it is going to shrink any material in general will shrink and
that can lead to cracks like this shown here, the repair material itself cracks. And in the previous
picture it was clear here in this bottom right you can see that material is cracking that is mainly
because there is shrinkage under restrain.

And here the restrain is provided by this surface here and so half of the material is
shrinking to one side and the other half is shrinking to the other side leaving a crack right at the
center. Now, how do we prevent, you get materials which are having equal coefficient of thermal
expansion as compared to that of the repair material and that of the concrete substrate should be
similar then you will not have any issues like this..
(Refer Slide Time: 32:10)

451
 Now, if temperature changes again if we are talking about increase in temperature here in
the previous slide we were talking about decrease in temperature. Here when temperature is
increasing the repair material might expand and this expansion will induce stresses on to the
surrounding substrate. And when it reaches a point where substrate cannot take any more
compressive load or compressive stress which is coming from this. So what will happen? It will
pop out.

And then the concrete will again get damaged. Now, again same theory can be used that
is mainly for a material which has similar coefficient of thermal expansion as compared to the
substrate.
(Refer Slide Time: 33:05)

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 Now, here we are talking about temperature changes in repair material during placement.
In the previous 2 slides we were talking about after the placement even during placement this can
happen if the temperature is decreasing, the material will shrink again how can we handle that
because use a low exotherm during placement and curing that means the rate of release of heat
should be low and that will help in keeping the material or help in preventing the materials from
cracking.

And we have discussed this also in the earlier slides on thermal cracking etc., so, we want
the repair material to react or hydrate slowly without releasing much heat in the very beginning.
So slow and steady wins the race so this is the idea or strategy here is to use materials which
release less heat.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:11)

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 Now, atmospheric gases and exposure to moisture let us say talking about chemical plant
or where gases present in the near surface of the concrete could actually lead to corrosion. And
also moisture condition if it is very wet for example if we are talking about a power plant where
you might have in the cooling tower you use salt water and always the structure is entirely in wet
condition.

So, this has to be looked at very important and how we handle such case because we
know at the time of construction itself we know that the exposure condition is going to be like
this. There will be moisture and salt water is going to be used in the cooling tower. So, we know
what the exposure conditions are going to be and we have to prevent those elements like
moisture and these chemicals from entering into the concrete.

So, how we have to go for a low permeability concrete especially at the surface you
cannot allow the concrete to enter or even there should be no cracks. But main thing is have a
concrete which is highly impermeable. It is not the strength always that matters when we talk
about durability. We already discussed it but I want to emphasize that we know even today many
people when we talk about concrete they talk about M something and what I am thinking is we
should start thinking about, M if it is Mx then we should be moving from here to Mx Dy or the D
I am thinking this is the strategy which we should have.

454
 Let us forget about just talking about M concrete like M30, M40 that kind of concrete we
should start thinking about adding at least one durability parameter when we talk about selecting
concrete it is very important if we are talking about structures which are exposed to severe
environmental or exposure conditions. I will tell you one example, I know there are cases where
cooling towers are made and then this particular example I am talking cooling tower which is
made with about 50 Crores of rupees and then within about; I think 6 or 7 years going for a
repair which again cost about 30 Crores so that is something insane like too much of money to be
spent

And at the time of construction it is not that we did not know about durability and
corrosion etc., so it is high time that when we talk about especially large infrastructure projects
we must start thinking about enforcing durability parameters or enforcing the use of this concrete
which can be really give long lasting performance. So again emphasizing it is time for us to start
thinking about MxDy concretes not just concretes specified as.

Because most structural engineers still think about fck alone and that is not something
which is advisable to go for, when we talk about long term performance. We must introduce one
of the durability parameters. So which can be then correlated ideally it is diffusion coefficient but
we cannot really test diffusion coefficient always so you can get other parameters which can then
be correlated to the diffusion coefficient.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:16)

455
 Now UV exposure, this is an important consideration when we think about repair
materials which include a lot of polymers. For example polymer modified mortar or integral
water proofing chemicals, because sometimes this materials if you are talking about water
proofing in most cases if you are talking about rain water like water tightness against rain then
definitely that element is exposed to the sun light.

And over a period of time if that chemical which is the polymer, which is inside the
concrete if that degrades then it will not have the same function as expected. So, when you talk
about exterior elements and if you are talking about materials with significant amount of
polymers in it. We must check the resistance of that material system against UV exposure. So,
avoid materials with low UV resistance or go for materials with high UV resistance.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:35)

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 Now, chemical contact in factories or even if you are talking about effluents which are
coming from factories so there will be concrete elements which get in direct contact with either
the water body or water body which is rich in other chemicals and effluents. And which will
eventually damage the concrete cover, remove the concrete cover and then the steel inside just
gets exposed and then starts corroding. Again here also the idea is go for low permeability or
highly impermeable concrete cover.

And also look at the chemical resistances of the concrete cover which in depth we
discussed in the previous slides on sulphate attack and etc., where we were looking at chemical
resistance of the concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:36)

457
 And we also discussed about freeze-thaw and here looking at moisture conditions and
saturation and main damage mechanism here is freeze-thaw and that can disintegrate this
concrete layer by layer which over a period of time, can remove or degrade significant amount of
cover concrete as you see in the photograph here. Again, how to handle this? Go for a low
permeability concrete or highly impermeable concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:13)

Now let us look at structures or systems where you have moving liquids let us say like,
water pipelines or if you have moving liquids and suspended solids like it happens in hydraulic
structures or dams as you see in the picture here the top left I have shown a picture of a concrete
pipeline and in the bottom right I am showing a picture where the dams spill way where you can

458
see significant erosion at the bottom where there is; let us say you have heavy rain or something
and then depending on how much suspended particles are there in the water.

If there is lot of suspended particles then a significant damage can happen to the concrete
surfaces especially in hydraulic structures. So, how do we handle this? High density concrete,
high compressive strength and high tensile strength so in both these cases that is the strategy. So,
here also high density compressive strength and tensile strength. So basically the concrete should
be very dense and at the same time this strength properties also should be very good because it is
essentially to deal with liquid and suspended particles abrading and eroding surfaces.

And more details on this were covered in the exclusive lecture on this thing which is
erosion and abrasion.
(Refer Slide Time: 42:54)

Now, abrasion when we talk about wheels on road structures or even warehouses where
you will have heavy equipment movement on the concrete surface and because of the heavy load
and traction you can experience significant abrasion damage to the concrete surface. You see
here in this picture. You can see this portion is slightly getting damaged and this significant loss
in the other portion of the concrete which is shown here.

Again go for high density and high compressive strength. So, density and compressive
strength are the key for ensuring this kind of damage does not happen and at the same time we

459
can in detail lecture on this we discussed that there are many other things also which we look at
where basically we look at the size of the aggregate and the strength and how much is the paste
content different things we looked at and it is possible and also looking at smoothness of the
surface especially when you talk about erosion or cavitation.

So, all this have been discussed in detail and I will request you to actually when you look
at 1 PPT if there are any connecting images or principles please go back and then look at the
other videos also that will help you to really understand the science behind and then to become
better engineer.
(Refer Slide Time: 44:28)

And then if you are talking about impact load, this is an example where you can see very
clearly on the right side this bitumen surface is the approach road for a bridge and this is on the
left side of the bridge. So this is the approach road and this is the bridge and then you can see
very clearly significant cracking at that particular expansion joint there and then this picture also
you can see that there is an expansion point and significant cracking along the expansion joint.

Why this is happening? Mainly because the material which is used is very brittle material
or in other words the toughness of the material is not very high in this particular case if they were
using a fiber reinforced concrete, for example, this much cracking would not have happened. So
you have to really look at how much energy the material can absorb or toughness of the material
is something very important to look at.

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 So in the specifications itself when you talk about this expansion joints we should
actually start talking about introducing a material at the expansion joint which is not just having
high compressive strength but at the same time having high bond strength as mentioned here and
at the same time toughness.
(Refer Slide Time: 46:15)

So in the long run the system will perform better without much of cracking. This are
similar pictures again here we are talking still impact and then additional parameters we have
mentioned here, low modulus of elasticity because you want the material not to develop
significant stress even if the deformation is more but within the elastic range.

So, it is very important to consider all these parameters when we talk about. So we have a
practice of just looking at only compressive strength when we talk about concrete. It is high time
that we change it and we have to really think about what are the specific type of loading which is
acting on the concrete material and how do we prevent this kind of cracking or damage. Provide
that concrete which will have ability to resist those kind of loads.

In other words here, if we were talking about impact load or fatigue load you have to
have a material, concrete should have high resistance against the impact load and fatigue load.
So, highly tough concrete must be used.
(Refer Slide Time: 47:29)

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 Of course turnaround time is very important especially when we talk about construction
at let us say you are talking about construction in a city center and there where you really cannot
close the traffic for long period of time. So, if I can get 6 hours of time from mid night till early
morning when people are sleeping so we can actually get the construction done and by the time,
the traffic is on in the morning the structure already have sufficient strength.

So, rapid strength gain is very important in such cases. So special cement has to be used
so that the concrete can really gain strength and even users will not even know that repair where
done, that is how good the work should be.
(Refer Slide Time: 48:26)

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 So let us look at one more property of constructability which is flowability, in this case in
the sketch shown here you can see that there is a form work. Imagine this is a case of beam
repair, you have a form work here and then you are pumping from the bottom so you pump like
this. This is the inlet, you pump like this and then the repair material is supposed to go in and
then fill this spaces inside the form work.

Now, this material if it has to really fill it up it has to be flowable material and not I mean
depending on the case, sometimes you do not want too much flow. So whatever is the required
flow that has to be decided earlier and material should have that required flow properties. How
can we achieve? Provide a material which is having high slump.

But also at the same time with low segregation. I am going to write here high slump, low
segregation this is also very important parameter and how do we usually achieve this? Use small
aggregates, fines and round shaped aggregates so that the material flows very well.
(Refer Slide Time: 49:48)

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 And another property which is sometimes required is constructability without there
should not be significant sag. In other words in such cases we usually go for a material which has
high cohesive forces or the cohesion is very high and at the same time, adhesion which is the
bond between the repair material and the substrate is also very high. An example of this could be
something where imagine a case where you have a roof and then you are actually doing the patch
repair in the roof.

So, where you need a material which will actually stick to the roof and work against the
gravitational force. So it has to enter that weight of the mortar material itself might be high but it
has to actually stick to the existing substrate and so you need actually have a material which has
high cohesion and high adhesive bond between the repair material and the substrate.

Now, one more thing I want to mention here is Murphy’s Law, “if something can go
wrong, it will go wrong” that’s what is Murphy’s Law and hence it is always better go for a
material which is relatively simpler. Simpler formulation is always better where the dependency
like something. You know if you are depending on 5 different things for a material to perform,
one of them if it goes bad then may be the other 4 will actually help and this have to be thought
through.

And you have to think and take, all precautionary measures so that things will not go
wrong and your repair will perform good.
(Refer Slide Time: 51:55)

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 Again lastly appearance is also very important, you see this repair here, this all shrunk
and crack like, you can see very clearly map cracking so this particular region is now ready for
removal. So, this is something happening just because of the drying shrinkage. If you are
replacing you have to go for a material which is highly resistant against drying shrinkage and
sufficient flexibility so that it bends but rather than getting cracked.

Or in other words the ductile material would be better than a very brittle material and also
low exotherm that means in the early stages, when the repair material has not developed
sufficient strength, there should not be significant thermal strains so it is always better to have a
material which reacts slowly and releases low heat in the beginning and at the end you get a good
product. And water loss during placement basically the evaporation should be prevented or
plastic shrinking is what we are talking there.
(Refer Slide Time: 53:14)

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 Now summary we have to look at different needs of the surface repair and then how do
we select? First we have to look at bond with substrate is very important to consider. And load
carrying capacity is very important to consider. What are the different types of loads acting static
load, live load and also vibratory type or impact load all these have to be looked at fatigue all this
have to looked at and then make sure that the repair material has sufficient ability to resist such
loads.

It is not only compressive strength which need to be looked at there are other parameters
also should be looked at. Dimensional stability mainly talking about shrinkage either due to the
chemical actions themselves or due to the volume change due to thermal effects or due to the
loss of moisture or shrinkage. And then also durability conditions is very important because once
the concrete or the repair materials starts de-bonding or cracking then definitely the external
elements will enter the concrete and then eventually leading to corrosion.

Now constructability and appearance, so let us say you have decided a material which has
all these properties and but it is not easy to place that concrete then again it is not a good choice.
So we must think about how to place the concrete, so think about the workers at site their
knowledge level, the workman ship available all this have to be thought through and then only
we should select I mean during the selection process that is something very important to think
about constructability. And at the end user want the structure to look good so the repair system
should also be able to provide a good appearance for the structure.
(Refer Slide Time: 55:21)

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 So, we talked about user performance requirement, load carrying requirements and
service and exposure conditions and also placement techniques while selecting the materials.
Also looked at different properties that are very important for the materials. Again let me
emphasize 2 things, it is properties when we talk about it is not only the strength when we talk
about only strength we talk about Mx type concrete let us say M20, M30 something like that
M20, M30 and M40 something like this.

But this is not sufficient, we have to think about MxDy type concretes and then Dy is
basically looking at the durability parameters which will reflect the durability of the concrete and
D stands for durability here. So whenever we talk about M something concrete we should also
start thinking about MxDy concrete. And introducing a new term here but that is something very
interesting and hope this will make us think little bit more deep into or more deep when we think
about selecting materials and thinking about various properties of the materials.

And this durability is not just talking about chloride ingress or carbonation. I am saying
even fatigue resistance, even toughness all these things which really lead to the long term
performance of the structural system that is very important. And so we have to think about this
MxDy concrete and D stands for durability and let us say long term performance which
sometimes let us shrinkage, long term shrinkage, fatigue all those parameters have to be looked
at not just strength. I think that is the key point which I would like to state in this lecture let us
start thinking about MxDy concrete.
(Refer Side Time: 57:44)

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These are the references which we used and thank you for listening.

468
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology-Madras

Lecture 15
Strategies and Materials for Surface Repair
(Compatibility of repair materials with Substrate)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:23)

Hi, this is the third lecture in the module on strategies and materials for surface repair. In
this, we will talk about the compatibility of repair materials with substrate. And also we will look
at some of the stuff which we already discussed in the previous slides.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:36)

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 So, this is the recap of volume change mechanisms. I will show you 4 major material
parameters which really influence the volume change; one which we discussed was coefficient of
thermal expansion. You can see if alpha is the coefficient of thermal expansion, this o here
indicates old material or existing concrete or substrate and then n indicates the repair material.
So, let us assume that given a temperature change evenly distributed through the material.

The following stresses will occur according to the relationship of the thermal coefficients
of new and old materials. So, as you see on the picture on the right side in above picture, if alpha
of the new material is equal to alpha of the old material, then there will be no shear stress in the
layer between 2 materials. But, if in this case, let us say alpha of the new material is less than
that of the old material.

Then that means the new material will shrink less than the old material, as it is shown in
the picture or in other words, because the volumetric change is different for these 2, there will be
development of shear forces then you will have shear stress and then that might lead to failure or
Delamination. If the bond strength between them is not really good, especially the shear bond
mechanism.

So, we will talk about this later also and if the new material has higher coefficient of
thermal expansion than the old material then also this will happen. So, as long as there is a

470
difference in coefficient of thermal expansion between the 2 materials then there could be
generation of shear stress and then the shear bond will get stressed in that case.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:53)

And the other parameter we looked at was modulus of elasticity and here is E0 indicates
modulus of the old material and En indicates modulus of the new material or the repair material.
Now, let us say at a particular time instant after the repair or during the repair, let us say given an
evenly distributed load, the following stress will occur according to the relationship of modulus
of elasticity of the new and old material.

If both the modulli are equal or almost equal, then there is no generation of stress. But if
one of that is different, let us say En is greater than modulus of the old material, then the material
with higher modulus will experience a higher stress at the same strain level or deformation level,
then that means that material with more modulus will probably lead to crack at an earlier time.

So, as you can see here, this is that case when you have a high modulus, then that
material will go into the plastic stage, when you talk about the stress-strain behavior and then it
will experience higher stress and then experience cracking where the material with low modulus
is still experiencing a lower stress level. Now, shear bond can be stressed depending on whether
this load is applied in which direction.

471
 In this case as in the second drawing here, you can again say that the shear bond between
the 2 materials gets stressed and you might have a failure along that plane. This I already
discussed brittle or high modulus material may become overstressed at the same strain level and
then lead to cracking.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:00)

Another one was drying shrinkage. Again, if you have one material if it is going to shrink
more than the other or if you have one material expanding more than the other then but when you
talk about shrinkage, it is shrinking. But if you are talking about the swelling mechanism, why I
am telling about swelling also is because it is also something to do with the moisture.

So, either way, if there is a volumetric change then the shear bond here gets stressed or
the shear stress will be generated. Now, load carried by a repair might become less so the
integrity of the system will be lost and that is something which we don’t want to happen. So very
important to make sure that there is no stress generated along the bond.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:57)

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 Also we talked about creep. Again, assuming that the old material has already developed
a stable creep volume, that means no further creep and then the following stress will occur
according to the amount of creep occurring in the new material. So, if there is no creep, then
there is no stress generated, but in the case as you see here, Cn if it is greater than 0 or a
significant number.

Then you might see that there is a significant deformation and then once there is a
deformation or in other words there is a movement then you can actually experience shear stress
along this plane, which is not that good.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:47)

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 Now, let us look at how the strength is developed inside the concrete or the material?
And at the same time how the stress is generated because of various actions and then how the
combination or how it leads to cracking. So, look at this curve here that is showing the capacity
of the repair material or how the tensile strength of the repair material is increasing or evolving.

Another curve which is this curve showing the elastic stress from the drying shrinkage.
So, one is capacity and the other one is demand there is stress generated because of the drying
shrinkage. And there is also a relaxation factor because of the creep and restraints. There will be
a reduction in the applied stress and so the net tensile stress is actually this. So, this reduction is
indicated by these vertical arrows in the sketch.

So, basically the crack develops or the crack is formed when the net tensile stress is
actually more than the tensile capacity of the repair material. So, the moment when there is more
tensile stress than the stress which the material can take at that moment the material starts to
crack. And the graph at the bottom shows the drying shrinkage strain as a function of time. The
one on the top shows the tensile stress as a function of time and the one on the bottom shows the
strain as a function of time.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:52)

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 Now, this is the same thing what I just discussed, written in text. I will just go through it
very briefly. So, most drying shrinkage will take in the first 30 days, maybe even few months. I
would like to say not just 30 days, but least some months, but it will continue to happen and then
repair materials with drying shrinkage will contract if unrestrained, but without cracking.

But if there is a restrain which is the case in most cases, if they are not free to shrink,
because they are bonded to the substrate or restrained by the substrate, then there will be
tendency to crack the material rather than just letting the material to shrink completely. Now, in
this because of the restrain, the stress will accumulate and then that will lead to significant strain.

And then repair material has no tensile strength, when first placed basically in the fresh
state as time passes the material will mature itself and then gain more and more strength which
we already discussed in the previous slide. But as the material is stretched, it also relaxes due to
the creep factors that is the vertical arrows in the graph, which is this one here, the vertical
arrows indicate that reduction in the stress due to the creep effects.

And there is a fight between this tensile stress developed and the capacity which is also
developed. So, whenever there is a crossing over point that is at this point when there is more
stress applied than the capacity of the material, then the material will lead to cracking.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:51)

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 This are some photographs from our lab where it is showing how to test the shrinkage
behavior in a concrete system we can see it is a length comparator, where you have a prism of
concrete with plain concrete and with this we can expose the concrete specimen to environmental
conditions and then measure the change in the length of the specimen.

And that change in length will indicate the resistance of the material against free
shrinkage, there is no reinforcement in this concrete. So, it is essentially looking at free shrinkage
mechanisms and we assume that if the free shrinkage is very high then definitely you may have
other problems. Even if you provide reinforcement in concrete you will see cracking because of
significant potential for shrinkage of the concrete.

So, we have to make sure that the concrete or the repair material, which is used is having
sufficiently high resistance again shrinkage or sufficiently low shrinkage.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:12)

476
 What is that sufficiently low shrinkage? So we will see some example here these numbers
here need not be taken as fixed numbers, it is up to the engineer and for the specific case, you
have to decide what is good for a particular application and what is bad for a particular
application those have to be decided, but this is just a guideline to tell you what can be called as
a low shrinkage, moderate shrinkage and high shrinkage.
If the shrinkage is less than 0.05% then we can say it is low shrinkage. If it is between
0.05 to 0.1 then we can say it is moderate and if it is greater than 0.1, then we can say it is high
shrinkage and may be that kind of material should not be used. Now, another thing which I
wanted to tell is the availability in market. Many places the goal is to keep drying shrinkage
almost 0 as written in the yellow box at the bottom left, but when I say 0 so anyway it is very
low that is what is the idea.

So, 2 types of shrinkage or 2 types of materials are available in the market one is called
non shrink materials and the other is shrinkage compensating material. So, the non-shrink is
basically does not shrink. So, for example, if you add shrinkage reducing admixture, then it acts
at the microstructure level by reducing the surface tension of the material of the liquid phase and
it does not allow the material to shrink whereas in the case of shrinkage compensating materials
or grouts or shrinkage common setting mortar. What is the idea? There will be some kind of
expansive agent provided in the material. So, when you provide an expansive agent the role of
that is it allows shrinkage, but at the same time there is something else which is happening in

477
parallel which compensates for the shrinkage which has happened. So, these are the 2 types of
materials if you want to categorize available.

So, one is non shrink the other one is shrinkage compensating. Now this graph shows
what this range is as I listed on the left side very low shrinkage, low shrinkage, moderate
shrinkage and high shrinkage. So, as the shrinkage is more and more the tendency to shrink &
the tendency to crack is also more.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:17)

As you go towards the right, the tendency to crack is more. Now, how to obtain mixes
with low shrinkage? We can use maximum possible aggregate. So, that means, an optimum
aggregate content is best and then of course use clean and sound aggregate, clean means there
should be no unwanted dirt or unwanted material in the aggregates and use aggregates with
maximum size as practical because you will have to think about the spacing between the
reinforcement you cannot keep on increasing the size of the aggregates so whatever is the
practical thing. And then as per the codes you have to see what the maximum size allowable is
and use maximum of that. The idea is to use less amount of fine powder or the cement. So, that
the maximum space is occupied by the aggregates whether it is fine aggregate or coarse
aggregate the maximum space in the concrete should be occupied by the aggregate.

478
 And provide only that much cement which is necessary to bind or glue all this aggregate
and not to add any cement as filler. Sometimes, not necessarily in Indian practice, but in other
parts of the world people actually use finely ground limestone or limestone powder as a filler
material which essentially not react much like the cement.

But it will occupy that very fine space which is available between the aggregates. So, that
is also something which is important to know and avoid materials that increase water demand.
So, if you put too much of fine materials then there will be more water demand. So, you will end
up in using a higher water-cement ratio, which is also not good, when you talk about resistance
against shrinkage.

Now, finely ground cement is probably not a good idea all the time and high temperature
mixing is also not a good idea all the time. Because high temperature mixing means the water
loss will be there and then that means drying will happen even at the early stages of concreting
so which will lead to cracking. Now, curing adequately is very important to minimize especially
plastic shrinkage or early shrinkage.

Now, it is all these points there should be taken with understanding the combined effects
of all the above. So, it is not that just use maximum aggregates or use very limited cement. But
we have to really look at how the combination of these selections will affect the shrinkage. So,
that has to be studied and then trial mixes must be tested before going for large scale repair
works.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:37)

479
 Now, this is just an example showing how shrinkage after 3 months of exposure to about
relatively dry environment with 50% relative humidity. So, as you go down on this table, you
can see the aggregate-cement ratio is decreasing, that means, as you go down on the table, the
lower the position, the more the amount of aggregates.

So, you can see here 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 so, this number is increasing as you go down and then
you have water-cement ratio. This four water cement ratios you can see 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7. So,
here again as you go to the right, the water-cement ratio is increasing. So, what is the expectation
when you have higher aggregates and lower water-cement ratio?

Then you will have higher aggregate content and lower water-cement ratio, you will have
a low shrinkage that is what is observed here. So, as you go to the table in this direction
diagonally to the bottom left if you go you will see low shrinkage. If you go to the top right
corners, then you will see high shrinkage. So that is a general idea of how the water-cement ratio
and aggregate-cement ratios interact and influence the shrinkage resistance.
(Refer Slide Time: 20:20)

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 Now, let us also look at what are the different ingredients which you can observe in
various repair materials available today, definitely there are binders it could be cementitious and
polymeric binders also and depending on the need and the performance requirements and of
course, you have fine aggregates and coarse aggregates and also some special fillers and then
polymer modifiers and then fiber reinforcement and then some miscellaneous chemical
modifiers. So, we will go through each one of these in at least one slide on each of these.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:04)

So, let us talk about the binders definitely Portland cement is there and these kind of
binders are which widely used in general repair or patch repair work where no special
performance requirements are expected. However, if you are talking about special applications,

481
where some chemical resistance or very thin application that means, where the high shrinkage
resistance is expected in such cases you will see that the repair material will have epoxy or
acrylics or some other polymers are used.

They are integrally mixed or integral part of the material. It is not like a coating or
something which you provide but you are actually mixing these materials along with the cement
powder.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:00)

Sometimes the quantity will be significantly high in that case also. Now, fine aggregate
this is a different type I mean this photo shows, what is the idea to reduce the amount of binder
which is used and enhance mechanical and durability properties. We cannot skip durability in
any cases it is very important. Now used without the addition of larger size aggregates in some
cases, especially if you are talking about high flow requirements etc.,

Then you will see that the larger sized aggregates are sometimes avoided or only in small
quantity. And this kind of fine aggregates; fine means it is not like a powder, but up to about 4.75
millimeter size. Sometimes we will also see coarse aggregates which are with a limiting range of
about 8 mm we will still use, the idea is the smaller the aggregate size which is used comparing
fine and coarse.

482
 The flow properties will be influenced by the proportion of these aggregates and then
especially for repair materials where flow is very important because you most often work with
confined spaces or there are restrictions on space and the flow path etc., So, in such cases you
need a material which flows very well and in such cases the smaller size aggregates are used.

Of course, the shape and gradation of aggregate will affect the compaction and special
aggregates can be used. If you are talking about abrasion resistance that means harder aggregates
and which will abrade less.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:02)

Now, this is about coarse aggregate, last slide I also told sometimes we tend to avoid very
large coarse aggregates a maximum size of up to about 6 to 8 mm is typically used for micro
concrete or most of the screed concretes because you do not want very large aggregates, which
will affect the flow and then costs more difficulties in placing the concrete. Now, idea here is
again reduce the amount of binder which is used and enhance general mechanical and durability
properties.

Because the quality of the aggregate is also very important. And when you talk about
durability, the interface between the aggregate and the cement paste which plays a significant
role, which we call ITZ (Interfacial Transition Zone) between the aggregate and the cement

483
paste. So, the quality of aggregate is very important when you talk about durability. Durability of
repair material is also important in addition to the mechanical properties.

More the aggregate you have, less the shrinkage and then special aggregates, if you are
talking about abrasion resistance, then you have to use special aggregates which will have good
resistance against abrasion.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:30)

Now, special fillers, the main idea here is they fill the space left between the fine and
coarse aggregates used to improve the internal cohesion. And the examples are, very fine
powder, fly ash, micro silica or micro limestone powder. And one thing to note here, it is not that
even though there are special fillers, they also might have a role in pozzolanic action and mostly
the more important role and then they also function like a filler and then they enhance the
permeability and the strength of the material.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:14)

484
 Now polymer modifiers examples are Latex, acrylic, polyvinyl acetate or PVA widely
known name and also epoxy emulsions. And these materials again enhance various properties.
Latex is used to reduce permeability that means it resists the entry of water into the concrete and
then enhances the bond. One thing which I would say here is, we should not always go with,
because the cost of these modifiers, depends varies significantly.

For example, acrylic might be, for example is very expensive sometimes and latex might
be relatively cheaper. But again we should not go and select a material because sometimes we
have a tendency, if a particular material cost more then probably that is better. That is the
intuition sometimes, which we have. It is not always true. So, you have to really look at the bond
mechanisms. Instead of looking at the cost of the material look at how the performance
especially in long term.

If you are talking about using of this repair materials for an exterior element, you have to
really look at how they perform under sunlight or UV exposure in long term, long term what I
mean is at least multiple 2 to 3 years you should wait, you will say so, but what you do, you
cannot really wait for long term. So, there are accelerated tests where we can prepare the
specimens and then put it inside a chamber.

485
 And which can be like, UV chamber and then test how fast the materials degrade or how
resistant they are against the UV radiation, especially when you talk about polymeric materials
we must do or check the effect of polymeric materials which are also exposed to sunlight, we
must check how the UV resistance of those materials are and if they start degrading, you might
lose the bond and at the same time, you might also lose the mechanical properties like modulus,
strength, etc.

So that is something very important to check. The point here is higher the cost does not
mean that the performance is also going to be better you might find a better performing material
at a lower cost.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:10)

Now fibers also play a significant role in reducing plastic shrinkage especially and also
they help in increasing the tensile strength and toughness of the repair material. Essentially, they
help in controlling the crack. So, you can see here steel fibers, there is an impact of the fibers on
both plastic shrinkage and it can also, positively affect or enhance the tensile strength and
toughness of the concrete system.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:54)

486
 Now, miscellaneous or chemical modifiers this modifies various properties depending on
the case what you are talking about. So, for example, you have accelerators, retarders, shrinkage
compensating admixtures, water reducers, flow enhancing agents, expansive agents and air
entraining admixtures all these different type of materials are available and they change various
properties as desired.

You should have all these materials, but depending on the necessity, you have to choose,
so that is where the point is, we need to know exactly what we want, when you talk about a
repair material. Otherwise, many cases are there where unwanted chemicals are also added and
then just increase the cost of the repair. So the engineers must be like I said in the last class
engineers must be able to dictate what is required or what properties are required for the
materials which they use.

Not the people who sell these products should dictate on what to do, engineers should be
able to tell and they provide what is required, they will tailor make the product and provide it.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:22)

487
 Now, bonding of repair materials to existing concrete, what are the important things to
consider when we talk about bonding? So, I am going to call the bond is between the repair
material and the substrate. So, we are going to call it RS bond, because there is also another bond
which is steel concrete bond so, I do not want to confuse between the two. So, in this lecture
when we talk about bond it is the bond between repair and substrate concrete.

Now, the clean and sound substrate, the surface preparation means where you are going
to place the repair material that surface should be very clean that means no free or loose particles
should be there. I put this picture here just to show you that, this is not something which is a
good practice, you can see that there is a lot of dirt or loose materials present in this. The surface
is not well prepared.

So that is something which is not good and also here you can see it is very dry substrate.
So, what will happen is the moisture which is available in the repair material will be absorbed by
the substrate. As soon as it comes in contact, which is not a good idea rather what we should do
is, we should make the substrate surface in saturated surface dry condition or SSD condition. Not
too much of water but at the same time, not too less water.

So that there will be no absorption of moisture from the repair material to the substrate
that is something which we should not allow. Now, open pore structure in the substrate is

488
available. Because if it is available then it provides better interlocking, I am saying open pore
structure. It is not the pore structure inside the substrate.

But at the surface of the substrate you need to have uneven surface so that there will be
good interlocking or roughened profile for mechanical interlocking and also the sufficient
flowability, the repair material should have sufficient paste which can flow and facilitate
absorption into the pores, the open pores in the substrate. And also when you apply the material
we should provide sufficient pressure.

So that it helps in making good contact at the bond surface all these small pores available,
either the material flows and reaches there or if it is relatively dry repair material, then you
should pack it very well or compact it very well. So that the mechanical interlock between the
substrate and the repair material is very good.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:27)

I will show this is the detailed image showing what I just discussed. You can see here,
first image to look at and which is generally that bond region and you see 2 red boxes there. So,
that is my larger zoomed image of this first red box is this, which is basically talking about the
tensile bond mechanism. You can see here there are some regions where basically it ensures
mechanical interlock in the perpendicular direction to the bond line or you are talking about
tensile forces here and the tension bond mechanisms.

489
 You can see here there is a nice interlock happening here bulb like repair material. The
repair material flows into the open pores. So the open pore which we discussed in the previous
slide is this, this is an open pore here. And so the repair material goes in and fills inside and then
it then hardens and then it is very difficult to pull it out of that.

So, definitely there is a good resistance against the tensile forces. And similarly, when
you talk about the shear bond, which is this sketch here, you can see that bond line. It is crossed
by the aggregates. So, if you have sufficient amount of aggregate of reasonably large size, then
you will get very good resistance because aggregates will provide a good resistance against the
shear or they have good shear resistance.

So that when aggregates come on that path, the red line which I have drawn they provide
very good mechanical interlocking and it helps in providing much better shear resistance.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:30)

Now, as we discussed, these are the 3 widely used repair bonding agents available when
you apply this bonding agent they also helps in chemical bonding. That is also something
important it is not always only mechanical interlock but chemical bond, if the good adhesives are
there, that is essentially the bonding agent that will also help in enhancing the bond behavior.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:59)

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 There are a lot of materials available for performing repair work. And then one main
requirement is that there should be very good resistance against the bond failure or the bond
strength of the repair material. The bond strength of the interface between the repair material and
the substrate should be very high and how can we check them these are 4 typical tests available
slant shear test, direct shear test, uniaxial tensile test or pull off test and the split tensile test is a
just schematic diagram. I am going to show you the schematic again and we are going to discuss
more detail on each of these tests.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:49)

Slant shear test. It gives relatively most of the time a conservative result and how it can
be done on specimens prepared in lab and also those core specimens which are collected from

491
the field and then what we can do is you take the substrate and then cut the core and then replace
that top part with the repair material and you actually roughened this surface here.

You know, how do we roughen that surface, there are ways best thing is by sandblasting
or in other words, using some grits you can spray the grit onto the surface and then roughen the
surface and sometimes we have also seen people actually chiseling the surface, but that may not
be a good idea all the time. Because when you chisel, this is my opinion.

I have observed this in some of the specimens when you chisel you think you are actually
roughening the surface in a macro level may be it is true, you will have uneven surface
depending on the size of the chisel. But when you really look closer in a millimeter scale, then
you can say or even smaller scale, maybe the powder which is coming at the time of chiseling we
get, the powder will fill this open pores available on the surface, which is probably not
something good.

But at the same time when I say this, if the real practice at site is also by chiseling, then
you do or follow the same practice for making the test specimen that is very important you don’t
want to recommend chiseling in the field and then do a much better practice in the lab to test. So,
that preparation of the substrate is this and this is the repair material here.

So, the surface preparation like the preparation of the specimen is very important in this
particular case the entire test results depend on how rough the interface is. So, if you want to
really see what is actually happening at the site, prepare the surface of the substrate concrete in
the same way as you will practice in the field and then you can say in such case how the system
behaves and these are the reference test methods available.

So, let me just say this once more, you can take a core from the field and then cut
diagonal along that core specimen or a cylinder specimen and replace one half, the top triangle in
this slide in the sketch, replace that with the repair material. You can use the same cylindrical
mold to cast the specimen and do this test.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:02)

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 And then another way is on site if you want to test something without really taking a
specimen to the lab and all that. This is nice equipment available. So, uniaxial tensile test or pull
off test can be conducted on field specimens directly in the field itself, where you can actually
connect this; you can see the instrument here, you can connect this, the bottom portion that hold
on to the concrete surface or the surface of the repair material.

And thus essentially you are doing a tensile test like this. So, you take a core and then
connect this, the holder on to here you will hold. You can see here like that and then you pull the
cylinder prepared and if the cylinder is failing here at the bond line, then you can say the bond
strength is not good. I mean, you can actually assess what is the bond strength.

And if it is failing here, then you can say the bond and the material repair material is very
good, actually the substrate is weaker and if it is failing here then you can say that the bond
material itself has a lower tensile strength than the RS bond, bond line and also the substrate. So,
you can make a lot of meanings out of this test. Because it is done actually on the site, it really
tells you what is actually affecting? Or what is the real behavior of the system in field structures?
(Refer Slide Time: 42:51)

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 Now, direct shear test, where you prepare a specimen and then you see as shown in the
sketch here the red arrows on the left side is holding the substrate in place and typically there
will be a plate here and then you apply a load on to the repair material and you enforce the
material to experience direct shear failure along this plane here. So, this is a very good test again
to do typically in the laboratory and also on the field specimens.

But, you have to see for the case by case which is good and affected by the compressive
strength of both the materials because, depending on the size, there could be some other actions
also coming like this. There will be compression happening here. So, those factors are also there.
That is why it is not widely used test method because of these other mechanisms which will
affect the test results. It is not very easy to do this test.
(Refer Slide Time: 44:11)

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 And also there is a split tensile test, this is a photograph showing one half of the cylinder
is a repair material and the other half is the concrete substrate. And just like the typical split
tensile test, there is no difference between the tests you do exactly. You take a cylinder, which
has both concrete substrate and repair material.

Make sure that the surface or the interface between the repair material and the concrete
surface is perpendicular or it is just like this, it is in the same plane as the load is applied.
Otherwise, if the cylinder is slightly rotated, then you may not be actually doing a right test. So,
that is something important precaution to be taken while doing this test.
(Refer Slide Time: 45:04)

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 Now, to summarize, in this lecture, we looked at various volume change mechanisms, we
summarized about how the coefficient of thermal expansion, modulus of elasticity, drying
shrinkage and creep coefficient etc., can really influence the behavior of the structure and why it
is important to keep these also at a minimum level, especially the coefficient of thermal
expansion, drying shrinkage and creep.

And modulus of all these should be comparable with that of the substrate or the existing
concrete element. If you have difference between these properties; if there are difference
between the substrate and the repair material, then that will induce a lot of issues or the changes
in the volume of the repair and concrete substrate and that will induce shear stresses at the
interface which may have additional problems.

We also looked at what are the ingredients, typical ingredients for repair materials and
how these ingredients affect various properties and what are the qualities and how do we select
these ingredients what are the key properties, how they affect the material behavior also and then
finally, we looked at the bond strength and how they can be tested, bond strength between the
substrate and the repair.

We talked about RS bond, repair material and substrate not the steel concrete bond in
this lecture that is not the point. So, how it can be tested both in the field and in the laboratory

496
and which can help in ensuring good performance over the long period and make sure that you
prepare bond strength test specimens, you follow what is actually happening at site and similar
practices and then do the test for this lecture.
(Refer Slide Time: 47:14)

(Refer Slide Time: 47:15)

And thank you that ends this module.

497
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology-Madras

Lecture -16
Surface preparation and protective treatments
(Surface preparation methods for concrete and steel)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:18)

Hi, this is a module on surface preparation and protective treatments. In this, we will look
at surface preparation methods for both concrete and steel. In the second lecture we will look at
Anti-corrosive and or zinc coating and Sacrificial anode for cathodic protection. And then in the
third lecture we will focus on impressed current cathodic protection and then electrochemical
Re-alkalization, electrochemical chloride extraction.

And also the placement of repair materials, curing and their importance. So, this is how
the module is split. So, today we will look at surface preparation methods for concrete and steel.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:06)

498
 We will look at what are the general surface preparation procedures and then later we
will talk about different type of tools available for various cleaning and cutting and all that steps.
Now, locate area to be repaired using hammer sounding or chain drag that is the step 1 and then
you can see here whether you do some non-destructive testing or whatever way we talked about
that in our previous lectures on delamination and how to detect delaminated area in concrete.

Then, the next step in the process is design and installing temporary shoring system. That
also we talked earlier then comes the removal of the deteriorated concrete. So, as you see in this
picture, you need to use a jackhammer or some kind of tool to remove and the bars which are
damaged by the removal operation or have a significant section loss. So, in this process, let us
say in the process of removal of the concrete, the rebar should not get damaged.

And in case if something like that happens whether you cut the rebar or something
whatever it is. If it happens, then you have to replace those rebar. For example, if I am cutting
this region here, this part here. If I use a saw cut and then to cut the edge, in that process, if the
rebars are cut, then definitely that rebar need to be replaced. Even if it is a partial cut, there will
be stress concentration so you have to replace that rebar or better is to avoid such things.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:58)

499
 Now, recommended geometry for defining the removal region or for defining from which
location concrete should be removed and also for undercutting. So, if you are talking about a
beam as you see in the top left, this is a sectional view and the right side is the elevation of the
same beam, this portion has to be removed. In other words, this much region has to be removed,
the hatched region has to be removed. And that ensures that the new concrete or the repair
material will also go and fill in this space inside the stirrups that ensures better mechanical grip
and the concrete or the new repair material will not fall downward.

So, this is the repair material. Now, if you are talking about an element something like
this, this is the number 2, this is number 1, this is number 3. If you are talking about something
like this a corner or something, then again you have to make sure that there is an under cutting
process or in other words, the concrete from behind the stirrups or the rebars need to be removed.
In case of a slab again here we can see that the concrete below the reinforcement like this
concrete here is removed so that the proper grip is provided.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:38)

500
 So, undercutting is very much important. This is an example showing, how undercutting
can be done. You can see various applications where these are the rebars which were actually
embedded and now completely the rebars are exposed and the concrete behind the rebar is also
removed. And different tools are available for this to remove concrete like water jet. So, you can
see this is a water jet here which is used to remove the concrete until the concrete behind the
rebars are also removed.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:15)

501
 Now, step 3 is preparing the surface boundaries to prevent further edged condition.
Geometry of boundary should minimize edge length. So, you can see here saw cuts are used to
cut the region.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:33)

Now, if I say how do we cut that, how to define this boundary? Let us say you have a
patch repair but as you see in the left side it is an irregular shape. Let us say the concrete
damaged area is irregular in shape. But when you talk about repair, if the shape is irregular that
means, let us look at the bottom left, there are lot of regions where the shape is so irregular and
there are lot of regions where stress concentration can happen.

502
 And also the perimeter of this surface here in this case is much larger than if I actually
make an assumption and cut something like this as you see in the bottom right. If the perimeter is
very large, the amount of bonding material required also will be much higher, but if you make a
cut like this L shape it looks neat. So, aesthetically also it will be pleasing to see and also we will
need less bonding material and at the same time, there will be no or limited region where stress
concentration can happen.

In this case, probably this region you may have stress concentration but again it is much
limited as compared to the case on the left side. So, I am showing here 2 cases where more
perimeters and this is the recommended layout with less perimeter and a well defined shape like
a rectangle and an L shape. And also in this case if you follow the well defined space, the
estimation of the amount of materials required to repair is also easy to calculate.

Because surface area I can define very well and amount of material required also can be
defined very well which is good for both contractor and the client. And at the end, we get a nice
or a very simple shape and also aesthetically pleasing.
(Refer Slide Time: 07:49)

503
 Now, these are some of the examples where you can see in all these, there is a straight cut
which you will see here also you can see it is cut in a very straight well defined manner. And
here on the right side image also you can see a cut something like this is made in a well defined
manner. So, this is how repair work should be done. Now when you make these cuts, make sure
that you don’t cut the rebar as you see on the right side image.

If you cut here, if the cut is deep, then you may cut the rebar also that must be avoided.
So that is something very important. So, the depth of the saw which you use is very important
when you talk about this.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:38)

504
 This is another example of a recommended layout of edge cutting for surface repair. As
you see on the photograph on the left side, you can see some region, it is not that very well
defined only some region it is spalled. But may be the corrosion is happening in the other region
also and to avoid a future problem it is better in these cases to cut something like this. So, instead
of something like this or defining the repair work something like this, we better go for something
like this.

As you see on the right side where the repair region is much better defined, very simple
one straight cut and you see the picture on the top right where such a repair has been done. In
this case some fiber wrapping and lamination also installed. But the point here in this slide is just
to tell you that the definition of the repair region make it as simple as possible.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:49)

505
 I will show you some special tools which are available. I mean towards the end also I will
tell selection of tool is also very important because you can actually save a lot of time and get
higher quality repair work if you use right tools. Now, for example, whenever you talk about
surface repair, first we need to define the repair region or region for repair.

So, you can see different size of circular saws are available if you are talking about a very
thin concrete cutting, some typical circular saw can be used and depending on the thickness of
the concrete floor. I am really showing tools for cutting floors. You can actually go for different
type or different size of blades and that will really ease your work and then at the end you have a
very nice edge cutting or edge is well defined for the repair region. And at the same time, the
amount of work is done in a very short period of time. So, that is also important. Imagine this if
you are actually using some small chiseling tool are something that will take days and days to get
the same amount of work, but if you use a saw and then you can actually get it done very fast and
at the end the work will be of good quality.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:30)

506
 So, previous slide we looked at floors. Now, there are also some special cutting tools
available for cutting walls. You can see here again, the saws of different sizes, this is a large saw
blade; here you can see the blade is very large in diameter. So it depends on how deep you want
to go and then how well defined you want your surface to be. Now, whatever cut we make, it
should be straight.

And if there are curvatures required for the cut which we need to do, then may be
required to overcut. That means, if I have a curvature to be cut like this, first I may have to go a
little bit like straight line and then again like this and then again like this. So, that is how we
really make the curvatures, you cannot really make, curved cut depending on the radius of
curvature.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:36)

507
 Now, concrete cutting and this is again for cutting walls, you can see for cutting walls,
steel is well known pioneer in making these kinds of tools. And you can see here it is not a
circular saw. It is kind of a rectangular saw as you see here, the blade is going something like
this and you can make deep cuts without. So as you saw in the previous one, for cutting
something like this, you need a very large saw or blade which makes it a little difficult for
holding the tool.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:26)

So, in this one, it is very handy tool and you can see on the picture on the bottom left,
very large piece is easily cut out, cores were removed here, so we will define the corner of the

508
cut of the rectangular section and then you can make four edges and it is very easy. Now, when
you talk about cutting always there is a possibility of dust coming.

So, these days there is also water spray that reduces the amount of dust which is flying
during the cutting operation and at the same time it also keeps the metal bits very cold so it does
not wear off very fast. And also diamond Coated or diamond tips are provided on these cutting
tools so they can really cut through very strong concrete elements also.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:30)

Now also, if you are talking about a work associated with concrete pipes, there also this
kind of saw blade can be used and these are straight saws not the circular saw which we used to
use in earlier time. So, straight saw they can go very deep. Deep cuts are possible, that is a main
advantage. This actually comes from the timber industry. That is where it was originally
introduced to cut trees.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:03)

509
 Now, the next step is once you cut the concrete or once you define the region then clean
the surface of the exposed reinforcing steel and concrete. Concrete surface cleaning is very
important when you talk about bond between the repair and the existing or the concrete substrate.
So, the bond in this region here is very important and to achieve a very good bond, that surface
should not have any loose material it should be very well cleaned.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:46)

Now, when you talk about removal of concrete if you are talking about partial depth or if
you were talking about full depth, there are different type of tools available for these different
applications. And it is very important that we select the right tools, because if you don’t select
right tool and then use not an adequate tool, it will end up in taking long long time to prepare the

510
surface and construction time is going to be more and that those kind of delays may not be
suitable in most cases because, when you talk about repair, you are talking about a structure
which is already in use, it is not like a new structure.

So, when it is already in use, you want to minimize the disturbance to the functionality.
So as fast as possible finish the repair and then return the structure. So that means, open the
structure for use. What it means is the turnaround time should be very limited. When we say a
low turnaround time that means you have to go for right tool and essentially it saves time.

Sometimes we think if I have to have some special tool then it is going to take more
money, maybe people generally don’t go for it, but actually, if you really think about it then the
entire project cost, you will have an asset first of all, you will have a tool with you and at the
same time which can be used for next project also. So, if you think in long terms having good
tools always help.

So, this is one such tool which is pneumatic chipping hammer, basically air pressure and
then you have a hammer. So, it is like a replacement of the chisel which we used to use in olden
time I mean we still use. So, but here, the amount of manpower required and the time required is
much less because everything is done in a mechanical way and Automatic tools are available.
Now, these chippers working both on electronic and hydraulic principles are also available.

One thing is, there is a possibility of non uniform removal depending on the level of the
skill of the worker. At the end you may have a non uniform but in most cases it may not be a big
problem as long as there is a proper cleaning of the surface after removal of the concrete is done.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:37)

511
 Scabbler again working on air pressure and then again it is for partial removal and it is
very effective when we talk about removal of about 5 to 6 mm of concrete, very thin layer of
concrete. So, as you see on the picture on the bottom and the middle one you can see that, for
very small region or light removal this could be very useful. Again, there is a possibility of non
uniform removal and unwanted concrete also need not be removed. You should not cause
bruising of the concrete surface.

So, that depends on the amount of the time you apply at the same location. And again all
these power tools when we talk about we must wear proper personal protective equipment, so
PPEs must be worn.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:35)

512
 Now, another thing is again for partial depth removal of concrete, hydro removal or use
of water jets to remove concrete, sometimes high pressure water let us say from about 100 to 200
MPa water pressure is used and then it is remotely controlled as you see on the photograph on
the top right, it is an equipment where water jet is applied and it is an unmanned equipment and
it does not damage steel that is a good thing about it. So, the concrete is removed layer by layer.

And one negative thing is we have to actually clean up all the slurry which sometimes
requires extra effort to clean all that from the site. Again, because you are talking about very
high water pressure PPEs must be worn. Imagine you are talking about cutting concrete. So, if
that water jet is hitting on your skin, it is going to cut the skin too. So that is very important. So,
special protective gear must be worn.
(Refer Slide Time: 20:51)

513
 I am going to show you some detail about this water jet, where plain water jet and
abrasive water jet that means the water jet with some abrasive material inside and pulsating
water jet. In a particular research study these 3 were studied and how effective each one of these
is.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:15)

So, this is schematic diagram for a pulsating water jet. So, you can see here the pulsating
jet that means, it is sprayed, not continuously as you see on the picture on the right side, you can
see that, there is like this, you can see here there is a gap between each jet which is coming, so it
is like a pulse. So, pressure is very high again in this.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:47)

514
 This is a photograph here shows how the different type of water jets can influence the
rate of removal of concrete as you see on this picture, the number 1 and number 6 are examples
of the effect due to continuous water jet in other words the water is continuously flowing or jet is
continuous. And in this case between 2 to 5, these 4 were done with pulsating water jet you can
very clearly see 1 and 6 the amount of material loss is less and 2, 3, 4, 5 the amount of material
loss is very high.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:38)

And this is again, just a graph showing very clearly the difference, when you have a flat
and continuous that means the energy required to remove the same amount of concrete is very

515
high whereas, you have pulsating or even if it is continuous, but not the flat water spray, it
require less amount of energy to remove the same amount of concrete.

So, definitely the type of tool which you use really influences the outcome that is the
message from this. So, you have to use right tool. So that you don’t have to spend much energy
and money at the site, invest that money on a particular tool and then spend minimum amount of
time at site which is good for everybody else also and then you get the work done at fast rate that
is the best thing.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:40)

Now, after removal of concrete you might expect that there will be these micro-level
uneven surfaces on the concrete surface. Now, what will happen? Imagine in the case of a wall
this may not be always a case but, if you are talking about a floor, water can get filled in this fine
pores. So, it is very important that the water from the fine pores must be removed or mainly you
must ensure it is at least a saturated surface dry condition.

So, if you have too much of water in this fine pores which are created because of the
concrete removal processes, then when you add new repair material, either locally you will have
very high water-cement ratio and at the same time that will lead to a very poor quality bond. So
that is why very important to keep the surface either dry or saturated surface condition. Dry is

516
best, but saturated surface dry condition is also sometimes ok, because always you cannot; I
mean but at least it should not be completely wet.

Some water maybe some time ok or you allow that water to get absorbed by the
surrounding concrete, allow some time. So, it will dry but best is to keep it completely dry and
then follow the manufacturer recommendations, if they say moisture in the surface then go for it,
the cleaning water should not be left inside this.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:39)

Now, another tool for partial depth removal is rotary milling machines. Again you can
see here existing concrete can be removed and the surface can be removed with this, very nice
diamond tipped tools here very hard the metal with the very high hardness and such tools can be
used and you can see this is also removed. Now, especially this is used when you talk about very
large surface like in case of a highway or road structure or a pavement where you want to
provide an overlay.

And in such case you want to ensure that there is very good bond between the overlay
and the substrate. So, milling machine will also ensure sufficient roughness is there on the
concrete surface and one thing is you cannot mill it beyond the cover depth. So, if the cover
depth is non uniform then it might be a problem in using this type of tools. But if cover depth is

517
uniform or the cover is at least some minimum number then up to that depth you can probably go
for removing concrete up to that depth.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:11)

Now, this is also widely used tool in India we call it usually jack hammers. It is
essentially a hammer which keep on hitting the concrete heart and different capacity hammers
are available and but again PPEs must be worn when we use this. And other thing is that it
should not damage the reinforcing steel that is inside the concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:46)

Now, when you talk about full depth removal of concrete, not just partial depth removal,
then you might need a more powerful tools because you are talking about much deeper removal

518
of concrete, deeper that means high volume also. And then usually these are all fitted on to this
large construction equipment. As you see on the picture on the right side, you can see here there
is a bit which is fitted on to the end of this backhoe here, this is another example.

Both are for removal of road structures and it is typically remote control because the
amount of pressure you are talking is very high. And again, you should avoid bruising of the
concrete, PPEs must be worn that is something which we have to really work on.
(Refer Slide Time: 28:37)

Now splitters here you can see usually the holes are drilled like this and then you insert
something into the concrete and then you exert a lateral pressure which will split the concrete
like you see here. It is splitting the concrete here also a crack is formed, something like that. So,
you go deeper into and then provide lateral pressure either by a hydraulic wedge action or a fluid
pressure or even some cement which you put inside.

And then let it expand which creates a lot of lateral pressure and then that is how we do
this and in the sequence in which you apply is also very important. For example, in the case
which I am showing here, if the slab is ending here then this could be the first hole which we
need to do and then split it and then come here this is number 2 and then in that will remove this
concrete.

519
 And then come for. So, you have to see how do I progress you cannot start from the
center of the slab or something, you have to start from an edge which will make the job very
easy.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:57)

Now, Hydro demolition again for partial removal of concrete, here again, I think I
already discussed this a little bit, but you can see here full depth is removed. Especially when
you talk about the thin slabs, we can actually use this Hydro demolition or water jets to remove
even the full depth concrete and the good thing is the steel rebar is still intact, it does not really
do anything to the steel reinforcement. So that is the advantage of this. Steel is still maintained as
it is whereas the entire concrete is removed.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:35)

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 Let us now talk about how the steel reinforcement; not about the concrete but about the
steel bars. How do we clean the steel bars? Because it is also very important after the concrete is
removed. You can see on this picture here, the concrete is removed, but now you can see
corroded steel rebars. So, what do you do before placing the repair material you must ensure that
the rebars are also or the surface of the rebars are also prepared for the repair work.

So, heavy rust if it is there must be removed and scales if it is there that also must be
removed. But if there is only light rust which you can remove by your hand if it is the case then it
may be ok to remove and the slight cleaning would be sufficient in such case even an emery
paper or something you can use but again the light is based on the judgment of the person so if it
is so hard to ensure that it is really light, otherwise it is better to remove the rust completely.

And make the bars really shiny as much as possible means grayish in color. So that there
is no rust present and also there are no particles which cause the rust like chlorides and others are
also removed from the steel surface. Now, some of the tools needle scalars, water cleaning in the
jet also abrasive blast cleaning, sandblasting and then power wire brushing..
(Refer Slide Time: 32:19)

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 So, all these are the tools which are used for removing the rust from the steel
reinforcement. Main idea is removal of corrosion products that is rust and then removal of
chloride contaminated or even carbonated concrete around the steel. Because this chlorides and
carbonation is the reason for the steel to corrode. So, if we leave that type of concrete there then
the steel might corrode again even after providing new repair material.

So, that is why it is very important to remove the entire contaminated concrete or bad
concrete from the steel surface. And we talked about under cutting that is important to
mechanically anchor the repair material to the substrate. And when you talk about substrate
undercutting let us say this is this is how the rebar was and when we are undercutting.

So that means when you undercut after the repair material, the entire surface of the rebar,
all the full circle even behind the bar you get the same, the bar is exposed to the same
cementitious system. If you don’t do an undercut, so let us say here, if the bar is something like
this that means it is not an undercut case. In such case the new repair material will be only up to
here.

This portion at the bottom of the bar that is this portion, this darker shaded portion that
will be the old concrete and the portion on top half will be new concrete and that will create a
battery like here. So what it means is there is a possibility of corrosion to happen in the very near

522
future, this is the problem because most of the time we do not do all this cleaning and don’t do
repair work properly.

And then what happens is in another 3, 4 years again the same steel continues to corrode
and then there is a significant problem and then the repair fails. So, this is where cathodic
protection and the proper preparation of the concrete surface and the steel surface becomes very
important. So, let us stop doing this patchwork, when there is a corrosion, do the patchwork in a
proper way do proper undercutting.

Then place the proper repair materials and if necessary also adopt cathodic protection so
that the repair will be durable. The durable repair is our key objective here.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:26)

Now, this is another needle scalers you can see here they are used to clean the rust from
the steel reinforcement and these are also available in a different power. Imagine using a tool like
this and clean this rebar instead if you are actually telling a person to go take a wire brush or an
emery paper and then go clean the rebar surface, you will not be able to remove the thick heavy
oxide layers or the heavy rust which is on the steel surface. So sometimes we must go for these
heavy duty tools. Otherwise the repair work will be not of good quality it will fail very soon and
then you will end up in spending again and again. You need more and more money to do the
same work.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:19)

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 High pressure water cleaning. You can see here this entire rebar concrete is removed. A
perfect undercutting is done. You can see here undercutting. Undercutting is very important
when you talk about the repair work. And water mixed with sand cleans faster. Because when
you talk about sandblasting, it generates a lot of dust which creates an uncomfortable
environment.

You can see the person here actually in a full gear fully covered, because the pressure is
very high you can see here 20 to 70 MPa pressure is used and then it creates a roughened surface
which will promote better bond with repair material so that is very important to use this high
quality specific tools for achieving the target.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:29)

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 Now sand and abrasive blast cleaning in the previous slide it was mixed with water and
here I am showing if it is not mixed with water how it is. Again, similar you can see here,
pressurized air projected through a nozzle a best for cleaning both the steel and concrete surfaces
environmental concerned when it is dry, but nowadays there are also tools available where there
is a vacuum attached to the sandblaster so you don’t really see dust around.

So, whatever dust is created, it is immediately collected, so that the dust pollution is not
concerned. So, point is we have to use these kinds of tools and the contractors and the
stakeholders must enforce this thing also. They should promote the use of these kind of tools by
seeing the advantage and getting a better quality repair work done by the end.

Here you can see when you use this abrasives jet it will also clean the rust at the backside
of the rebar. So, it will hit the concrete surface first and then reflect back on to the steel. Let me
show you more clearly. It hits the concrete surface, reflect back onto the steel and then again
behind the rebar also it is cleaned. That is the beauty of it.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:57)

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 Now another material available is rust remover not by mechanical action, but by chemical
action. What is the advantage of that if you say? In the top image you can see a corroded rebar;
lot of corrosion and if you take an emery paper or a wire brush or something like that, still there
will be some rust which is actually attached or adhered, well entrapped inside the flakes or the
scales on the rebar surface. As you see here these rust were actually very difficult to remove.

Now, my proposal would be you do this first use the mechanical tools to clean maximum
rust possible. Then you also provide rust remover which is chemical which can be basically
acids, which can actually remove the rust and then you have a very well cleaned surface for the
application of the repair material. You can also go for these water jets that will also help much
better than just going by emery paper or something, but the choice of this water jet or rust
remover will depend on the amount of the repair work.

If it is a small region to get a water jet, it might be very difficult, nobody would even
come for doing the work because, it is much expensive. So in such case get a small bottle of rust
remover and do it that might work better. So the engineers have to make the judgment on which
type of tool is good for specific application.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:52)

526
 Also rust remover, it is very easy to apply. The picture here is not about steel rebar in
concrete but this is something which I found from the internet from the web but it just explains
very well how it works. So, it is very easy to apply and then effective rust removal even from
areas which are difficult to reach and penetrate.

It means, if you are using a mechanical tool, you cannot reach it, but even on the micro
scale, if you look at the very fine pores on the steel surface, it can. Where the mechanical tools
may not be effective in such case the chemical will actually penetrate and clean the entire surface
as you see on the bottom right.

You can see this region is very well cleaned, there is not much rust left which is difficult
to achieve with a mechanical tool and grayish liquid, which can so the it converts into a rusty
surface will change to a grayish liquid and then which can be removed and this is very important
after drying remove the loose rust particle by scrubbing so everything has to be removed.

And this is the most important part here wash the steel surface with water jet. Why
because these type of chemicals are essentially acidic in nature and you don’t want to leave any
acidic residue on the steel surface. So, cleaning is very important when you are talking about rust
removers they are not supposed to stay there on the steel surface for long period or after

527
removing the rust they need not be there. So it has to be water washed very well. So that Future
corrosion will not happen.
(Refer Slide Time: 43:01)

So, to summarize, we talked about surface preparation of both concrete and steel, it is
very important to ensure durable repair and regular shape repairs last longer, because irregular
shape there will be stress concentrations and it will be difficult the quality of the work will not be
that good as compared to the simple shape and that also helps in estimating the amount of
materials required.

And also aesthetically pleasing and undercutting beyond the depth that means the entire
rebar surface should be exposed even the surface which you cannot see or behind the rebar that
concrete also should be removed. So that, you get better mechanical grip and at the same time,
the rebar will complete the full circle or the full surface of the rebar will be exposed to the same
repair material.

So that, you don’t have any potential for corrosion cell to develop. In other words, no
steel should be exposed to both the old or the substrate concrete and the repair material. It the
entire steel should be covered by the repair material and at the ends or the edges you can provide
cathodic protection to prevent halo effect, which we will discuss in the next lecture.

528
 And then, the corroded steel also must be cleaned properly to achieve very strong bond it
is not only the concrete but the steel surface also should be very well cleaned. And as much as
possible the rust must be removed. And then specific tools can ensure better quality work and
selection of tool is very important. We must think that if you get a proper tool, you will actually
spend less time at the site.

Just imagine a case where you are nailing onto the wall, if you take a rock piece and then
try to hammer it and in a second case, you take a proper hammer and hammer it. In which case if
the work will be of good quality and definitely if you have a proper hammer, it will be much
easier to do and it will be safer to do rather than using a rock piece with irregular shape because
in practice we do all this things.

That is why I am telling so. This is the time for us to change the way we think, there
should be a significant change in the mindset of the decision makers. Also to tell people on site
to go for better quality tools and when you go for better quality tools your work will be easy to
do more comfortable and it will take less time and at the end, the end product will also be very
good and durable.
(Refer Slide Time: 46:14)

529
 And these are the references I used for this lecture. And thank you next lecture we will
talk about corrosion, the treatment for the steel. How we can protect the steel from corrosion.
Thank you.

530
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology-Madras

Lecture No. 17 – Part 1

Surface Preparation and Protective Treatments
(Protective treatment for steel reinforcement)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:23)

Hi, in this module on surface preparation and protective treatments, this is the second lecture and
in which we will look at the Anti-corrosive or Zinc coating and also look at Sacrificial Anode
Cathodic Protection (SACP).
(Refer Slide Time: 00:40)

531
What are the various treatments available to protect the steel reinforcement? These are the 3
general category you can see alkaline slurry protection and then cathodic prevention and
protection. If you are talking about protecting the steel before the steel starts corroding, then we
call it cathodic prevention. And if we are applying the same technique to protect a steel which is
already started corroded, then we call it cathodic protection.

And then we have an third category which is electrical insulation of the reinforcement. So, in this
electrical insulation of the reinforcement we already covered that in our module on coated
reinforcement, especially the Nonmetallic coating where we talked about fusion bonded epoxy
coated rebars in earlier lecture.

Now, today we will focus on this first two which is alkaline slurry protection and cathodic
prevention and cathodic protection. So, in the alkaline slurry protection the main idea is this
alkaline slurry which is applied on to the rebar, it provides an alkaline environment and hence
gives more protective environment to the steel. In the cathodic prevention and protection case there
are 3 major types which we are going to discuss today is first is a Zinc coating is directly applied
to the rebar surface or directly applied onto the steel reinforcement which is this case here. So, you
can see here the yellowish color, it is indicating that, and then in the second type is where zinc is
applied to the concrete surface or a coating of zinc is applied to the concrete surface which
sacrifices itself to protect the steel.

532
And that coating is electrically connected to the steel reinforcement. We will show you the more
details later and then a third category is where an anode is connected or more typically a zinc anode
is connected to the bar with an impressed current applied, that is one case and also you can see
here or it can be either an impressed current technique or a sacrificial anode technique.

So, in this lecture, we are going to focus more on the sacrificial anode connected to the bar,
impressed current technique we will talk about that in the next lecture. So, today we are going to
cover only this Sacrificial Anode Technique.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:56)

Now, Alkaline Slurry Coating, you can see the pictures at the bottom. Where a powder is mixed
with the cement slurry, where you get at the end very highly alkaline, but cementitious also in
nature and then that is applied on to the rebar surface. Which provides an alkaline environment
and also a mechanical barrier and at the same time, that way it provides very good resistance
against corrosion.

And this is an example bridge on the top right what you are seeing is it is a pile construction for a
coastal bridge where this kind of coatings were applied and however, please note that this coating
is not adequately applied. So, that is why I put this picture here. So, when you talk about these

533
coatings, if they are not applied properly, then you do not get a good protection, rather it adversely
affects the performance of the steel.

So, whenever we talk about coating, it is always better to provide a good coating and protect the
coating from scratching etc. And at the same time when you apply the coating, you should apply
it continuously on the steel surface otherwise, they tend to give a negative result or in other words
it makes the steel more vulnerable to corrosion.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:34)

An Anti-corrosive coating is another category, typically they are also rich in zinc and because of
that, they have Electro Chemical action and then typically used for rebars in the existing structures.
Typically, when the steel has already started exhibiting some corrosion, we clean the rust from the
steel and then protect or coat the steel.

As you can see on the picture on the left side a structure where there was heavy corrosion and then
you can see grey color coating applied on to the corroded steel rebar and on the right side also you
can see it is being applied on to the corroded steel rebar, but after cleaning the loose rust. And it
essentially provides a localized cathodic protection because there is zinc, which is present in the
entire chemical or the coating.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:46)

534
Now, how do they really work? We will see on this; inorganic zinc rich paints or coatings are
available. And one point to note here these are not like the galvanized steel where we go for hot
dipped, in this case it is a cold galvanization. In other words, the temperature you are directly
applying this on to a steel which is kept at an ambient temperature, it is not very high temperature
like in the case of hot dipped galvanization.

So, this cold galvanizing is what is being done and the material typically contains Metallic Zinc in
the dry film. Zinc dust is in spherical or laminar shape, and the chemical nature of the binder and
the zinc particle determines how efficient this will.

So, as you can see in presence of oxygen and moisture you have this oxygen reduction reaction
happening and the metallic zinc gets oxidized. And then it becomes zinc 2+, releasing 2 electrons.
As you can see here, metallic zinc here in presence of Oxygen and H2O and then what eventually
happens is you can see zinc Z and O is formed, especially on the surface of the steel or near the
steel surface.

So, you can see here in this reaction, you can see the final product is Zinc oxide and that gives this
good protection for the steel.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:30)

535
And there is also one more special type of primers available which is actually zinc, which is present
in silicate based matrix or glassy silicate matrix and in which this also provides very superior
galvanic corrosion protection and because of this superiority it is very good for coastal
environment other words, there the expected corrosion rate is typically high.

So, in such cases you will need high performing coatings. So, this is one type of such coating and
in the mechanism wise you can see here on the left side the 2 red arrows which are going down
that indicate the ingress of the different chemicals from the environment. And you can also see a
lot of cracks in that region.

And which are actually filled by Zinc2+ or oxidized zinc ions and then that kind of provides the
protection from corrosion, Zinc Hydroxy carbonates are formed and or they are trapped inside the
layer and which provides this galvanic protection.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:04)

536
Now, whenever we talk about any of these coatings, one important thing to remember is that this
coating is meant for steel and not for the concrete. So, here you can see on the picture on the top
left there is a gray color coating which is also accidentally applied on to the concrete surface. Now,
imagine how you will get a good bond in this region where the concrete also is covered or coated
with this primer.

So, it is not a good idea to apply and also this picture here, I mean this picture is like, you can see
that steel is almost corroded, completely lost, probably it is better to provide a new rebar in that
case or replace with a new rebar rather than trying to spent money on this coating and applying on
that and all the workmanship efforts required to do this job, instead the best thing is to remove that
steel and probably provide new rebar because that steel rods are almost corroded, nothing is left.

So, in such cases the engineer should take a better judgment, So that, we don’t waste money by
just applying chemicals left and right. So, that is something which is very important to note. Like,
whenever we talk about these chemicals, you have to also see where you want to apply them, is it
really beneficial to do so or is there a better way of doing things.

And also, here you can see in this picture, a lot of this yellow color coating is applied on the
concrete adjacent to the steel rebar, that is something which we don’t want to do. So, and also if
you think about the amount of chemical used or wasted by being applied on to the concrete surface,

537
you can just imagine how much is the surface area of the steel and what is the surface area of the
surrounding concrete on which this coating is applied, it is just mere waste.

So, we have to, how do we do this? I would say give the workman, a very small brush, which is
having a diameter exactly like that of the rebar that will solve the purpose, but these are these are
the simple ways by which we can ensure that the work is done in a right way. And also tell them
that they did not face this by applying onto the concrete. It is only meant for steel.

And if the workers realize that the by applying this coating onto the concrete surface will actually
create more damage or you know create more problem, then most of the workers will not do it,
they will be more careful. But in most cases they are not aware of the adverse effect and that is
why these kind of things happen, but we must stop it by educating more and more people.

So, I would say we should spend some time in the beginning to educate the skilled labor or working
personnel. That is very important, but we sometimes don’t do it. Now, on the right side is a good
practice where you can see only the reinforcement is having the coating and not the concrete
around it. So, this is how it should be done. This is a very good practice and not the one on the left
side.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:55)

538
Now, when we talk about conventional repair, bottom left you can see a rebar which is heavily
corroded. So, what we will do? We will usually clean this rebar, apply some coating and then patch
it. So, what happens in this typical patch repair is the hidden corrosion still continues to happen,
and we call it something called halo effect.

I am going to explain what that halo effect is, as you see on the picture on the bottom right, you
can see this region has the concrete. So, the center portion of the image shows the new repair
material, which is good quality concrete or new concrete, noted here as localized repair and
concrete around it, it is still having some carbon dioxide or carbonated concrete or it has some
chlorides in it.

So, in such cases, the steel rebar goes through the two concretes here you can see goes through the
old concrete and the new concrete. Now the point is when the same steel rebar goes through the
old and new concrete which has different chemistry or the different pH environment then, it
automatically creates a battery or a corrosion cell at that interface and which leads to the formation
of anode here, and the cathode here.

So, this battery is formed right across the interface between the old and new concrete. So, how do
we avoid this corrosion from happening? This corrosion which is occurring in the old concrete
after the repair this happens in couple of years, most often you will see that this corrosion happens
which we call Halo effect. And this leads to a frequent repair.

I would mention here in one of the international conferences people were even discussing about
changing the name of the conference to International Conference on concrete repair rehabilitation
to the power n, jokingly, but it is something very serious because we are repairing and we are
going again and again and repairing the same portion of the structure, because we are not doing a
durable repair or we are not thinking about what will happen after the repair is done. Whether it is
going to be really long lasting or not. So, in such cases, what do we do?
(Refer Slide Time: 16:44)

539
In this slide, we are showing a Sacrificial Anode Cathodic Protection system or SACP. The first
generation of that technique, where you can see a zinc coating is applied on the concrete surface
with which is having a rebar embedded and then there is a connection between the steel rebar and
the zinc coating, which is also very important to for the system to function. So, it is not like just
applying a coating.

In the case of rebar, when you apply a zinc coating onto the steel rebar directly there is an electrical
connection, but in this case when you apply the zinc coating on the concrete surface, then you have
to actually connect that coating material to the steel rebar, an electrical connection is required. And
this type of system used to work very well for low cover and low resistive concretes which are the
type of concrete which were used probably couple of decades earlier. So, in such cases it used to
work very well.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:53)

540
I will show you some examples. This is an example where you can see such coating applied when
the cover concrete was relatively less, and the concrete was also relatively porous in nature, and
you can see the thickness of the coating applied in this particular case, this is a bridge column is
about 400 micron thick and you can see this, I got this picture from Dr. Sergi of Vector Corrosion
Technologies.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:30)

And you can see that another example here again this is a bridge in Paris and one another bridge
in Texas. You can see significant cracking on this girder here and here also there are a lot of
cracking on this girder and then which were addressed or the corrosion was arrested by applying

541
zinc coating which is electrically connected to the steel reinforcement inside. Now, the positive
thing about this technique is that that does not really create much of disturbance to the traffic.

You can apply this overnight and then get the job done. And then long-term protection is provided,
but when the cover depth increases or when the resistivity of the concrete increases, then this
technique does not work very well. So, I have shown that in the red text in this yellow box, so,
when you have a larger cover or a highly resistive concrete then this may not be really a good
technique to go for.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:31)

So, in such cases, we actually borrowed some ideas which were already in practice in other fields.
So, this is one example where sacrificial anode system is used for protecting buried pipelines where
you have an anode system which is electrically connected to the underground pipe and depending
on the resistivity of the soil you can really protect this buried concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 20:04)

542
And another area where this Sacrificial anodes are widely used is ocean or offshore structures,
where you can see in this particular example, which is a Riser of an offshore platform, you can see
all these are the anodes which are connected and how the electrical circuit is completed in this case
is because these structures are immersed into the seawater. So, the seawater itself helps in
completing the electrical circuit. So, that is why you will see that in concrete structures, we have
to have the circuit completed.

We cannot put an anode on the surface of the concrete and expect it to perform, it is not going to
work very well you have to have actually embed the anode or it should be completely in contact
with the concrete. So that the electrical circuit is completed, because I have seen examples where
anodes are just connected to the concrete surface and they actually staying in air, which is not a
good practice and it will not function.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:16)

543
So, we have to actually embed the anodes when you talk about concrete structures. Like you see
here, you can see on the picture on the bottom right there are rebars and then the concrete cover is
removed and the anodes are embedded inside. And bottom right image also shows the, same thing
and this is how it is connected. So, you can see a typical anode system, where you have a zinc disc
at the center.

And which is covered by encapsulating mortar, which is not just cement. Because why I am saying
this is there are a lot of anodes available in the market, which are just some cement packed around
the zinc disk. It does not work and why it does not work? I will cover that later, but you had to
really think about these are not just a zinc plate connected to a tie wire and then put it in mortar
that is not how it is.

So, this encapsulating mortar has to have an active cementitious metrics, what it means is that the
zinc element meets a pH of about 13+, pH should be greater than 13, if the pH is greater than 13
then zinc corrodes. So, for the zinc anode to corrode, you should ensure that the surrounding
material is having a very high pH for the entire life of the structure. If you are designing this repair
for let us say 20 or 25 years for that entire period the zinc has to have high pH around it.

Otherwise it will not corrode and it the system will not function. And also, this tie wire should not
corrode because we have also seen cases where tie wire gets corroded and it gets disconnected

544
from the zinc anode, then also the system does not work. So, it is and on one more thing is when
you talk about the zinc corrosion, it also has some expensive property but not like the steel. But a
little bit and then that the end this encapsulating mortar should have sufficient air voids or void
space to accommodate to all the zinc when it corrodes.

So that it does not crack and creates other problems. So, these are all considered while designing
a good quality, sacrificial anode system. But unfortunately, in the market, there are many things,
many anodes which are of poor quality and one should be very careful while choosing these anodes
otherwise you will be spending a lot of money and then you won’t get the return.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:06)

Now, what are the advantages of this? There is no need for externally applied current, because it
is you are putting a zinc into the concrete and then expecting that zinc to react as and when it is
based on the corrosion current or based on the environment if it is a more let us say you have a
same system during the rainy season maybe because of the more high moisture condition you will
have a higher demand.

While the same concrete during summer, the demand will be less but the good thing about this
sacrificial anode system is they will supply the current based on what is the demand from the steel
and hence protecting the steel from further corrosion which does not really happen when you did

545
not have these kinds of systems. And so, if you are just covering up with patch material, it does
not really give you long life.

But with the sacrificial anode systems, you can really get or extend the life by about 20, 25 years.
And at that time, we can also replace, let us say the system consumes the entire anode in about 25
years, you know exactly where the anodes are placed and you can take it and then put new anodes
replaced without really damaging the entire structure. So, we really can extend the life of the
concrete structure significantly.

And so self-regulating, I have already explained and minimal monitoring say once it is connected
and the beginning it is insured, then maybe every 5 years to go back and just check whether it is
functioning or not. And one negative thing about is once you install these anodes, you cannot really
increase the demand which is a good thing in case of ICCP system or impress current system.

Where if you have much higher corrosion happening, much higher demand for current output from
these anodes. In the case of ICCP system, which I am going to discuss in the next lecture, where
you have a control on how much current you can apply, but in this, you don’t have a control. So,
if you have, if you end up in something like that, you add more anodes that is the only option at
that time, but that is not something which is very bad, because you can always design for what
based on the current demand.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:36)

546
Now, how this works? So, until now I told generally what is the benefit of doing using these
anodes, so how they work? So, you can see on the top right in this image, you have a chloride free
patch or the new concrete. And reinforcement was actually corroding when you put this chloride
free patch, the reinforcement in this region is now an exposed to a good quality concrete so it does
not corrode.

But the reinforcement over here, which is now in the old concrete, it because of the halo effect,
which we discussed earlier, this region will tend to corrode and that is why it is showing - 350
millivolts on the steel in the left side, which is chloride contaminated concrete. Now, when you
connect this anode to the steel, what happens is the steel potential changes and then you can see
that the potential of the corroding zinc is -1100 millivolt.

So, now, the there is a flow of electron from the zinc to the steel and so, the steel is protected and
the zinc is corroding and then essentially you have more positive potential for the steel and then
we can say the steel is actually protected because of the electrical connection to the zinc. So, that
is something and one more thing is very important here is if you put potential measurement unit
like any copper sulphate electrodes or any of so those electrodes which we typically use for half-
cell potential measurement.

547
If you put those instruments on this, measure the potential which you are measuring is not the
potential of the steel, but it is the mixed potential of the steel-zinc connected system. So, we should
not adopt this as ASTM C876 criteria of - 350 millivolt or - 250 millivolt, that criteria which we
discussed in an earlier slide or earlier lecture, that criteria cannot be adopted.

So, all this if you adopt it you are actually not really measuring what you want to measure because
that criteria is the ASTM C876 criteria is meant for the steel potential, but when you measure the
potential of a rebar system, where the galvanic anodes are also connected, you are measuring the
mixed potential of both the steel and zinc and not the potential of only the steel.

Hence, the criteria given in ASTM C876 cannot be applied to the, galvanically protected reinforced
concrete system. It is very important to tell this because many places people still adopt that and
which is then they say that is minus more than negative than -350. So, system is corroding but it
is not true.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:58)

Now, what are the design parameters when you talk about sacrificial anodes? We need to know
what is the resistivity of the concrete. So, if you have a highly resistive concrete maybe you will
need more anodes because the current which is supplied by the anode has to pass through this
concrete to reach the steel. So, that is also something, the ionic current I am talking. So, the
resistivity of the concrete is very important.

548
Steel density, how much steel is there? So, if for one anode; or one anode can protect a particular
area or surface area of the steel and in this vicinity if you have more steel than you will need, more
anode to protect that steel provided the corrosion rate is similar and then exposure condition. So,
the more the chloride the more the contamination, the more is the current demand. That means the
more is the amount of anode required when I say amount of anode it’s also important to think
about this surface area of the anode. It is not just the mass but surface area of the anode.

So, you can see here on the picture at the bottom where about 6 discs. 1 to 6 discs of zinc is placed,
they are all connected together and so, that has more surface area to supply sufficient electrons to
the steel reinforcement nearby. This picture over here shows an example where there you can see
here small holes are drilled and these anodes are all getting connected.

In series, you can see there is a little red wire which goes and which are all connecting all the
anodes and then these are anodes are embedded into these drilled holes and protect the
reinforcement in the vicinity.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:57)

Now, these are some different types of anodes available with comes in various shapes but the point
here main thing to note, I just want to say here is that these are the original type where they embed
the anode and you can actually reach as close as possible to the steel rebar that is the idea of giving

549
or coming up with these embedded type anodes rather than an anode, which is applied on the
surface.

So, typically when we talk about impressed current technique, then we put the anode on the surface
of the concrete. That is how usually it is done, whether maybe specific cases but in general, and in
the case of sacrificial anode system, these anodes are embedded into the concrete and then covered
so that after the work is over, people would not even know that there is some type of repair being
done or some kind of electrochemical activities happening.

But in the case of impress current you will see this boxes where rectifiers where and then where
the current is being controlled and which need to be protected from vandalism etc. So, in case of
galvanic anode protection system or sacrificial anode protection system, you did not have to worry
about those vandalism that which is very important.

So, and this on the left side you can see some of these discreet anodes which can be installed in
drilled holes at various locations in the concrete structure. On the right side you can see distributed
anodes which are connected or to the rebar and then kept parallel to the rebar and this works very
well when you talk about coated rebar system because it is something where, you don’t know
where the damage is and then so.

And wherever there is a damage you have to protect them. So, you can see that kind of system also
works very well this long anode it is not stripped, but it is like a long piece which can be installed
and the structure can be protected for a long term.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:15)

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Now some tip is very important because, most often when you have any new technology that
technology gets killed if the application or implementation is not done properly. So, it is very
important to know how that system works. What are the essential things for that system to work?
And are we actually doing all that while installing, but if you don’t do all that, then we cannot
blame the system or the technology but you have only blame the workmanship.

So here is something which is very important when you talk about these anodes. So, you have to
really connect these anodes. If the tie wire which comes out of the anode, you have to really make
sure that it is tied very well and as you see on this photograph on the top left I just marked that it
is very well tied. Now imagine you have this rebar which is heavily corroded. Imagine a case, and
you tight it very well.

So you have to, wherever you tie the anode must ensure that rust is removed. This rust must be
removed because rust is an insulator rust must be removed, and then we will check the electrical
connection, I will show that in the next slide. So, this is how an anode is connected. So, you have
to tie this very well, tie around and tighten it very nicely and then you can see how it is connected
over here. So tightening is very important.

So the tie wire should be electrically connected to the rebar and then there should not be any
possibility of the repair material getting in between, if you don’t tie them very tightly, what will

551
happen is when you place the repair material, they can actually get into the space between the tie
wire and the steel rebar, and then you lose the electrical connection? So that is not something which
is favorable. So you have to really tie them very well.

Now, loop the first anode tie wire, Twist and tighten using hook and then Bend their twisted wires
against the reinforcing steel. My student made this nice drawing sketch here, Very Good. So, this
is something which is very important when we talk about galvanic anodes and their insulation.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:44)

This is a poor practice we must avoid this. So, we must go for very tight good electrical connection.
So as you can see here, there is an anode hanging from the beam where it was installed, I only took
this picture. So, you can see that it is not a good practice and then we enforce that this is really tied
it very well otherwise eventually what will happen is after a few years, this anode is not working.

So, they will come back and tell you that the cathodic protection technology itself is bad, but what
is bad is not the technology, but the way it is implemented. So, tying of the anode to the
reinforcement and getting a very good electrical connection is important. So, you have to remove
the rust from the steel surface.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:37)

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This is another example you can see here is very loosely tied. This also very loosely tied. So, earlier
I was telling the concrete can or the repair material can get into the space between the tie bar as
you see here, this circle right here if you see, you can see that the there is some space between the
tie wire you have to look very closely to the image there is some space between the tie wire and
the corroded rebar and the rebar also is full of rust.

So, even in this case unless you really remove the rust where the tie wire is, you will not get proper
electrical connection and then the anode will not work and the steel will continue to corrode and
then after a few years you say that anode is not working that is not right. So, the implementation
is very, very important and crucial. Here is another example where this is a picture from a bridge
structure.

Now they expect this anode to function, how is it going to function? there is no electrical circuit
completed, the electrical circuit is not complete, So eventually what happened is you see that all
the tie wires corroded. This zinc which is inside this circular disk is not helping in protecting the
system below. So, this is not how an anode should be connected. You have to ensure that the
electrical circuit is very good.

So, understanding how our system works and then only we should apply. So, in this cases, it is
very clear that the engineer did not understand the mechanism or even the people at site or even

553
the suppliers of the anode should ensure that it is installed properly. Otherwise, the system is not
going to work and eventually we will all blame the technology but this kind of things should not
be practiced.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:52)

Now, how do we check that the anode will actually work? So first thing is checking the electrical
connectivity so you can refer this ISO standard 12696. As you see in this picture here, this person
is connecting the one probe of the multimeter and other to the transfers bar. So, the 2 rebars and
you see whether the connectivity is very good or not and between the rebar and the anode
connections also.

So, you can see here on the bottom picture, he is connecting one terminal to the rebar, and the
another terminal is connected to the tie wire which is coming out of the anode. So, and if you see
that the resistivity is very low when you take these measurements as it is seen on the multimeter
the resistivity is almost 0. When you say that resistivity is or resistance is 0, that means there is a
very good electrical connection between these various points we talked about.

So, in this case, this anode at the bottom that will be able to protect both the rebars in perpendicular
directions. So that is our idea, it is not just to protect the rebar to which it is connected but to protect
the rebar mat or the entire rebar system. So, between all connections if the anodes are connected
using the tie wires, very well cleaned tie wire also should be clean and made sure that there is no

554
rust on the tie wire because if you buy the anode and after some time you connect it there are
possibilities that the tie wire also have some corrosion so all that makes sure that there is no rust
at the time of installation both on the steel and on the anode. Now if the resistance is less than 1
Ohm, we can say that it is very low resistivity and then connection is very good.

If it is less than 1 millivolt potential difference, then also we can say it is very good electrical
connection between the rebars and also good electrical connection between the anode and the
rebar. This becomes very important when you talk about very heavily corroded structure.

What will happen is the rust will get trapped in between the 2 rebars and you will not have a good
connection. So you may have to actually provide another tie wire in that case and clean the surface
of the rebar and make sure that there is a good electrical connection between the, between all the
reinforced steel reinforcement, it’s very, very important sure to ensure that the connectivity
between the systems are very good then only all this galvanic anode systems will work.
(Refer Slide Time: 43:11)

Now, this is an example where it is about 3, 4 storey building and you can see at the bottom of this
column and many of the columns in this line, were actually having this corrosion at the bottom
point and this is a close up here you can see the stirrups are getting corroded why because, this
column is actually absorbing or sucking all the water from the ground because of capillary action
and reinforcement at the bottom is exposed to that moist environment throughout the year.

555
Except maybe, whenever it gets exposed to this and then it contains that concrete around works
like a water sink, and then the rate of corrosion is higher in this case, as opposed to the other
regions on the same column. So how do we protect this because, if one way is by injecting some
chemicals into the bottom of the column, where we work on the pore structure of the column. And
prevent the entry of moisture from ground and at the same time if you can actually provide cathodic
protection, we can stop the corrosion from happening.

And in this case, maybe if the corrosion rate is high, we know exactly where the anodes are placed.
And let us say after 20 years, you take the anode and put a new anode in same place. So this is
something very easy to do. And without really waiting for long term for this column to lose all its
capacity, so by that time, it will be too late. So this is where we say cathodic prevention technique
becomes very important and less expensive than cathodic protection. (Refer Slide Time: 45:02)

Now, this criteria on checking when you install a cathodic protection system or install an anode,
how do we check whether it is working or not? So, one widely used technique is this, we look for
shift in the potential if that shift is greater than 100 millivolt in 24 hours, like you say here follow
this graph. So, this is the Eon that means the potential when the anode is connected to the system
and at this moment we disconnect the anode.

556
So, after that anode there will be a potential drop and so we call that Instant OFF Potential and
then after that there will be a decay in the potential and we after 24 hours, we check this potential
so, let us say here it is 24 hours. Timescale at the bottom so, this is 24 hours time. At that time if
the potential is greater the difference is greater than 100 millivolt or the shift is greater than 100
millivolt.

If the shift is greater than 100 millivolts then we say that the system is working very good. And
also, Instantaneous OFF Potential, if it is less than - 820 millivolt versus the copper sulphate
electrode then also it is good and then a decay of 150 millivolts over an extended period of time.
So, different techniques are have been worked on, because in some cases people also say you
cannot measure on 24 hour basis you may have to go for longer period and then measure, maybe
48 hours in some cases.

We have done in one of our projects where we checked this at 48 hours, and we could see that
there is a decay in the potential and then based on that we decide okay whether the anode is working
or not. Now, these are the typical ranges of current demand, which you can expect when you are
talking about cathodic prevention or cathodic protection, you can very clearly see that in the case
of cathodic prevention. The current demand is less than 2 milliamp per meter square.

Whereas in the case of cathodic protection, there is a higher demand that means the rate of
consumption of anodes will be higher in cathodic protection. So, it is always better to install the
anode before the corrosion starts and so that there is no issues with electrical connectivity also. So,
as we design the structures, if we can provide the anodes at the critical locations where we expect
corrosion, we can also delay the onset of corrosion and really protect the structure for a long time.
(Refer Slide Time: 47:52)

557
Now, various types of anodes are available. I discussed this briefly a little bit earlier but let me tell
this once more. The one type of anode performing significantly different than the other anode. The
reason for these difference in performances are mainly the material of the anode, The zinc itself,
or the metal itself and the surrounding material or we call it activating mortar or encapsulating
mortar different names, but essentially the idea of that mortar is there are 2 roles for that mortar
around the anode.

One is because you have zinc metal, the zinc metal needs high pH typically 13+ for it to corrode
and the system to work the zinc has to corrode then only it can protect the steel. So, you have to
have a mortar which can always provide 13+ pH, for the zinc that is one thing. Now, if the zinc is
corroding what will happen this corroded zinc has to occupy some space there is a little bit of
expansion happening not like the steel rebar, but a little bit expansion.

So, where the zinc dust will go it has to get into the pores around so, that the new surface which is
exposed new surface of the zinc which is exposed, also get the high pH environment so, it is a very
complex system and you have to provide the high pH for the entire design life of the anode which
could be about 20 years or 25 years. So, these are the different shapes whatever be it, we have to
have a high pH environment for the entire design life of the anode.

558
So, the activating mortar should provide that for long term not for just few years from the
installation, but for long term. So, that is where the difficulties in design comes and there are
products available in the market which actually meets those requirements, and also the electrical
connection between the anode and the rebar. If they are not electrically connected, then it is not
like just visual, I am saying, make it very clear that electrical connectivity is very important. Okay.

So, there must be checked before you cover the anode with mortar, before covering the anodes
with mortar, every single anode must be checked for electrical connectivity and that or resistance
value must be recorded. Otherwise, we cannot expect the system to work very well. If you do good
care in doing all these things, then definitely the structure will last as designed.

Now, how do we select these different types of anodes which are available in the market? there
are some test methods available which are meant for ICCP system. So, taking the ideas from that
we have actually developed a short-term test method.
(Refer Slide Time: 51:10)

For sacrificial anodes and we call it GAP test, which is Galvanic Anode Performance test, I thought
this gap test is sounds nice. So, we are going to call this GAP test. So, this is a short video which
shows how the test can be conducted and the significance of this test and what are the things which
by which the, we can detect a particular anode is better than the other anode or whether it will be
able to give the desired life or extension of the life for the structure.

559
560
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Deepak K. Kamde
Karthikeyan Manickam
Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology-Madras

Lecture No - 17 – Part 2
Galvanic Anode Performance (GAP) Test

Hi, welcome to IIT Madras. This is a video on galvanic anode performance test which we
developed here to assess the quality of galvanic anode, which can be used for protecting reinforced
concrete structures from corrosion. So, let me give an introduction on this, why there was a need
for this type of test? We are facing a lot of challenges nowadays in ensuring that the repair works
which are done on reinforced concrete systems are durable.

Most of the time we see that within 5 to 6 years of time we end up going back again to the same
site and then keep doing the repair or repeated repair works. So, one technology which is available
today to ensure that the repairs are durable is galvanic protection or cathodic protection of concrete
structures. Cathodic protection technique involves providing a zinc metal or more active metal and
connect that metal to the steel reinforcement.

However, even though this technology is widely used still we see a lot of sites where the poor-
quality anodes are being used, which again might lead to perception that this technology is not
good. So, there was a need for developing a test method which can help us in assessing the quality
of the anodes in short term, because if the anodes are working very good the service life of
structures can be enhanced by 20 to 25 years.

However, we cannot wait for that long time. So, there was a need for developing a short-term test
method. In other words, in couple of month’s period of time, we should be able to tell whether the
anodes are going to be good or not. A short-term test method to assess the long-term performance
was the need. Considering that we developed method which we are going to call as Galvanic
Anode Performance test or in short GAP test. Deepak and Karthikeyan are working on this, they
are Ph.D. students here in IIT Madras.

561
They will explain more details on how the test is to be done. And also, maybe more on why there
is a need for such tests in detail.

Hi, my name is Deepak Kamde, I am a Ph.D. student at Department of Civil Engineering, IIT
Madras. Today I will be demonstrating you how the galvanic anode performance test can be used
to evaluate the performance of the commercially available galvanic anodes.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:55)

So, on screen you see 2 images; one is from the reinforced concrete structure. On the left side;
This one is from the reinforced concrete structure where a rebar is connected to a galvanic anode
here. On the right side; a galvanic anode performance test setup which can accelerate the process
and tell you how one anode is performing compared to the other anodes and what will be the
service life of the anode. We will see in this presentation how to calculate that.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:40)

562
Let us see how the galvanic anode works. To repair a concrete structure, we do the patch work
here with a freshly placed concrete in this place there is no chloride in this region and there is more
chloride in the remaining portion of the concrete. So, Due to this, we will have difference in the
electrochemical potential. The rebar in the freshly placed concrete can have the electrochemical
potential of – 200 mV which is relatively positive than the electro chemical potential of the rebar
in the parent concrete which is about let us take an example as - 350 mV.

Due to these potential differences, electro chemical cell can form at the interface and corrosion
may initiate at the interface here. To avoid this, what we can do is we can connect a sacrificial
anode, which you see here; when you connect a sacrificial anode the potential of the sacrificial
anode is very negative as compared to any of the potentials I discussed before.

So, the potential of - 1100 mV and these potentials will form a mixed electrochemical cell because
of which the sacrificial anode will corrode and the rebar will be protected.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:11)

563
Now, let us see what is there inside a galvanic anode. So, there is a zinc metal piece in the center
and cementitious metrics surrounding to that which is also called the activation motor, which keeps
the zinc metal active for corrosion and you have a tie wires here which will be finally connected
to the rebar. So, this is how a sacrificial anode looks like.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:40)

And the performance of the sacrificial anode will also depend on these materials. So, material of
the anode that is the zinc metal, surrounding material that is the activation motor and the
connection wire, and how do you connect it to the rebar. The whole performance of galvanic anode
system will depend on these properties.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:07)

564
Commercially there are various sacrificial anodes available. Here you see a lot of examples are
given here, they are available in various shapes and size. When we want to use these anodes, we
need to know which anode performs better for that, and also, we want to know how long these
anodes will be able to protect our reinforced concrete structures. How do we choose these anodes?
We cannot go for trial and error method because the life of the sacrificial anodes which we are
looking at is about 20 to 25 years.

So, we need to know the performance of these anodes in very short time. So, we have developed
a short-term test method, we call it as Galvanic Anode Performance test or GAP test. That is what
I will discuss after this.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:53)

565
So, here you see on the left side we are replicating the same thing from field to the lab. You have
a anode here, which is anode over here, then this rebar is replicated with the nichrome mesh here,
this nichrome mesh is placed at the bottom which is behaving as the rebar in the structures and
surrounding to that we place this cementitious system which is replicating the concrete in the
reinforced concrete structure.
(Refer Slide Time: 07:28)

So, how do we prepare this test specimen for GAP test is we take a galvanic anode, whichever you
want to test, what is the performance of that or what is the life if you want to evaluate the life of
that anode. Take the galvanic anode, remove the activation motor, this is the metal piece inside
this activation motor and measure the area of the galvanic anode. Let us say the area A is taken.

566
Nichrome mesh is a corrosion resistance material, you can take any corrosion resistant material,
we have taken the nichrome mesh. Area of the nichrome mesh should be 5 times the area of the
metal piece. Then take the freshly undisturbed galvanic anode and connect a copper wire or any
wire you can take connect to that.

And prepare a workable cementitious mix using sand, cement and water and then place it any in
any of the mold whichever is to the size of the anode. Our aim here is to keep the cover to 5 mm
surrounding to the whole system. So, only this connection wire will come out. So, ultimately this
GAP test specimen will look like this, you will have metal piece inside activation motor
surrounding to that, one wire coming out this is how the GAP test specimen will look like. So, this
is how one of the example of the GAP test specimen is here.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:29)

This is a detailed procedure for preparing a GAP test specimen you can read this and prepare your
own get GAP test specimen. So, after casting, we cure it for 7 days.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:40)

567
What you see here is the GAP test setup. In this at the base we placed a nonmetallic stand to raise
the level of the GAP specimen. Why are we doing that is to provide sufficient oxygen to the
cathode which is our nichrome mesh which is placed in the bottom of the specimen, and then the
GAP specimen which I explained is placed on top of the nichrome mesh and that is connected to
the positive terminal of the power DC power supply.

And the nichrome mesh is connected to the negative terminal of the DC power supply and then we
apply a potential difference of one volt. We can apply a potential difference less than 5 volts. But
we are restricting it to 1 volt which can be very close to the real scenario and based on this we will
be able to capture very close response of a galvanic anode in the real scenario.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:36)

568
To evaluate the performance of galvanic anode, we measure the output current from the GAP test
specimen. We connect the multimeter in series between the anode and the cathode and measure
how much current is coming out of the GAP test specimen. These measurements have to be done
every alternate day to capture when exactly is the GAP test specimen failing to provide the
sufficient output current.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:05)

Here is an example of the measurements taken form two commercially available galvanic anodes.
And what we see here is anode ‘A’ was able to supply a current of about 20 micro amperes and
the anode ‘B’ was able to supply a current of about 150 micro amperes. Based on this what we can

569
see is anode A is performing better than anode B because the output current from the anode B is
less than anode A.

This measurement has been taken continuously for a period of 300 days. What we see is anode B
failed after about 100 days and the output current from the anode was about 0. Whereas, the anode
A is able to perform for very long term. So, this shows the anode A performs better than anode B.
Based on this, how can we calculate the service life also? Now, here the total charge pass during
the GAP test should be equal to the total charge pass during the service life of the concrete
structure.

So, what you see here is this the area below the curve during the testing should be equal to the area
below the curve when it is actually done on a RC element. So, how can we calculate that, let’s say
you know the how much current is required for protecting a reinforced concrete structure. So, we
do this test and we know what is the current coming from the GAP test, this is the current which
is coming from the GAP test.

That is ‘i’ GAP. time of the GAP test you know at what time the anode is failing, it is about 90
days. So, this is this also we know. We know how much is current required to protect the reinforced
concrete structure, but we do not know how long it is going to work.
𝑖𝐺𝐴𝑃 ∗ 𝑡𝐺𝐴𝑃 = 𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 ∗ 𝑡𝐺𝐴 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒
So, using this equation, we can calculate how much time the galvanic anode is going to actually
protect the reinforced concrete structure. This looks very easy here, but you will have to integrate
each part here. The integration of each section will give you the accurate or near to the accurate
service life of the galvanic anode.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:31)

570
Using GAP test, we can evaluate the performance of commercially available galvanic anodes. And
also we can evaluate or estimate the service life of galvanic anodes which are available in the
market. Then choose which anode has to be used in the reinforced concrete structure for repair.
And we can estimate what is the expected life of the repair we are looking for based on that we
can choose the anode which fits better for the life we are looking for and the performance, which
we are looking for.

Now, Karthikeyan will demonstrate how the measurement should be done from GAP test
specimen. Thank you.

Hello all, I am Karthikeyan, I am a Ph.D. student from the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT
Madras. Now I am going to demonstrate you how to take measurements from the GAP specimens.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:21)

571
Here we can see specimens made from different commercially available anodes are being tested.
So, here we can see that the red wire is coming from the anode which is going to the DC power
supply and it is connected back to the cathode which is the nichrome mesh through the black cable.
The objective of the GAP test is to measure the output current which is coming from the anode.
To achieve that, we have to place a multimeter in series between the anode and the cathode to
measure the output current that is coming from the anode.

Now I am going to demonstrate to you how to take measurements from 2 anode specimens which
are made from two different commercially available anodes. We can see that we are placing a
multimeter in series between the anode and the cathode and the current output which is coming
from the anode is around 41 micro amps.

This is the current output from another GAP specimen which was made from a different
commercially available anode. So, the output current we can see is almost around 1.14 micro amps,
we have to carry out these current measurements on every alternate day till the output current from
the anode drops to 0. That point marks the end of the service life of the anode.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:39)

572
Now, there is some case studies I am going to show you other parts of the world; they have
experience on the performance of anodes and effectiveness of cathodic protection you can see if
you don’t provide any protection and the case with galvanic anode protection, there is significant
reduction in the total corrosion. This is an experiment done in Kansas and where you can see the
80% reduction in the amount of corrosion compared with the control.

Even if you provide a sealer, it doesn’t it is not that effective. So, among the systems like rebar
coating or a sealer and galvanic, it was very clear that the anode systems perform very well. And,
it helps in reducing the corrosion significantly, much better than or much more than the efficiency
of rebar coating, or a sealer.

So, this is I think the way to go for when you talk about repair of concrete structures, especially
when you want it for lasting for 20 to 25 years without any additional intervention.
(Refer Slide Time: 16:58)

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Now, this is a global scenario where we can see this, statistics on number of CP systems. This is
why I am showing this, globally people have tried and they have proven that this works really well
for concrete structures and it is high time that we also increase the number of such applications in
our concrete structures, which are experiencing severe corrosion. And also, other important
structures, which we do not want to corrode, so that is cathodic prevention.

If we know that the structure is really not going to meet the design life or if it is about to corrode,
then it is better to install the systems before they start corroding. That way, the work itself is easier,
and also you save a lot of money because once it starts corroding things are going to be very, very
difficult as the age-old statement prevention is better than cure. So, cathodic prevention is better
than to cathodic protection. Cathodic prevention is better than wait until the steel corrodes and
then go for cathodic protection which is more expensive.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:11)

574
This is in US; they spend about 40 million rupees on cathodic protection rest of the world is 80
million where you can see India statistics just 1 million. But if you look at the amount of concrete
structures which are in distress, we also have very large number. So, it is definitely a strategy
which is very good at technology which is very widely applied elsewhere in the world.

And it is high time that we must also take this very seriously. You see the type of structures jetty
industries, near coastal area, power plant, bridges, commercial, all sorts of structures are there.
And then if you look at Indian case only 60%, the power plants, especially the cooling towers,
there are a lot of cooling towers, which you see water and then they have started exhibiting
corrosion much earlier and people have tried to protect such structures with cathodic protection.

Again, I must tell you this data I got from one of my friends in vector corrosion technologies,
Dhruvesh Shah. But we have to see that this may not be an exact number when we consider the
entire country. This is just based on one particular manufacturer, but there are many other
manufacturers or products available in the market. So, if you really look at the distribution of where
the cathodic protection systems are used, and how much cathodic prevention systems are used, we
can study that and then we need to really increase because as I talk, there are a lot of structures
which are corroding and we want to arrest the corrosion in such structures by cathodic protection
system. And there is a lot of room for doing better quality repair by the use of cathodic protection.
(Refer Slide Time: 20:20)

575
And what are the problems or why we are seeing difficulties in penetrating into the market. I
mean, I have been working in this area for last couple of years and then these are some of the tips
which I got why industry is not picking up this technology much in India. One is the lack of
knowledge about this technology among the concrete engineers or repair personnel. And also,
there is a myth that the initial cost is high, so I will show you some data on that also.

And there are not many experts available in this area and complexity is there. And then there is a
burden of maintenance. But these are not always correct. If you do a good, very good job you do,
it is a very good technology. And if anybody interested, we can talk about it. And then engineering
problems design without considering the long-term performance. Most of the repair work, they
say, we repair and then there is a hidden expectation that they will come back in 5 years and again,
do the repair.

I have seen many cases like that. So, on an average, if you repair, do a patch repair, without this
cathodic protection system, you can expect that corrosion will continue to happen because of the
halo effect. And then in about 5 to 6 years, you will end up in redoing the repair. So, this is a
general law. Most experienced engineers know this, in 5 to 6 years you go back to the same site
and do the repairs. So that is something which we want to avoid, so that we get long life for the
repair or we achieve the target of durable repair.

576
Lack of field experience, and then acidification or ASR reaction due to high anode current density
that is, if the design is over designed, and then high resistivity of repair materials, that is also a
challenge, sometimes, but in such cases, you do not expect much of corrosion. So that is a different
story.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:37)

Now, lifecycle cost. This is a comparison where we are showing cathodic prevention is really,
really very good when you talk about very long life. So, if you are talking about cathodic
protection, that is, let us say in this case at the year of year 20, you see a corrosion damage. And
then if we just do a patch repair, you go with this red line and then costs keep on increasing. And
then you do that every 5, 6 years the costs keep on increasing.

But if you go for cathodic protection, which is the blue curve here, you can see this step going,
some replacement after some time and still you are able to achieve 8 years of life without much,
without much cost implications as it is shown in this red curve. Again, let me tell that this is a
conceptual graph, just to show you how cathodic prevention is better than cathodic protection and
how cathodic protection is better than a conventional repair without galvanic protection, galvanic
anodes.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:44)

577
This is some statistics again collected from the field, you can see here works on a canteen in
Mumbai, which is again HPCL. It is very close to the seashore a jetty structure. All these are
coastal structures, where they had to go for this kind of repair because the other repairs were not
working and they found that the savings is in the range of 70%, which is very, very high as
compared to conventional patch repair and once you do this, there is no more interventions required
for 20 to 25 years.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:26)

So, to summarize, we talked about alkaline slurry coating adequate precautions to be taken to
prevent disbondment and for the coating to work very well. And then again, the coating to work
very well the application should be very nicely done it should be done on a clean surface, clean

578
rebar surface. Then we talked about galvanic anode cathodic protection or sacrificial anode
cathodic protection SACP and then we also looked at how to ensure that anodes which you select
are of good quality.

We introduced the GAP test Galvanic Anode Performance test and then also looked at various
features that an anode should have like the connectivity between the rebar and the tie wire and the
connectivity between the tie rebar and the rebar like within the wherever they repair region. And
then we also talked about how porous the encapsulating motor or the activating mortar should be,
it should provide high PH for the zinc to corrode 13+ for the entire design life.

So, if the system is, if the particular anode is not able to provide that anode will not work for long
term. So, all these must be considered while thinking about implementing cathodic protection
systems or cathodic prevention which is better than cathodic protection. So, lifecycle cost is going
to be much lower if you go for cathodic prevention and lifecycle cost is going to be much lower
even if you go for cathodic protection also, when you compare that to a conventional repair without
any anode system.

So, that once repaired, we can forget for at least 20 to 25 years and that is a very good relief for
the field engineers or the decision makers. So that, that money can be used for other construction
activities or for other use.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:36)

579
(Refer Slide Time: 26:37)

Thank you these are the references which we used for making this lecture. Thank you.

580
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology-Madras

Lecture No. 18
Surface Preparation and Protective Treatments
(Protective treatments for steel reinforcements)

Hi, this is the third lecture in this module on surface preparation and protective treatments. We
will be looking at protective treatments for steel reinforcement in this lecture.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:23)

In the last lecture we looked at anti-corrosive coating or zinc coating and at sacrificial anode
cathodic protection or galvanic anode cathodic protection. In today's lecture we will look at these
three items which are in the blue text. The first one is impressed current cathodic protection, we
are going to call it ICCP in the coming slides. The second technique we are going to look at is
electro chemical re-alkalization, we are going to call it ERA in the coming slides. And the third
one is electro chemical chloride extraction, which is we are going to call it as ECE in the coming
slides.

So, if you look at the impressed current cathodic protection, we are directly dealing with the steel
and protecting the steel from corrosion, in the electro chemical re-alkalization, we are going to
increase the pH level which has dropped in the concrete so that the steel will be protected and in

581
the third case again when we talk about electro chemical chloride extraction, we are essentially
removing the chlorides from the concrete or from the surface of the embedded steel so that
corrosion cannot continue. So, if you look at the last ERA and ECE, we are working on the
surrounding environment of the steel reinforcement whereas in the impressed current cathodic
protection, we are looking at reversing the current flow.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:06)

So, in the impressed current cathodic protection, this is a schematic showing how the system
works. As you see here there are the blue color mesh is placed on the surface of the concrete and
you can see the concrete cover, the region where these arrows are shown, that is the concrete
cover and steel reinforcement is protected and on top of that, an overlay is provided which is this
and the mesh is provided in between the overlay or sometimes even inside the overlay and the
concrete substrate. Now, you can see here the electrical circuit which we are talking where the
current or the electrons are drawn from the mesh and supplied to the reinforcement which is
embedded inside the concrete. So, electrons will flow like this towards the steel and then it will
protect the reinforcement from further corrosion even though the environment of the concrete is
highly contaminated. And this technique is widely used in large scale structures where you can
actually monitor the system very well because one of the major challenges in this is making sure
that the systems are put in place and they are not lost or vandalism happens etc. So, we will
cover that later. But, there are some challenges and then some benefits also about this technique.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:56)

582
Now, what are the things which are required for the materials which are used for this technique?
First thing is the anode the mesh, which we use should be corrosion resistant, it should not
corrode, because after the installation, the overlay will again be exposed to the same chloride
rich environment and in short period of time that material should not get corroded. So, if you just
use a steel mesh, it may not work because the steel mesh will corrode very fast and it will not be
able to function for a long period of time.

So, usually we use activated titanium or something which is very highly corrosion resistant
material and which is also a very good electrical conductor. And so, what is this titanium, it says
activated titanium. So, the idea is we don’t really use titanium or the pure titanium, but we coat
the titanium with mixed metal oxides typically they are called as MMOs and why we coated with
that is so that the mesh which is used is highly conductive and at the same time electro catalytic.
In other words, it provides sufficient corrosion to happen or sufficient electrons it provide
because if you use pure titanium, it is very corrosion resistant, so the amount of current which is
required also may be higher for driving the same amount of electrons from the anodic mesh. So,
this kind of metal with mixed metal oxides coating on the titanium which provides us both the
corrosion resistance and at the same time sufficient corrosion or sufficient amount of electrons
are available with the reasonable voltage which we can apply.

583
This comes in different shapes also, or sizes, it is a mesh, ribbon, tube, wire, or rod. So different
types as you see on these pictures on the right side, you can see this is a ribbon over here on the
top right and then a tube on the bottom right and also a mesh on the center picture.

Now, also the cementitious material which used as overlay also should be reasonably good, so
that you did not really create a highly corrosive environment for the mesh itself. So everything is
very important, the steel, the anodic material, and the overlay material.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:41)

I am going to show you some examples where this is done. You can see here very nicely this
mesh on top of this concrete cover region and on the right side also you can see it from similar
structure, just to show you how this system works and then it is electrically connected.
(Refer Slide Time: 07:09)

584
And also this mesh is anchored to the concrete as it is shown here on the right, you can see here
the mesh is actually anchored to the concrete substrate, surface preparation should be done
properly and then you place the mesh on top and anchor it properly onto the surface and then on
top you apply an overlay cementitious material, you can see here on the right side that shotcrete
is applied. And what you see here is a water body probably like rich in chlorides and very
corrosive environment. In such an environment this technique works very well, only problem is
it has to be monitored properly and continuously. If you are saying at 20, 25 years of life, you
need to ensure that for the entire time period, the amount of current is actually supplied because
sometimes what happens is the electrical connections are lost and then the system will stop
functioning.

So, that is one advantage when we talk about the galvanic anode sacrificial system is those
systems those systems work without continuous monitoring, in other words, it is a dynamic
system. So, once installed and secured inside the concrete, they will continue to supply the
current as it is demanded.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:36)

585
Now, this is again another example, for a ribbon anode, you can see how a ribbon looks like and
slots are cut on concrete, then inserted into the concrete cover region and which then is covered
so, that it can protect the steel reinforcement inside. So, whenever you talk about ICCP there is
an electrical unit or a rectifier which is controlling the amount of current to be supplied to the
mesh or ribbon or tube or whatever anode system which you are talking about. Even though the
anodes are embedded, for the system to work, you need an electrical current which is externally
applied, unlike what is in the sacrificial anode system where it there is no external electrical unit.
Here ICP you have external electrical unit which is supplying a known amount or a predefined
amount of current. In the case of SSCP, there is no predefined amount of current, it is a dynamic
system. So, the depending on the demand of electrons, it will supply that much electrons. That is
the main difference between the two.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:54)

586
This is another example of where on surface you apply a conductive paint system, you can see on
the right side is the preparation and on the left side a painted system., It is a completed work
where you can see conductive paint on this. So instead of providing a mesh, it is basically a paint
layer, a layer of paint which is actually conductive in nature.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:30)

Now here its discrete surface mounted anodes. As you see here a lot of these anodes drilled into
the concrete wall and then they are all electrically connected to make the system work. And that
is that is how this system works.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:01)

587
Now, this is another example where again exposed to water, you can see titanium mesh is
embedded here inside this concrete, this portion here and after placing the titanium mesh it is
covered with cementitious material and then you have a rectifier which provides the small
amount of current which is required and continuously for a long period of time.

And that is the challenge which I was telling you earlier, how we have to make sure that this
rectifier is well protected and it is active or functioning or in very good condition until the
structure needs to be protected, without that functioning, the structure will not get any current.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:50)

588
The second technique we are going to talk in this lecture is electro chemical chloride extraction.
So, this is essentially when we talk about chloride rich environment, if the cover concrete has
sufficient chloride already there in the structure or the cover concrete is rich in chloride. So, first
thing to do is, if we can actually remove that chloride that is the best way to do it. So, this is one
way of doing it.

Of course, there are challenges and then we have to see where these types of techniques can be
applied and where it cannot be. So, all these techniques which we are talking like, sacrificial
anode cathodic protection, impressed current cathodic protection, electrochemical chloride
extraction and then one more we are going to talk is electrochemical re-alkalization, you have to
make a judgment on which technique will be best suited for the particular type of application you
are talking about so that you can have a durable repair in other words a durable repair without
much of interventions in future.

So, let us see what is the principle behind is, you have the center rebar, you can see here this is
the reinforcement, the center portion or inside the pink region is the steel reinforcement and the
steel reinforcement is (the black line you can see) connected to a temporary DC power source
where you can apply current or potential difference. And then there is a mesh which is placed
that is the horizontal red line on the top and the yellow region is the conductive media which
completes the electrical circuit. So when the current is applied or the potential difference is
applied between the the red line and the rebar (which is the black line), and in this case the red is
the mesh is connected to the, I am going to call it temporary anode or a mesh, the red one, it is
connected to the positive terminal of the DC power source. And the reinforcement or the steel
rebar, which is embedded inside the concrete, is connected to the negative terminal of the voltage
source or DC power source. So, when it is connected like this, what happens is all these chloride
ions, which are negatively charged ions, they tend to move towards the positive terminal which
is the anodic mesh, which is the red one kept outside the concrete.

And then also you can see this pink color that is because of the cathodic reaction which we are
talking here, cathodic reaction which happens at the steel surface, in this case steel is the cathode
now, and that generates a lot of hydroxide ions or in other words, that increases the pH of the

589
concrete surrounding the, just in the vicinity of the steel reinforcement. So, that also helps in
making sure that even if there is some carbonation that is also highly alkaline.

But that is not the really the primary purpose of this process. The primary purpose is just to move
all the chloride from the near the steel surface towards the outside. So, once you remove all the
chloride, then we can forget about chloride induced corrosion, may be some other form but that
is different, in this case idea is, if you are talking about a structure, which is exposed to chlorides
and if you are sure that the corrosion is happening because of chlorides or if the corrosion is
going to happen because of the presence of chloride, then this is a very good technique to adopt
to remove all the chloride or to extract all the chloride from the vicinity of the steel
reinforcement to outside the concrete and then you can say that now the structure is as it was on
day one.

So, idea is corrosion can be stopped if concentration of chloride ions at the steel surface is
brought below the chloride threshold or brought to a minimum value which was probably at the
beginning or during the construction time.
(Refer Slide Time: 16:50)

Now, let us look at what are the materials required for performing electrochemical chloride
extraction. Basically in this in the previous slide, I showed a red line, which is essentially the
anodic mesh for that we can use steel, it is sufficient because it is a temporary structure we are

590
not going to keep that mesh permanently in the structure. In fact we are not even keeping it
inside the concrete, it is staying outside the concrete as you see here. The mesh is kept outside
but in a sponge or in a wet media or conductive media, the yellow region. Now, steel is cheaper
and sometimes depending on the amount of chloride which is in the concrete, if have to really
apply for a very long period of time, you may consume some of the steel during this process
itself because steel is the anode here. So because of this reason, sometimes people also use
titanium mesh because if you are thinking about repetitive type of work, maybe you don’t want
the anodic material to be consumed. So, you go for something which is very corrosion resistant
and people are also used to titanium mesh, but which might sometime lead to etching of concrete
also in other words removal of the concrete. So, you have to see what is the duration of voltage
application required, then look at the cost implications also and then decide whether a steel mesh
is sufficient enough, if so, go for it otherwise go for titanium mesh.

Now electrolyte, what is the type of electrolyte is this yellow region in this slide or the
conductive media. Now, you need potable water or good quality water for making this calcium
hydroxide solution. And which reduces the chance of electrolyte being acidic because when you
say calcium hydroxide it gives to sufficiently high pH or a lot of hydroxide ions, and when it is
not becoming acidic, it prevents the etching of concrete. Now, also other solution which is used
is lithium borate solution, it can have an added feature of even eliminating ASR, if there is a case
that both ASR and chloride there, then you can say lithium borate solution, but if you did not
have an ASR issue, then you can go with calcium hydroxide or high pH solution can be used.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:50)

591
Now, this is an example and some of the factors that affect electrochemical chloride extraction,
the more the current density it is logical to think that the more chlorides will be removed in
shorter period of time. And, if your concrete cover is thicker, then also it reduces the efficiency
of this process. So, in other words, if the concrete cover is thicker, maybe you will have to go for
longer duration of the voltage application. And if it is denser, then also it reduces the efficiency
then also in that case you may have to go for longer duration. So, in these two cases, you may
have to go for longer duration of application of the voltage, but, theoretically this is all possible.
The more you apply you can drive chlorides away from the steel and towards the concrete
surface. Only thing is you have to really think whether if you apply it for too long period of time,
it will create some other problem like what we discussed in the previous slide, etching of
concrete or something like that. Possibility of such adverse effect also have to be thought through
before you decide on going ahead with this technique. Now, I am going to show this graph here
on a larger scale in the next slide.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:17)

592
So this is the same graph, as you can see, this line here, on the top of the graph, you have a light
greenish line and that is the initial chloride concentration. And on the right side, you see the steel
rebar, and on the left side you have the mesh. So you can think the right side is the steel which is
embedded and left side is the surface of the concrete where you have the stainless steel mesh or
even just the steel mesh, you don’t really need a titanium mesh. So, now here it is the on the
horizontal axis, you can see the distance from the concrete surface. So, on the left end of the
graph, you have the concrete surface, distance is zero. So you can say that this steel rebar on the
right side is at about 45 mm deep. So, you can see here this is about 45 mm deep, which is about
2 inches, you can say just a little less than 2 inches.

So, you can see this graph when the current applied was 1 amp per meter square that is a black
curve here, near to the surface that is towards the left side, more and more chlorides are removed
but as you go towards the center, the amount of chloride removed is less. So this graph is
showing the remaining amount of chloride.

So, you can see that in this region less amount of chloride is removed, here maximum is removed
and also as you go very close to the steel also the residual or the remaining amount of chloride is
less. See, in this case, you must think that the original concentration is uniform you see that this
on the top line, it is very clear that original concentration is uniform across the cover depth or
across the region from the surface towards the steel. And this method is able to drive the

593
chlorides away from the steel as you see on right here. As you see near the reinforcement near
the, the amount of chloride is very less as compared to the original chloride concentration which
is about 0.3, this line here, so from 0.3 to about 0.14 or even 1.12, so significant reduction about
we can easily say more than 50% reduction in the chloride concentration at this at the steel
surface. So from, let us say, 0.15 and from 0.3 to 0.15 that is almost 50% reduction. In this case,
if you take this point as the reference, if you are talking about 2 amp per meter square, then it is
further less, if you are talking about 3 amp per meter square, it is further less. So the more the
current you apply, definitely, the more reduction in the chloride concentration, so it is a good
thing, especially when we are talking about chloride extraction.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:02)

This is some proof on what is happening at the microstructure level, you can see that calcium
hydroxide is getting deposited at the steel concrete interface and also some cracks which were
present is filled up and the passivity is also reinstated or restored. So, you see here before
electrochemical chloride extraction on the top left image you can see concrete here and steel
rebar and after is it something like this. So, this is a before case also you can see a zoomed out
image this is 50 microns case, these are 300 case and here it is only 10 microns. So, when you
compare any micro graphs, you must first look at what is the scale on the micro graph and then
only you should make conclusions out of it.

594
So, now, let us compare the top two graphs here as you go from left to right. So, you can see
here, the left one is before the application of ECE or electrochemical chloride extraction and the
right one is after the application of ECE, you can see that this region is relatively dense or it is
filled with calcium hydroxide crystals and we can very clearly see that there are some calcium
hydroxide crystals in the image.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:49),

Now, let us look at the advantages and disadvantages of electrochemical chloride extraction. So,
some of the advantages are, the rebars are passivated throughout the treated area because you are
using mesh to do this, so, almost all the region gets equivalent treatment, and root cause of the
corrosion is chloride which is actually addressed, so the chlorides are removed, and then it is
non-destructive in nature, it does not really damage the steel rebar, which is embedded or even
the concrete. And it is a time required is very less for a few weeks, you can actually extract all
the chlorides. So it is a very good repair strategy in a way, if you are able to do this before the
corrosion starts, then it is very good thing to do. But the problem is sometimes we cannot do this
on all the structures which we have, depending on the shape and size of this structure.

And some experiments have already proven that some chlorides are still left behind on the steel
surface, so in such cases a prolonged application of voltage is required and also high current
densities when apply, it may reduce some of the ferric compounds in the corrosion products to
magnetite, which increases the porosity which means the volume of this corrosion products

595
reduced, when it reduces and it means increasing the porosity and very probably weakening the
steel binder bond also. So, these things might happen. So, you had to be cautioned about all this
but these are very good techniques to adopt.
(Refer Slide Time: 28:30)

The third technique which we are going to talk today is electrochemical re-alkalization. This is a
technique which can be applied when the concrete structure is exposed to carbonation in a region
with high concentration of carbon dioxide. So, on the picture on the left side we are showing it as
the center portion, you don’t see that green patch, it’s basically the region with a low pH and as it
is on the right side, the picture shows after the treatment that portion which was having a low pH
is also now having a high pH. So, when you have a high pH the steel is protected, when you have
a low pH that steel is not protected. So, you have to re-alkalize that portion, which is having a
low pH so, that the steel can be protected. So, how can do we do this?
(Refer Slide Time: 29:37)

596
This is the way how which it can be done, this is schematic showing, which is very similar to the
schematic in the previous technique which was on electro chemical chloride extraction. You can
see an anode here which is the red line through the electrolyte, this line here, and you can see
electrolyte and as the current is supplied or voltage potential difference is applied, the concrete
cover region gets re-alkalized or gained sufficiently high pH, so the entire steel now is very well
protected, in other words, the region around the steel reinforcement is pink in color that
indicates the pH of that concrete around the steel reinforcement is sufficiently high to protect the
steel from corroding. Now, so, how it works, soluble ions move to their respective electrodes. In
other words, in this case, all the hydroxide ions will move towards the, reinforcement or go into
the concrete and thereby the pH of the concrete is increased. So, alkaline solution is provided
here, this is the alkaline solution in the anode mesh is transported into the concrete. Now because
of this application, the pH of the cover zone is enhanced or increased until the steel is protected
from corrosion. So, high pH environment near the steel reinforcement results in re-passivation.
In other words, the passive layer which was originally there got broken because of a lowering of
the pH. Now, with this treatment, the pH is increased and the passive layer is rebuilt or re-
passivation happens.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:37)

597
So, this is the step so, in the beginning the system will look something like this. So, here you
have highly carbonated concrete and in the step two when you apply voltage, the similar way as
we saw in the chloride extraction technique because of the cathodic reactions, some alkaline
environment is formed around the steel also, but mainly this progression of this alkaline front is
moving towards the reinforcement is also important. And then eventually the entire cover region
is completely re-alkalized or in other words, the pH of the entire cover region is now very good,
especially the region around the reinforcement. These are some examples showing how a
laboratory experiment, it is done in Italy polytechnic of the Milano, you can see here, evolution
of re-alkalization front. In the very beginning because of the cathodic reaction at the steel
surface, you can see some amount of re-alkalization happening and it is progressing in 7 days, so
you can see the pink front moving towards the center of the cylinder, and here you can see
further moving down here is almost it is re-alkalize. So, about 21 days you can get a cylinder like
this re-alkalize. So, if you have a similar cover concrete in a real structure, you can decide how
long you have to apply the current and at what voltage you have to apply.
(Refer Slide Time: 33:25)

598
Now, what are the materials required, again like chloride extraction, steel mesh is good and
titanium mesh is also used, but the same thing what I discussed in chloride extraction, those kind
of concerns should be looked at, whether money and other technical issues and then you can
decide and a electrolyte is required, for that highly alkaline solution is required.
(Refer Slide Time: 33:49)

Now, what are the advantages of electrochemical re-alkalization technique? Now, advantages are
very similar to that what is we saw in the case of chloride extraction. You can see rebars are
passivated throughout the treated area, because you were using a mesh so every region is getting
passivated. Root cause is addressed, that is the main thing in the entire course, we have been
talking about address the root cause first for any damage or any deterioration you are talking.

599
Here the root cause for the corrosion of the steel is carbonation in other words the reduction of
pH. Now by this application, we are increasing the pH level at the steel surface, by which the
passive layer is reformed and protects the steel, definitely a non-destructive method and
temporary treatment, temporary treatment for a few days is only required. Now, disadvantages
are long treatment period is required for highly resistive low water cement ratio concrete and
suitable only for partially carbonated concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:22)

Now, I am going to show you some examples.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:26)

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This is an airport in US where you can see, this portion on the bottom right as the close up
region, you can see a lot of steel mesh is provided and then chloride is extracted. And see in this
case, both chloride extraction and re-alkalization happen, two things are done at the same time.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:53)

And then this is a close up image. So one point here is, if the steel rebars have very limited
cover, then when you go for re-alkalization you don’t want to apply more current to that
particular steel, which might create additional problems. So, sometimes we need to insulate the
regions with which are having very small covers.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:22)

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Now, this is the type of material you can see, it is a paper-mache material which can hold a lot of
this alkaline solution and as you apply the current and it is very easy and also removal also is
easy. It is just something which can be removed and come as waste. So, in other words, very
easy technique to apply depends again on the type of locations and when I say very easy, it does
not mean very easy, but compared to other techniques. And if you have a relatively easy to work
with surfaces, then these kinds of techniques are very useful.

You can see here this is the paper-mache which is applied, then saturated, then covered and then
the current is applied. Why it covered is that you want to keep it wet, sometimes it takes weeks,
so, you don’t want the material to dry. So, you have to keep it covered.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:29)

So, this is an example or a proof showing that these kinds of techniques really work. On the left
side you can see before the electrochemical re-alkalization. So, the phenolphthalein test
indicating this much region is actually fully carbonated. And here you can say after the
treatment, that region is now fully re-alkalized or the pH is above 9, 10 that range so that steel is
protected. (Refer Slide Time: 37:56)

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This is an example where electro chemical chloride extraction was applied and you can see here
the picture with heavily spalled concrete column on a bridge and in the same bridge, concrete
bent caps are also corroding. And this was very clearly the based on the preliminary test, it was
found that chlorides are the root cause for this corrosion. So, hence it was decided to remove the
chlorides or address the root cause first. Removed the chloride using this electrochemical
chloride extraction technique
(Refer Slide Time: 38:37)

And as you see on this picture here, bottom right you can see a lot of this electrical units and the
entire bent cap is also, the paper-mache is kept and are applied and then it is covered with plastic

603
sheet to prevent evaporation or maintain the moist environment and then the current is applied.
And you can see that this kinds of techniques are applied on large scale structures. Of course,
you have to really think about different techniques and which is the best techniques that can be
used for case to case basis.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:24)

Now this is an old church, as you see on the bottom top right, the red box, there were 8 concrete
columns, which were supporting the dome of this church. And it was found that this was
completely carbonated. So, the, electro chemical re- alkalization technique was adopted in this, I
am going to show you some picture on the next slide, close ups.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:55)

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But, so here you can see how it is corroded and then you can see here corrosion. So, there were
lot of places where corrosion was observed and being a heritage structure, they really wanted to
remove all this chloride or address the root cause first before any repair is done.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:15)

So, in that approach, initially the patchwork was done and then re-alkalization technique was
adopted and made sure that the concrete cover is completely free from low pH environment or it
is having high pH to protect the reinforcement inside, you can see here a mesh is used to apply
this electrochemical re-alkalization technique.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:48)

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This is again for the same concrete column initially, concrete cores were taken out and it was
found that carbonation was the reason and also after the treatment, you can see some of this
region just near the reinforcement now well protected or the pH is very high near the
reinforcement.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:08)

So, to summarize, we looked at mainly these three techniques, impressed current cathodic
protection, then electro chemical chloride extraction and also looked at electrochemical re-
alkalization. So, impressed current cathodic protection can be adopted when you have a very
good system to monitor the performance of the system over a long period of time. In other
words, if the because of these electrical units which are installed at site and we need to ensure
that those electrical units don’t get degraded or damaged or you know, stolen by somebody. So,
if such things can be ensured that they don’t get stolen and they are really working well and if
the corrosion rate is very high this system works better than the sacrificial anode cathodic
protection. But because when you talk about these types of repair, we are talking 20 to 25 years
of life and in such a long period of life if the system has to work, you have to ensure that the
system and the components are also protected very well.

Then we were looking at electro chemical chloride extraction, which is mainly addressing the
root cause. So, in the last two techniques we are mainly addressing the root cause, that is in one
case it is chloride in in the other case it is CO2 or the pH. So, electro chemical chloride extraction

606
is very good when you want to protect the structure from further corrosion for a long period of
time and works very well if it is done before the corrosion starts. So, again as a preventive
maintenance technique, this can be very good, both these can be very good and electrochemical
re-alkalization also can be looked at as a preventive technique. And it is very good when you
want to protect the steel for very long period of time by re-alkalizing the steel and protecting the
steel from corrosion.
(Refer Slide Time: 43:24)

And these are the references which we used two slides on that and with that we end today's
lecture. Thank you.

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 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology-Madras

Lecture No. 19
Surface Preparation and Protective Treatments
(Placement of repair materials and curing)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:25)

Hi, this is the fourth lecture in the module on surface preparation and protective treatments and
in this lecture we will focus on placement of repair materials and curing. In the previous 3
lectures we looked at how to prepare the surface and of both concrete and steel and then we also
looked at anti corrosive or zinc coatings and then looked at sacrificial anode cathodic protection,
we call it as SACP. And then in the last lecture, we talked about ICCP, then electrochemical re-
alkalization, and electrochemical chloride extraction. And in today’s lecture we will be looking
at placement of repair materials and curing. In other words, how to place the repair material after
cleaning the concrete surface and after cleaning the reinforcement, then you have to place them
and if you are doing some treatment like cathodic protection after installation of those anodes
etc. How to place the repair material to cover the substrate and also looking at why curing is very
important when we talk about the durability of the repairs. So, curing is very important.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:44)

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Now, this is how to place these repair materials. So, we are going to talk about these 7 different
techniques in this lecture. So, basic thing is, use of trowels to place repair materials, then also dry
packing, then form and cast in place, then form and pump concrete, then pre placed aggregate
concrete, dry mix shotcrete and wet mix shotcrete, these are the techniques we are going to talk
about today. Again, very briefly we will show you some examples of this and how these things
are done.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:27)

Now for Trowel applications, repair material should be trowelable or it should be wet enough,
flowable enough, but not too flowable also and it should have good consistency, in other words it
should not sag. See the picture on the top right, they are using a perfect tool like you can see, if

609
you want a 90 degree edge, the trowel itself is made of a metallic plate which is bent 90 degrees,
you can get a fine finish. Why I put this picture is it is very important to show the importance of
the tools which we use, you have to use right tools. That way the final product or the finishing
will be very good. I will show one more slide on this with different types of tools later.

And other thing is, the picture on the bottom right, it shows, you take the material on a trowel
and then you are placing it here, it should not fall off to the ground. If you are talking about a
roof, which used to be a practice earlier, actually a couple of decades ago, if any concrete roof,
first thing is after removal of the formwork they used to plaster the roof of the bottom surface of
the roof. So it’s not very easy to do and the mason should be highly skilled to do that also. So
they place this or literally throw the mortar onto the roof surface or the bottom side surface and
then the mortar should stick there, it should not fall off that is why the property of the mortar is
also very important. So, it should be trowelable, it should be cohesive enough and it should also
stick to the substrate concrete that means it should be having good adhesive properties also. So,
fine grained materials, non-sag properties means when we apply this to the roof surface if it just
falls off, then it is not really going to be a good repair that means, if it falls off, there will be
some debonding or the adhesion is not good that is why it is falling off. And in some times it
could be just because of cohesionlessness also, in such case it will fail in this right inside the new
material which is provided. So, both cohesion and adhesion are important properties when you
talk about placing of these kind of materials onto a surface where, which is horizontal and then
where gravity comes into action.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:15)

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Now, these are other examples where on the column on the left side, you can see, again, a
smooth finish is required. And on the right side, you can see it is on ground. So, all you need to
do is place it and then trowel it well. So, for example, a new floor if you are trying to trowel it
immediately after placing the concrete, it will not work very well because then it will actually
pull the moisture also along with your trowel. So sometimes masons they wait for some time for
it to get dried enough so that it becomes trowelable mortar, or concrete. So these things are
important to note when you go for it.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:56)

This is a set of photographs showing different types of trowels. If you want to talk about
different shapes for specific applications, see, most of the time we don’t invest much time on
selecting a good tool. But if you select a good tool, it will really save a lot of time in the finishing
process. And at the same time, at the end of the work, you get a very good finish. So I request
like, it is very important for us to look for good tools. Also may be you can say that it is not
available in the market, but, you also have to create a demand for different things in the market.
So you have to ask, if you want a 90 degree trowel, which has that 90 degree as it is shown on
the picture here., you have to ask the suppliers and then they will eventually procure those type
of tools and then eventually our goal is all these things should be easily available in the market,
so that we tend to use good tools. And it is very important, using good tools and specific tools for
specific applications.
(Refer Slide Time: 07:13)

611
Now, dry packing method, as is shown in the picture on the right side, you can see this dark
color region is the repair material which are putting at the bottom of this girder section. In dry
packing basically, you have a very strong formwork which is attached to the substrate concrete.
And then you basically hammer the relatively dry mix. It is not really a flowable material,
because imagine if you hammer this on to a flowable material, the material will just skews out.
So, it has to be dry enough so that the material does not skew out like this. Otherwise, if you
have a flowable material, it just skews out and your hammer will go in, that does not mean that
we will pack so you need relatively dry material to pack it that is very important. And the mortar
with proper consistency capable of being molded, you check whether it is packable or not, you
take it to mortar and then make a ball out of that in hand, if you are able to make a ball, then it is
probably good enough to be able to pack it like as shown in the picture, either you push it into by
hand or by a hammer or another tools available.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:43)

612
And where these kinds of things are are applicable. You can see on the left side, if you have
some small holes or took a core and then you want to pack that core back in. And as it is shown
here, it is an end of a tendon system, again you can see these circular regions where actually use
the dry packing is a very good idea. Also when you talk about dry packing, typically the water
binder ratio of that material will be relatively less and that will also ensure that it is a non-
shrinking material. Because you want that once it is packed it should not shrink. So, typically
with non-shrink grout or a relatively dry mortar, we can actually go for this packing. Again when
I say non-shrink grout, but still you can hammer it depending on the depth to which you have to
fill. So, these are some examples on where we can apply this dry packing. Whichever structure,
if it is a vertical element, if you take a flowable mortar or a very flowable concrete, you cannot
pour it into that vertical element, I mean for example, in that picture on the left side, if you have
a hole which is horizontal, if you pour the material will just flow out. So, in such cases you have
to use relatively dry material and even if it is non-shrink grout material you can fill it and
provided a port or something on that so that it does not flow out. But anyway the point is
wherever there is a possibility of flow of the material because of gravity action, you can use this
dry pack technique to fill the cavity or void.

And another example here underside of a girder, if you make very flowable material, it may not
fill very well. It will just flow out it will be very difficult to even finish the repair work. So,

613
people generally go with dry material here, which will have good adhesion and cohesion. So, by
hand also you can pack it, pack the spaces.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:20)

Now, when you do this dry packing, one very important thing to note down is that it should be
completely packing the space around the steel reinforcement. If it does not happen, let us say you
are just superficially placing the material over there instead of really packing it, what will happen
is as you see here on the picture, on the right side, you can see there is an air void or a space
which is left behind the rebar or the undercut region. So, that space also should be filled by the
mortar so that the steel gets a uniform chemical environment around the surface. So, in this
particular case some portion of the steel is exposed to air whereas the remaining portion is
exposed to the repair material, but ideally what we should do is this region also should be filled
with mortar. So, there should be no air void as it is shown or marked right now.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:41)

614
Now, there is another technique is form and pump concrete. Form which helps in defining the
space or how much area should be filled up in what shape and then a pump is a technique by
which you place the concrete. So, as you see in this picture here you have a concrete pump which
fills or pumps the concrete into the formwork region, you can see the formwork region here.
Also you notice an outlet is very much required, an outlet is kept on the bottom portion of the
space which needs to be filled and also you see an inlet of the concrete which comes out is at the
bottom right. So whenever you talk about pumping, it is always good to go for an inlet which is
placed at the bottom portion and let the air pressure or the pump pressure push the concrete from
bottom up, that is how the idea. In this case you can see the concrete is flowing this way from
right corner to the left and it is displacing the air which is present and then air comes out through
like this. So, finally, the entire the cavity or predefined spaces filled with repair material.

Again, the concrete or the repair material should be pumpable. What do you mean by pumpable
is mainly it should be segregation resistant and it should flow well without much of pressure
requirement. So, this is very important, because the material should not segregate if it is
segregated, it will get choked or clogged inside the pump itself. Good flow characteristics, self-
bonding, it should be cohesive and aggregate size must be smaller.

So, when you talk about repair there will be undercutting and the space behind the rebar also will
be very limited, in such cases you should ensure that the size of the aggregate is relatively or is

615
smaller than the clear spacing between the reinforcements and concrete so that you get an
integral concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:25)

This is an example or an image showing similar thing where if you are talking about a long beam
or something, it is the side view of the similar beam, if you can think you can also say here,
because all the time you may not be able to provide a outlet at the top, depending on the direction
in which it flows. So, in this case, if I am saying a long beam or a girder where I start pumping in
and let the concrete flow this way and until the concrete reaches here, then I will close this
portion and then start pumping here. So, when you have a long sections available, you can fill
from one end to the other by moving the outlets because otherwise it creates layers which
eventually does not help in filling the portion above the rebar.

So these are some of the intricacies associated so, multiple inlets might need to be designed.
Depending on the size of the repair, dimensions of the repair work you are talking, you have to
decide what type of formwork is required and how it can be pumped efficiently. How the
material can be pumped into the cavity efficiently. When I say efficiently it also means that
effectively because you have to really fill the space behind the rebar also. So, both efficiency of
the entire work and effectiveness of the work must be considered.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:17)

616
Now, these are again some more examples showing where this kind of pumping is adopted,
especially when you talk about column jacketing or enlarging the size of the column there it is
widely used. And this is again a micro concrete which is being pumped as an overlay or a screed
concrete or any such applications wherever micro concrete is used, you have a funnel type setup
here or a tank for the material which is then pumped into the space where it need to be filled.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:49)

This is another example showing column jacketing work where again it can see here the people
are actually standing on floating platforms and it is not that easy to work environment, so, you
create a encasement and then you pump the concrete into the space in between the existing
column and the formwork. And you can see here, this is the formwork made out of wood, and

617
you have a concrete column and then the space in between is filled with the pump, you can see
this person here holding the hose, concrete hose. Why I am showing all these pictures to you is to
tell you that these kinds of things are widely used in construction and there are a lot of challenges
in construction. It is not just getting any concrete, getting any pump and you pump, it will not
work. You have to really look at pump pressure, how the quality of the material, the flow
characteristics of the material, and what is the dimension of the area which needs to be filled all
these have to be looked at so, you really need to engineer the materials, adopt good construction
practices, and select good tools.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:15)

In the previous slide I showed about square columns actually, but we also see a lot of rectangular
columns in our structures. I just wanted to show because this is not something which is widely
used in our country, when you talk about circular columns. Nowadays, these type of column
formwork which are made out of cardboard are available, and it they even come in with more
than a feet in diameter. So, once you put this then you can place the concrete. One typical
example where you can use this is a electric lamp post or wherever you need a pedestal, you
need a circular concrete element there, and also for columns. So wherever you think of a
cylindrical shape, you can use this type of formwork. You place it and place the concrete inside
and remove the paper cardboard just after the concrete get sufficient curing. So, as you see on the
picture on the right side, you can easily remove this thing and it is a very environment friendly
product also because it is just cardboard.

618
(Refer Slide Time: 20:35)

Now, these are some examples to show when you talk about repair or even construction of new
con columns. What are the types of form works which can be used, on bottom left picture you
can see one type of setup where there is a slit and at which you can open the formwork, you can
see and it is two pieces. So, after the construction you can remove that, also if you want a
specific shape of your column like some kind of architectural design, like you see here the
grooves and etc. then you can make your form or mold your formwork accordingly and then
make it. It is because otherwise what you will be doing in this particular case is you will make a
cylindrical column and then ask another person to come and make those grooves which are going
to be more time consuming, but if you have a, mold which makes that shape inside then it is
much easier. So, in the long run if you have large number of columns like this to be made, these
kind of tools or this specially designed formworks will be of very good use in completing a good
job in short period of time and get away good finish at the end, that is also very important getting
a good finish. And also other pictures, you can see here that again a two piece column formwork
and you can see how you connect these pieces like a lock and which will form something like
this. So, you can see here there are a lock here and another lock here. So, these kind of things are
in a form work can be utilized to speed up the work and at the same time get good finish of the
concrete surface because in circular columns, you cannot really rely on a mason to get a perfect
circle and also is it is very difficult and time consuming process. But if you adopt these kinds of
tools, or this kind of specially designed formwork, you can save a lot of time.

619
If you are talking about a jacketing then also you can adopt this kind of formworks for repair.
Make this kind of formwork and then fill the repair material into the space between the form and
the existing columns, as I showed on the bottom left.

I am showing you all these, so that you can think about these different ideas and then try to
implement such things in the construction projects.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:35)

Now, form and cast in place, in previous slide we were talking about pumped concrete and here
we are talking about cast in place, in other words, you are basically pouring or placing the
concrete in the formwork. As you see here, the gray color is substrate and the dark color is the
repair material and then here is the cavity and then you can see the formwork made like this so
that you provide sufficient space to flow, there is also a dotted line here that indicates that some
other portions of the same column because the shape has to be well defined. So, wherever the
you are placing the concrete only that portion need to be deviated like towards the left, as you
see on the for sketch. So, the remaining portion can still form the same shape as it is required.

Wherever you need basically some openings at an interval of let us say 1 meter or 2 meter
depending on the case, you can make an opening through which you can place the concrete and
remaining portions can have this continuous formwork like this. So, again material should be

620
workable, once you pour or place the concrete it should flow and reach and fill all the cavities
that is very important.If it is not having good flow again you will see that a lot of pockets here
and there will be formed which is again not a good repair.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:23)

This is again examples to show, you can see here, this is being floor, poured into this, but again
you can see here this portion is actually having a flat surface which is flushed with this surface.
And you can see a conical thing which is like a funnel type setup where through which the
concrete is poured into and this region.

So I am going to show you the previous slide this is this is the funnel part and this is the other
surface, surface flushed with concrete surface.

621
So, you can see very clearly this image shows how these projections need to be made not
everywhere but some regions so, you get nice product at the end.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:44)

Now, another technique is grouted preplaced aggregate. So, you can see here again a grout pump
and in this light gray region is the substrate and you can see here preplaced aggregate. So, idea
here is, first you make the formwork and then fill the space with aggregates and saw that there is
sufficient air voids or space available for the grout material to flow. And then you pump the
grout material through this opening inlet, again notice that that the grout inlet is at the bottom
portion and we push the aggregate the grout upward. So, you pump and then push the grout
upward and there is an outlet also here, it displaces the air inside the preplaced aggregate and
replace that with the grout and then eventually you get a nice concrete itself because eventually
this cement paste goes or grout goes in between all the space between the aggregates and fills up
and then you get a nice concrete at the end. And this is done especially where you cannot really
pump the concrete by itself, if you have let us say a repair work where when you talk about
pumping concrete there, infrastructure required is much larger, size of the hose also should be
probably sometime large, the pump pressure should be large. But in case of grout pumping, it is
just cement paste or a cement slurry, that can be pumped with lower powered machine
machinery. So, the investment required is also going to be less in case of grout pumping than
when you talk about concrete pumping.

622
You know that in concrete 75% or more of the volume is occupied by the aggregates. So, you
first place the aggregate and then compact them or, make sure that it is reasonably filled well.
And then after that, just fill the space in between the aggregate using cement grout that is the
idea here.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:05)

I am going to show you some picture, on the top left of this photograph, you can see that
preplaced aggregates and on the bottom right you can see that the space is being filled by the
grout. So, again here also the inlet should be at the bottom and outlet should be at the top here, so
that the air gets displaced first, and then the ground replaces all the air inside the space between
the aggregates and so, at the end you got a very fine concrete similar to our normal concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:08)

623
And these are the examples where these type of applications have been practice. You can see
here a lot of pumps here for filling the grouts and also air outlets at the top, depending on the
cover region which need to be replaced. So, first a formwork is made with both inlets and outlets,
inlets being at the bottom portion and outlet being at the top portion and then space inside the
formwork is filled with aggregate. Mainly large size aggregates, 25 mm or larger aggregate
typically used, then fill the space with cementitious grout and then after that once that hardens
you can remove the formwork and you get a nicely finished concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:11)

Now, another thing is shotcrete, this is also widely used especially when you talk about tunnel or
any anywhere where large area needs to be covered and where if you are employing one human

624
being to do or a mason to do a troweling, it will take long time, so in such case shotcrete is
widely used. Two types of shotcreting exists, one uses a wet mix and the other one uses a dry
mix, wet mix process and dry mix process. The both these are going to discuss in detail. In the
wet mix process, you have a concrete which is already wet concrete and you just pump it, in the
dry mix the materials are relatively dry, I mean not like flowable but relatively dry, and then you
can see pre-dampness or it relatively dry and then the remaining water required is provided at the
end or right at the nozzle. This is the water supply as you see this is going right into the nozzle
point.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:23)

Now, how is this applied so, we are talking about wet mix, you have a concrete pump and then
compressed air is used to push the repair material and you can see here a nozzle and it is directly
sprayed on to the region which need to be repaired. You might see this in many places where
large surface typically horizontal surfaces or where you expect like a retaining wall or something
like that or tunnels where you might expect some rebound also.

So, let us see how this rebound can be handled. So, here in this example, you see a nozzle and
then the concrete is or repair material is sprayed on to the repair the surface which need to be
repaired, and how do we make sure that the moment the shotcrete or the material leaves it should
be flowable and it should actually flow through the nozzle and at the same time the moment it
reaches the wall it should be setting so fast. So, fraction of a second is given to set it. How do we

625
achieve this is by providing an admixture which is an accelerator and where is this admixture
provided is right at the point where the material is released from the nozzle. So from the tip of
the nozzle to the wall, you have fraction of seconds, so as soon as it reaches there, it gets set and
set accelerated. So you have a good setting of this concrete and it does not fall off from this
surface. So we call it rebound, that volume should be very limited. In other words, when
whichever concrete fall onto the surface, it should stick there it should not fall off.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:24)

And so it is an example you can see it is a tunnel construction. Again, this you can say it is a new
tunnel but even for repair work this is widely used because repair work is sometimes you cannot
really reach that region,, it is far away up, you can do this without really making scaffolding, etc.
That is a key advantage of this. In this case, you can see in the tunnel, you don’t need any
scaffolding, this robotic arm just goes and then sprays this concrete wherever it need to be
sprayed. That is the advantage of this technique; large area can be covered in short period of
time.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:05)

626
Now this is for dry mix. Here you can see again a lot of rebound material as I mentioned earlier.
How do we prevent that is by again if you make the concrete with some accelerator you can
actually prevent or minimize the rebound. But that is one major concern when you talk about
shotcrete, a lot of material which is lost due to rebound. So, if you can design a material, which
will have minimal rebound that is a very good choice to go for and materials like that is widely
available in today's market.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:47)

Now, what are the advantages and disadvantages? Again, highly versatile, you can apply
anywhere you want and then control of water is possible and easy and quick preparation because
you are talking about dry material, it is just getting packets together and then mix them and you

627
need highly skilled and experienced labor because when you talk about these nozzle, it is not that
easy to handle, there is a vibratory effect is there and then there will be a back pressure. So, an
experienced or a skilled laborer is required to control this nozzle and make sure that you get
uniformly thick material on the entire surface which you are applying. And also density of the
material, you have to make sure that it is uniformly applied or uniform thickness because you
don’t trowel the shotcrete at surface, it is not a practice, you just leave it like that. So need to get
a good finish and reasonably uniform thicknesses. So the laborers should know how to achieve
that. Rebound of the mix is a disadvantage we already discussed, but there are techniques now
available to make sure that the rebound is minimal.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:13)

This is one application, you can see on a column where shotcrete is being applied. On the left
side, it is dry mix which is being mixed. And then you can see the pump going like this and then
it goes to the bottom of the bridge, where you see on the picture on the right side. So, again, you
can do these things far away, imagine if this was actually done by a mason and you are taking
small containers, small amount of material and then placing by hand, it is going to much longer
time. When you look at the entire work required it could be relatively easy and you can finish the
job at much earlier than if we were doing it with the hand application.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:09)

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Now, let us look at how important curing is when you talk about durability of repair materials.
Now here on the top I have written core-crete enhances the strength or ensures that the concrete
structure has good strength and good quality cover-crete is very important for ensuring
durability. Now, when you talk about repair, most of the time repair material functions as the
cover concrete. So we can say cover-crete is equal to repair material or repair material essentially
becomes the cover-crete. Now if you do not cure the cover-crete or do not cure the repair
material, what you will essentially get is, as you see on the picture, the peripheral region of the
concrete or the repair material once hardened, it will have a lot of pores inside as compared to
the heart-crete which is inside the stirrups. Because if you don’t cure well, the water which is
available at the peripheral region evaporates and if you are not replenishing that water, then that
repair material cannot hydrate and become more and more compact or dense, then eventually
less permeable cover-create will be the result. So, what we need is for durable concrete is we
need both cover-crete and heart-crete to be of good quality that means to be highly impermeable
in nature.

So the cover-create or repair material should be of very low permeability or highly impermeable
so that the deleterious agents like chloride, CO2, oxygen, moisture, all these cannot penetrate into
the concrete cover. So, that is something is very important, curing is very important to ensure
that the repair is actually durable.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:19)

629
Now, before going into how curing is done I am briefly telling what are the advantages of curing.
It will enhance the quality of concrete significantly. So, strength can be enhanced, water
tightness, abrasion resistant, freeze-thaw, volume stability, and shrinkage, all these properties are
influenced by the amount of curing or by the amount of hydration which the repair material goes
through. So, more the curing, the more will be the hydration at the early stage and you will not
have other problems. So, durability is very much enhanced if the concrete is cured or if the repair
material is cured well. So, when do we start, start the curing immediately after the concrete or the
repair material starts setting or stiffening. If it is really plastic you don’t pour more water on top,
it will deform the whole concrete but wait for until about final setting and then you can start
curing but you don’t allow the concrete to dry at any point. So, the moment there is a little bit
dryness, you immediately have to replenish that with more curing water. Now, water cement
ratio required for complete hydration of cement is about 0.42 theoretically.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:45)

630
Now, if we can make sure that all that water is available within the concrete, then you will have
good curing can happen or good hydration can happen. Now how do we ensure that there are
three ways by which you can cure, maintain this presence of mixing water, whatever the water is
designed as per the mix design maintain it and then reduce the loss of water in other words
prevent evaporation and the third one is supply external heat and moisture, this is mainly steam
curing, but in this lecture I am not going to cover the third point, I am going to show you the first
two.
(Refer Slide Time: 42:24)

Now, here you can see sealing of the mixing water. In other words, whatever water you added to
the concrete, make sure that that is available for complete hydration, how do we seal? You can

631
see in the sketch on the bottom left, there is this saturated concrete and then there is this partially
saturated concrete that means near the surface you lose water because of evaporation. So, we
ensure that this does not happen is by applying a curing membrane. We can see here, this is the
curing membrane, very thin film of a polymeric material which is applied on the top and that
helps in preventing the further loss of moisture from the concrete cover. And you can say how do
we know that the curing compound is actually applied, there are now curing compound which
comes with color and pigments typically white color. And immediately after the final finishing,
you spray this material on the concrete cover which prevents further evaporation and as time
passes, this color fades away. It comes in waxes, resin based, water based compounds are also
available and also you can put polythene sheet that is also a good way to prevent the further loss
of moisture.
(Refer Slide Time: 43:54)

Now, other ways ponding this is also very good, probably the best way is ponding, it making
sure that there is sufficient water is available for the concrete. So, you can see here there is a
pond of water or a water reservoir on the concrete surface. Fogging and wet burlap or cloth,
these are different types, I am going to show you some pictures on this of this wet burlap.
(Refer Slide Time: 44:22)

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Now let us look at what is the effect of this curing on compressive strength. So, as you see here,
the blue curve here is a moist cured condition, moist curing for the entire time, the time goes up
to 1 year on this graph. So, you can see that even after 90 days up to one year, there is a slow
increase in the compressive strength if you continue to cure, which I am not saying it is practical
all the time, but just for our understanding of the importance of curing. And then if we cure for
28 days, 28 days of moist curing followed by exposure to dry air, then you get this red curve
which we can say a compressive strength of 43 MPa. If it is 7 days of moist curing followed by
air curing, then you get about 38 MPa. And if you don’t cure at all, if you did not have moist
curing, in other words if you leave it for direct exposure to air immediately after the construction,
you get only 30 MPa. So, you can see that there is about 15 MPa difference from no curing to 28
day curing. So, definitely curing influences the strength, final strength of the concrete and more
than this it influences durability significantly, if you did not cure the concrete very well the near
surface of the concrete will be very porous which will influence the durability of concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 46:13)

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So, I am going to show you some examples of poor curing practice. See in the two slides ago I
showed this is wet burlap or ways by which you cover the concrete so that the concrete surface,
the near surface gets sufficient water for continued hydration. So, here you can see as probably
prescribed in the contract, there might be wet burlap like this. Yes, that is wet agree. But what
about this concrete here, it does not get any sufficient moisture for continued hydration. And if
we think very carefully, this particular bridge, the bottom portion was constructed earlier than the
top portion. So, at any point of time if the practice is very good, the latest portion of the concrete
should be having a proper curing in other words the sack should be at the top also. Now you go
to the right picture you can see that the sack is at the top but it is unfortunately a dry sack. So,
again when I say in the two slides earlier I said wet burlap that means this sack should be wet. It
is not just to provide a shade from sunlight, but it is to provide sufficient moisture for the cover
concrete and you can see here construction is still going on. It is not that these columns were cast
way early and then its curing period is already over, no. I myself took this image. So I know
what is happening at that site. So many places, you will see that the process of curing neglected,
if it is neglected, the full potential of the repair material will not come.

Now, these two pictures are about new construction, but the same technique or the same
principles are equally valid for any repair which you do, because when you talk about repair, you
are essentially talking about something which is the outside concrete or peripheral concrete. So,
anything which is exposed to the atmosphere need to be very well cured and it need to have

634
sufficient moisture and make sure that it is not just to provide a wet sack but provide them for
sufficient duration and wet, not just dry.
(Refer Slide Time: 48:51)

There is another example where, again wet sacks are provided but not on the entire surface. As
you see on the left side, this is a new highway being constructed and there are a lot of places on
this concrete which is not getting sufficient moisture, like this point here, there are a lot of spaces
in between the wet sacks. We should cover the entire concrete, so that the structure as a whole is
fully durable otherwise what will happen is the portion which is in between these sacks, they will
not have a very good durability and those little portions will degrade faster than the other
portions which are very well cured. So, let us cure the concrete completely, entire surface should
be cured not just here and there. On the right side is actually a railway platform where they put a
new overlay, I took this picture also, and you can see that only some portions is repaired what
about the remaining region on this concrete surface? So, the lesson here is cover the entire
surface of the repair material. So, this is very important to note otherwise you will not really
have long last repair, the repair will not be durable enough.
(Refer Slide Time: 50:38)

635
Now, to summarize we talked about different methods of placing repair materials. We talked
about trowels, different types of trowels, dry packing, form and cast in place concreting and then
form and pump concrete and then preplaced aggregate concrete and also talked about
shortcreating with both dry and wet mixes. And towards the end, we talked about the importance
of curing, how important it is to cure the repair material properly so that we get the full potential
of that repair material and eventually that will help in ensuring that the repair is durable.
(Refer Slide Time: 51:18)

I think this is the references used for making this lecture. And thank you very much.
*

636
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology – Madras

Lecture - 23
Coatings on Concrete Infrastructures

Welcome to this lecture as part of this course on maintenance and repair of concrete
structures. Today, we have a guest speaker Mr. S. Ravichandran he is going to talk about
coatings for concrete infrastructure and I know Mr. Ravichandran for past eight years and he is
an excellent speaker and in fact, he has actually delivered a couple of lectures in my graduate
course on the same course but on similar topic on paintings and coatings.

And from him I learned the difference between painting and coating. And I think he will
really cover that in todays lecture. And he is a senior manager for technical and development in
Protect On he will tell probably what is Protect On. It is not a spelling mistake there and in
Berger paints India limited. Welcome sir for this course. I hope we will have a nice lecture today.

Greetings to all those people who have come to attend this lecture we will be talking on a
topic under the name coatings for concrete specifically for the industrial infrastructure. We will
try to concentrate in this particular lecture.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:36)

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 The outline of this course has been explained here on this slide. The industrial application
of coatings or concrete substrates there are lot of lectures in detail on concrete corrosion but
might be two slides. Just to have a quick recap we will be having the understanding on the
environment classification as per the international standard ISO 12944 we will touch on the
fundamentals of protective coatings.

It will give you a bird’s eye view of various types of coatings that are being used. We try
to understand the requirements of the coatings when it comes to the various service conditions of
concrete. We will just go on in the same pathway and choose those important coatings which are
widely used and most important in protecting concrete surfaces. We will also have a quick
understanding on the challenges of application and the requirement of inspection of coatings,
coating math if it is possible, we will also try to cover that particular aspect.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:08)

638
 Let us also understand there is going to be more focus on the concrete surfaces in
industrial infrastructure which means that this will not cover the paints which are used in houses
or any of those high scrapers for building purposes they are totally different and it can be
covered on a different occasion.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:39)

Concrete is widely used in construction. Any industry you cannot do away without the
use of concrete or steel and corrosion is not going to spare any of this material and the aggressive
environments are going to have a continuous impact on these substrates and hence we need to
understand how this works and what can be done to better prevent it.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:10)

639
 When I have a quick look on concrete there is lot of case studies to explain the different
mechanisms of concrete corrosion. The one which is there on the top they were trying to remove
the weathering coarse. While they were removing it the entire ceiling fell down. This happened
in Chennai a few years before and this is one of those important case studies which opens our
eyes that corrosion, typically chloride induced pitting corrosion in this particular case was the
root cause for the entire collapse of the ceiling. Like that we can keep explaining corrosion.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:55)

But let us get into the topic on how to handle it. Many a times the mindset of corrosion is
what is more challenging than the corrosion itself. They are never noticed unless or otherwise it

640
stops the production and this needs to be changed and I hope this lecture series will help us in
creating better awareness in the industrial engineers.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:20)

When you talk about concrete distress it is either a deficiency or damage. When we say
deficiency it is like a vitamin deficiency, calcium deficiency like that means something has gone
wrong in the system during the time of formation. Damages is typically like you don’t go for
walking so you are losing all your flexibility it is like that. Damages are because of abuse to the
system. So when a concrete structure has not been designed for taking a warehouse it is for
drilling purposes and you start loading material there, stacking material there it’s going to
collapse so it is something like an abuse.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:04)

641
 Let us get into a quick understanding on the differences between a deficiency and the
damage. Deficiency as you can easily understand it is by the faulty design, inferior materials and
the poor construction practices which are always a challenge for any civil engineer. When you
talk about damages it is primarily on the abuse, no doubt a very serious effect due to the
environment. The environment also carries a lot of chemical effects probably most of when it is
in an industry and the internal stress which are also, we will explain in a different lecture.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:43)

We will just get into the details of understanding it. The various reactions which are
going on in the concrete and disturbing the integrity is what will be the topic when we try to

642
understand on chloride intrusion or carbonation effect or the effect of acid, alkali and sulfates on
the concrete
(Refer Slide Time: 07:04)

So we just jump into the understanding on how this effect is present and can I have a
single study example to know the various effects of concrete?
(Refer Slide Time: 07:19)

Yes there is a chemical decomposition happening when it is coming under different

variety of attack. A very clear example is from a pier in the sea which is holding. This is a
photograph taken from Pamban bridge (Anna Indra Gandhi Bridge) situated at Rameswaram. So

643
this particular structure has an effect of atmospheric zone, high-tide zone, the tidal zone, the low
tide zone as well as the submerged zone.
(Refer Slide Time: 07:49)

And each of those areas the concrete has been subjected to different types of attacks.
Right from the atmospheric zone which is more prone for getting the corrosion of steel
happening underneath. You have the high tide zone where you have the freezing and thawing
cycles which is more disturbing the concrete. The tidal zone where you have more of abrasion
and erosion type of corrosion. The low tide zone where you have the chemical decomposition of
hydrated cement. The submerged zone very much affected by the effect of carbon dioxide,
magnesium ion and sulphate attacks.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:23)

644
 So we have to look at the various options of coating concrete. And this has been a proven
system at least to my knowledge it is more than 30 years if I am right. This is a coating which
has been done there as per the technology of CCRI of Karaikudi which is a four coated epoxy
polyurethane system. The concrete is intact and that is where we get confidence that concrete can
be protected with the help of good coatings.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:51)

Now when you have an overall picture about the challenges to the infrastructure all these
elements have an effect of creating a situation of instability in the concrete. The concrete are
being used in variety of areas. If there is going to be an underground pipeline or an underground
structure you have the soil contaminants and the salts affecting it. If it is passing through water,

645
undersea the immersion in liquids and the effect of even rain and wet climate can disturb the
concrete.

We all know that the water-cement ratio or the moisture effect on concrete is going to be
detrimental to the very integrity of the structure. Fire, we always think that brick lining is going
to protect us very greatly, but we are not talking on bricks. We are talking on concrete, concrete
if it is going to exceed a particular temperature because of the effect of the fire, then the concrete
is also going to buckle up. We are not going to detail too much into this but let us also appreciate
that fire is going to be a very severe detrimental factor.

Air, we appreciate with the moisture and the wind abrasion and no doubt the effects of
gases which is just coming through the pathway of that including radiation. We are talking about
space we understand the problems created by voids, pores and intracellular spaces or crevices.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:24)

So let us understand the environment in a better way. We try to understand that whenever
there is an opportunity of material coming in contact with the environment, they are being taken
back to the home state be it steel or be it any material we all turn back to the place where we
come from. So that is how it starts.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:47)

646
 And to put it under the international understanding we follow a typical standard called
ISO 12944 this is classification of environments under categories of C1 to CX where you can
find that C1 is primarily a dry zone or a heated building. When you talk about C2 we have an
opportunity for condensation to take place. You can call it a wet zone as well. And when you talk
about C3 we are talking about urban and industrial atmospheres where you have probably even
production plants, laundries all these areas and any area which has got low salinity.

When you talk about C4 you enter into a saline zone which is a coastal zone. It can also
have a chemical plant close by and where it is C5 it is very much close to a high humid and an
aggressive atmosphere, chemical industry or a power plant which is next to the sea. When you
are talking about CX you are trying to understand that it is a typical offshore area, the high seas
area. So the corrosion rate is going to be different for all these different types.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:04)

647
 When you talk about immersion conditions, we try to understand immersion under four
different categories as per ISO 12944. One is for freshwater, one is for sea or brackish water, 3 is
for soil and the recent addition is 4, sea or brackish water which has an opportunity where it is
going along with cathodic protection. So, many are not familiar with this brackish water. It is the
area where the sea and the river meet so it is a reduced salinity in the particular area.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:40)

The effect of corrosion, if I have to understand what happens in all the zones C1 to CX
the steel has been taken as a benchmark to understand this. It is being compared with the best of
protection which the steel can get that is a zinc coating or the steel. When you expose this
particular steel for a year period without coating and with coating the amount of corrosion which

648
is affecting this particular steel has been identified and tabulated based on the mass loss in grams
per square meter or the thickness loss in microns which has been lost.

So when you see C1 very low or negligible amount of corrosion takes place in one year
of exposure whereas the same when you go towards C5 or CX you are losing 200 microns. In
other words in 5 years it is not actually extrapolated that way but for our understanding in 5 years
you lose 1 mm thickness of steel. So this is very high and therefore steel is getting protected with
zinc and this zinc is actually losing much lesser.

You have only 4 microns to 8 microns loss instead of 200 micron loss of the parent steel
itself. So, zinc coating or galvanized zinc which we are very familiar for many structures and
pipelines. That has been a preferred choice because of the sacrificial protection which zinc can
offer. That is with respect to the steel. So this is the same area where concrete is also getting
exposed and we do not have an equivalent table to understand the extent of attack under different
atmospheres. Probably this can be one of the studies by our academics.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:34)

When you are talking about the service conditions which a concrete or any substrate is
being subjected to. It can be abrasion resistance which might be required from a coating, a
scratch resistance required from a coating. It can have an impact all these are mechanical. Same

649
way we have a physical contact with the substrate, either it can be a liquid contact, it can be a
gaseous contact, and it can be a solid contact with the metal.

And when you talk about chemical the different opportunities where under exposure you
have a dry air or oxygen coming in contact or you have moisture coming in contact or you have
ions coming in contact with the material for corrosion to take place. Apart from that, we always
find abused or even overuse. I would wish to highlight that most of the industries are not giving
sufficient attention to this.

Therefore, the maintenance cycle is also skipped which is again increasing the scope for
more and more corrosion to take place. When it comes to new projects, we have newer problems
like time factors then you have the limitation in the expertise of the people who are actually
installing the concrete or installing the coatings for the same.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:49)

So all these talents have to be addressed and let us have a quick understanding on the
difference in this conditions typically which have been highlighted more be it steel or concrete.
We try to appreciate the corrosion resistance of the coating, the heat resistance of a coating, the
chemical resistance, the abrasion resistance, the weather resistance at least the fires salient
features which we need to look upon.

650
 When you are talking about different types of services, we have underground services
which can also have cathodic protection systems along with the coatings and you have
underwater services in port which are being subjected to a different environment including the
animal growth or a plant growth of the Marine organisms. Immersion condition is again an area
where you coat a water reservoir here or a water tank.

The inside of the water tank we call them as linings. We have fire protection for most of
those civil structures particularly the ones which are supporting the piers, the bullets, the main
structures which are there in oil and gas installations from the effect of hydrocarbon fire. We will
come to that particular slide to have a better understanding. We have coatings which can insulate
from high voltages.

We have coatings which can give anti-static protection in all electronics industry. There
is going to be a very high use and then let us not forget whenever we are going in the roads, we
have road marking which is guiding us on a safe pathway.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:28)

So coatings have a variety of users with respect to protecting concrete. Now for all those
people who are quite interested in knowing what are there in paint. Paint is more than color like
what I wear is a blue it is not a blue it has got something more than that which is dependent on

651
the environment. I take protection for granted right? And therefore people only talk about color
and the glass which is more of a decorative appeal.

When we are trying to talk about protection, we need to understand a few more words
which will help us give better clarity. When you understand these 4 ingredients which are the
primary constituents in the paint. You have the binder which is also called as a resin or someone
calls it as a polymer that is the most important ingredient. Along with the binder is strength
forming that is the pigment and you have a solvent which is used during the manufacturing
during the application time which evaporates. Additives are there which gives you the special
properties. This is a quick understanding on what paint is.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:42)

And the resins what they do? The pigments what they do? And the solvents what they do
are being explained in this particular slide. Now if I have to go beyond the slide to help you
understand what it is if I have to make a body stand, I need the muscle, I need the bone. It is as
simple as that. Now the bone here is being correlated with the pigment and the muscle here is
being correlated with the resin. If you have either one of them, it does not work. That is why we
have a combination of both the resins and then pigment which is imparting you the film
properties.

652
 The resins have a classification we will just touch upon that. When you talk about
pigments, we have corrosion resistant pigments. We have got what do you call barrier pigments
and we have got coloring pigments and on a very high broader classification. Solvents which are
there in the film again there are three different types of solvents which are getting processed
during the manufacturing and obligation.

One is called a primary diluent the other is secondary diluent and tertiary diluent is what
we use in the field which is also called as thinner. The primary diluents function is to dissolve
the resin and the secondary diluent is the one which will help in maintaining the stability of the
paint to give it a particular viscosity and packing it and dispatching it. So these two are going to
be there in the paint and many a time unless or otherwise specified by the manufacturer.

There is no need for you to add any additional solvent and that is not at all mandatory. It
is only to improve the kinetics of application that’s it. Much said with respect to solvents they are
evaporating, be it water, be it any hydrocarbon solvent they have to evaporate out of the film.
Then only the film is formed properly. If the solvent has not evaporated properly it leads to
problems. It leads to drying problems, it leads to adhesion problems.

It leads to lifting; it can have n number of issues when you are talking about solvents
entrapped. So less the solvent the better and the second point, less the solvent it is always more
better because we are going more towards a greener environment. So when you are talking about
paints, we will have to understand a word called volume solids a word called volatile organic
content that would stays back on your substrate.

You can understand it as volume solid which gets out of the main film is all solvents
without getting out into the atmosphere and that needs to be controlled. So having a check on the
VOC will help you in getting towards a greener environment.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:42)

653
 Primers, intermediates, finishers these are the three different types of classification which
we commonly come across. Be it a house painting or an industry painting. Each of them has a
different role to do. The primers primary function this is stay foot on the substrate and hold onto
the substrate getting better adhesion properties. It is also going to give you corrosion resistance
properties as well depending upon the requirement. It can also be a sealer to keep closing all your
voids and pores.

It can also be filler which can be filling up the blue holes or a requirement on dense in the
case of steel. So there are various products which are combined and under the terminology of
primer which can either be as a first coat and then subsequently as additions to that. And
subsequently the primer is the one which is going to be next to the substrate. We come to the
word intermediate or in the case of floor coatings we call it an underlay.

So these are products which have more of film build which is primarily to stop the
penetration of oxygen or moisture or any of these gases or other way around. It gives you more
stability to the entire film which means giving strength to the film in the case of floor coatings.
When you are talking about finished paints it is primarily to take care of the external service
conditions be it ultraviolet radiation in some situations and be it in the property of showing up
the color, showing up the class giving you the required color retention and glass retention are
part of the resin characteristics but showing the color is part of the finished paints property.

654
 And in some situations, we may have extreme conditions of chemical attack, spillage of
chemicals or in contact with chemicals or with respect to temperatures in certain cases so all
these are different types of resins and different types of pigments are getting added to give you
the desired properties.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:53)

A Quick review of the following slides will give us a bird’s eye view and we are just
getting into a few of those very simple and very important classifications which will be used by a
civil engineer as well to understand some of the paints which are being used by them in metal
structures.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:17)

655
 Now, when you talk about Alkyd let us not forget to read the red line there. It is typically
not a product for concrete, but this is a versatile coating. This is a paint which you have seen in
your houses also for your grill gates for your doors and windows. This is same paint which has
been widely used to a large extent in your railway coach exteriors as well. Of late we have been
modifying that from simple alkyds 5 coat systems to 3 coat epoxy polyurethane systems in the
case of railways as well.

But this has been a work horse for decades to decades for more than 80- 90 years. I
would say that for close to 100 years probably alkyds have been ruling the market in a very big
way. The latest versions are reducing the number of coats. So we call it as a Monocoat or a direct
to metal coat and you have quick drying versions which is helping us because normally Alkyd
take more than 4 to 5 hours for even a touch dry.

So the quick dry versions are now in play. And these Alkyds are also taken for Oven
curing is also called as baking or stoving. So that the production time can be reduced and
imparting a very good film. These Alkyds are on a typical thickness of 20 to 30 micron just to
have a quick understanding of what is this 20 to 30 micron. The plastic bags which you carry or
nowadays we are not supposed to carry in a vegetable market.

656
 That film is 20 microns or your hair for that matter is around 20 to 25 microns. That is
how thin a coating is and this can be measured with the help of thickness gauges called dry film
thickness gauge.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:59)

We are talking about the next resin variety called chlorinated rubber coatings. These
coatings also have primers, intermediates and finishes and these are better suitable in the case of
C2 like environment where you have a wet condition, wet atmosphere coming in play. The latest
version of one of this product has been used as a quick drying version in lane marking. So this
can be applied on concrete as well.

I would say that the product which has occupied the major area when it comes to concrete
that is epoxy this Epoxy coating are available as primers, intermediate and finish. The number of
versions depends upon the reactions which are there and this is again let me say when I say
reaction, I have to help you understand with one more point. The earlier two products they are all
single pack products.

You just open the container and start using them put your brush start applying them. That
is how simple it is but when it comes to Epoxies it is a two pack product. You have a base, you
have a hardener or someone calls it as part A and someone calls it as part B, someone calls part

657
B also as an accelerator. So, every paint has got a mixing ratio in the first place. So this mixing
ratio has to be maintained with all due respects.

If not, the reaction is not going to complete. As per our design requirements these
reactions are called the polymerization. Epoxies are a wonder product. Let me tell you it is very
good for different situations and different epoxy combinations are available to handle different
types of conditions. Now let me tell what are all the different types of conditions, epoxies can be
used underwater?

Epoxies again it is not a single word epoxy and single product. Please have a check on
that particular usage of word. When we say a particular service condition, we have to refer to the
technical data sheet of the paint manufacturer. Look at the performance data sheets and then
come to a conclusion whether it is workable or not or better call the technical service people to
have clarity on the coating system which can be followed.

So now let us quickly go through. It can be used for underground. It can be used above
ground, it can be used in the mid sea, it can be used in offshore areas, it can be used in refineries,
it can be used in chemical plants, and it can be used in nuclear plants wherever you want. This
particular product will have an opportunity to show its presence. Here again we have a product
which has been reduced the number of coats.

Instead of primer, intermediate and finish we have got direct to metal which is called a
Monocoat system which will exhibit both the primer and finished properties there are properties
we just call as surface tolerant. Now the word is something, very simple in English but very
difficult in technical. The reason being we need to understand one more point of epoxies.
Wherever an epoxy coating is getting applied on a metal, the metal should be free of
contaminants and the contaminants start from the mill.

That is the mill scale, the rust, the paint, the salt, the dust, the debris you can have quite a
large number of all this oil, grease, water. Nothing should be there when we are applying an
epoxy painting and if this is getting compromised, the performance of this epoxy is going to be

658
compromised in a very large extent. That is why maintenance team was always finding it
difficult because they were not able to remove the old paint.

They were not able to remove effectively the rust, so they are finding it quite difficult to
use epoxies. And they also did not know because of compatibility reasons. They have not been in
a position to understand. Was it vinyl paint earlier? Was it chloro paint earlier? Now I have to go
for vinyl or chloro which is also difficult. They have no clue on what coating was there on a
substrate.

In these areas this epoxy was developed as a surface tolerant product. It was a massive
coating, which had more than 90% solids and it used to give you 100 micron thickness in a
single coat. And that is why it is maintenance engineers dream coating. It can be applied on steel;
it can be applied on concrete as well. Further developments on surface tolerant coatings were
addition of glass flake as a pigment.

So you have glass flake coatings, which are again epoxies built at a thickness of 200 to
500 microns in a single coat applied by brush or by spray. It can take very harsh environments.
Now the challenge was I have different material in metal. Say for example, I have a steel, mild
steel, I have stainless steel, I have cast iron, I might have aluminum, I might have various
materials in my construction and every time I have to look for which primer is going to be
difficult.

So we have developed an epoxy, which is called as a universal primer. So this universal

primer, can we apply it on different substrates? We have different epoxies for immersion
conditions. That is in direct contact with the liquid or gas. In another situation you have got
coatings which are required under the insulation they are no doubt floor coatings as well, so
coatings in epoxies can be applied anywhere from 20 microns to more than a millimeter. So, the
range in which the epoxy paints are available are quite huge and it is very interesting to get into
the details.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:00)

659
 Whenever we talk about coating, I cannot miss this particular product called zinc
coatings. We are primarily looking at the sacrificial protection of zinc. Therefore, you are getting
it applied on steel substrates wherever you have an opportunity that the steel has to perform for a
longer period or in a marine zone or any primer which has to work at 400 degree temperatures as
well.

This is the only primer that can take both corrosion resistance and heat resistance when
applied properly at 75 micron thickness in a single coat. There are two versions of it. One is
called organic other is called inorganic. I am referring to the inorganic portion, which is also
called as cold galvanizing. The organic version is putting zinc dust in an epoxy resin and that is
called epoxy zinc rich primer that can be brush applied whereas inorganic zinc cannot be brush
applied it has to be spray applied.
(Refer Slide Time: 33:00)

660
 Now, polyurethane we have heard this name very frequently, it is used on wood, it is
used on concrete, it is used on mild steel, the primary function of this polyurethane is based on
the resin in which it has been cooked, it is an aliphatic resin or an aromatic resin. If it is aliphatic,
then it is more to do with UV radiation resistance. If it is aromatic, it can offer you a chemical
resistance.

Here again, you have the various toppings and floor coatings as well as you can use it on
concrete as thick waterproofing membranes, you can use it in protecting the underground
structures, underground bullets and on pipelines as well. So on any of the epoxy primers
polyurethanes are used as topcoat. It gives you better color and glass retentions.

Further developments on polyurethanes are poly siloxanes and the latest generations are
in the same line for giving you a better color better glass is fluoro polymers which can give you
protection, for more than 40 to 50 years life that is very interesting. Polyurethanes normally give
you around 3 to 5 years at that thickness.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:22)

661
 When polyurethane was born, polyurea was also born at the same time in the lab, but
polyurethane became famous and polyurea was not so famous. The reason being the difficulty in
getting polyurea application. Polyurethanes are typically a product which is a reaction of an
isocyanate and the polyol whereas here in poly urea, it is a reaction of an amine with a polyol
and therefore these products are very tough. It has got fantastic flexibility, good chemical
resistance. It is also called as snap cure coatings, I have a few slides to show you where it can be
used.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:59)

And that is a very interesting product. Now, talking about clean room coatings. I am just
now getting into some of those service conditions based expressions of coatings. This is also

662
having a system wherein you have a water based epoxy primer and top coated with a
polyurethane. This particular product is used in hospitals, is used in pharmaceuticals or even
concrete as well as on plastered surfaces.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:29)

Epoxies are one of the major items used in nuclear power plants. Without epoxies, you
will not be in a position to complete the construction of a nuclear power plant. That much is what
epoxies can do for the country. What is the place where epoxies are used? Be it steel or concrete?
I said epoxies have a role to play right from the cooling water structure, which gets into the inner
lining of that to the containment area.

So, epoxies are playing a major role, the walls, the ceilings, the floors, the structures
everywhere. Epoxies are used widely in the nuclear plant. The epoxy which is used here is not
the normal epoxy. It is subjected to a variety of tests by the government NPCIL and then they
accept a particular coating, whether it is able to take care of the radiation resistance, the ability to
withstand the radiation. That is the most important requirement. Secondly, can it bridge cracks?
That is also a very important requirement.

So nuclear plants have a typical painting system and we are not detailing too much into
that. We only require a good concrete, moisture free F3 finish and then you start applying epoxy
in multiple coats.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:11)

663
 The second important area is in thermal power plants where you have a high draft cooling
tower. Water continuously keeps falling inside at a high temperature of 35 or 40 degrees and it
has to be cooled down before consumption.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:32)

This water is continuously in contact with the concrete structure. So water and
temperature are not going to go well with concrete and you might have lot of issues with respect
to the penetration of water, utilization of the concrete and the corrosion happening there. So we
require a coating to apply when the concrete is dry. That is fine many coatings are there. But
epoxies are not to be applied when there is a wet substrate, when there is a substrate that is
contaminated with oil or grease.

664
 So when you are looking into these conditions, no coatings are workable in this type of
structures during maintenance painting, I cannot do 100% shut down of the plant to start
painting. Therefore, we have to improvise on the qualities of this particular products, drying
capabilities. Even when there is a presence of water, even when there is a high level of moisture,
even when there is a substrate contaminated with water. This product can we apply it dry spray.

This is the same product which can be used not only on concrete but the neighboring steel
structures as well because it has given around 300 microns fantastic salt spray test of 2000 hours.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:55)

Concrete corrosion well known to us.

(Refer Slide Time: 38:58)

665
We try to understand the corrosion in effluent treatment plants.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:04)

Where the conditions are more severe and aggressive?

(Refer Slide Time: 39:08)

666
 Coatings that are used in effluent treatment plants. These are special epoxies these are
again products which can be applied on mild steel as well as on concrete surfaces. The thickness
of each coat is 500 microns and you can apply minimum of two coats under these situations.
These products have a reduced pot life, means after mixing the two parts, part A and part B, the
paint has to be applied within a specific time and that is called the pot life

If paints are applied within that it will have an opportunity to spread evenly. It will be in
a position to cure well and give you the desired performance exceeding the pot life whatever
material, we have mixed moves to rubbish it cannot be used.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:01)

667
 This is the title slide I can call, the best of the coatings. We learned coatings from this
particular area in a better way.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:13)

Anti-carbonation, we know the effects of carbonation on concrete, chloride intrusions on

concrete and we require protection of all those piers which have been constructed as flyovers and
road over bridges. Anti-carbonation coatings are available both as water based product as well as
solvent based product. The thicknesses of these coatings are around 150 microns as a total
system. These products can be applied by brush, by rollers or by spray and it is quite easy to
apply with a normal surface preparation and what is normal and abnormal. We will try to look at
it at the end of this lecture.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:54)

668
 Pipelines are used in irrigation projects. We are also taking water from far away sources.
The pipes are having a cement mortar lining and the latest development is to give you a coating
inside cement or steel pipelines to carry the water. They are tested and they are approved as food
grade pipelines, food grade epoxy coatings.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:26)

Vitamin coatings are also used in coating on the external pipelines or this can also be
taken as internal pipeline coating. Coating thickness, per coat it is around 200 microns. You can
take 2 or more coats not a problem. And this particular product is also tested by the international
body WRAS who accepted as a food grade coating.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:52)

669
 What is WRAS? It is a Water Regulation Advisory Scheme. It is a body of UK and from
the body of US you have US FDA. All these have regulations to certify that the coatings can be
in contact with food and water.
(Refer Slide Time: 42:10)

AWWA is American Water Works Association. They also have a standard to accept
liquid epoxy coatings and linings for steel water pipes. The latest of the Indian standards is IS
16676 which talks about the same product, solventless liquid epoxy for application on water
pipes.
(Refer Slide Time: 42:36)

670
 Polyurea is a wonder product as we said it was born along with the polyurethanes. What
is this wonder about? The wonder is, it is a snap cure. What does it mean? You have a part A and
part B of this material; you mix it 15 seconds. It is already set. So the technology of application
of polyurea is the one which took nearly 60 years for the product to come into the market.

This particular product has fantastic elongation property and in comparison to normal
polyurethane. It is a seamless lining, which means there are no joints, there is no stitching. It
offers excellent abrasion resistance. It offers very good impact resistance, elastomeric property
and higher elongation more than 400%. It has got excellent Tear resistance property and reduced
VOC which means it is environment friendly.

The entire coating gets cured in 24 hours one can start applying and start walking on top
of it. And that is the speed in which you can have a return to service. These are the unique
features of polyurea.
(Refer Slide Time: 43:59)

671
 Polyurea application can be in the area of canal management wherein the concrete
construction joints can be totally sealed. Polyureas can be applied in few inches as well. It can be
totally sealed so that water loss in the pathway of transportation through these canals and open
canals can be reduced to a negligible level. Pipelines are coated and it is also an excellent
waterproofing material. So for deck waterproofing, podium waterproofing, this is an ideal
choice.
(Refer Slide Time: 44:38)

When you are talking about concrete floors, we have different problems in concrete. We
all know that steel can be welded one above the other but concrete cannot be welded. You cannot

672
have two concretes to become a homogeneous layer. So we have a lot of issues. When there is a
wear and tear, we typically call it as erosion and are due to this high abrasion on the left side.

When you are able to see this particular portion this is a parking lot, you are able to see
those rods getting exposed to lot of cracks which can happen in concrete and any touch-up area.
All these areas are not going to stay for a longer time. The wear and tear is much higher here.
This is a typical case of assets and chemicals. This is an industrial plant you have a lot of
concrete and this is another interesting area to observe.

This area is not an epoxy for floor coating and this portion you will find a very good
epoxy as a floor coating member. Not all epoxies are suitable as a floor coating. Now, what does
that floor coating do? It is able to resist the cracking. It is able to help you in better cleaning. It is
able to give you better abrasion resistance, chemical resistance and many other service
conditions we will try to touch upon with respect to floor coatings.
(Refer Slide Time: 46:16)

Typically to have a broader understanding, they are self-leveling which means that you
apply the material and it is able to maintain a same dry film thickness across, provided we are
able to spread it to all the corners to the desired areas which it has to cover. Roller applied means
you are able to use a roller and apply the particular material at a defined thickness, so they are
also called as floor toppings.

673
 You can use it as marking for lanes and some of those UV resistant coatings which are
applied over normal self-leveling coatings are roller applied to give you a specific service
condition property.
(Refer Slide Time: 46:56)

Floor coatings have crack resistance, chemical resistance. We have understood this in an
overall manner. We have a few examples shown here one is for a heavy duty flooring where
huge material of 18 tons plus are being taken here you have a deck coatings for car parking. Here
you have high voltage insulation, acid resistance this is for battery rooms. We know how much a
battery can spoil a floor. So this particular coating is an epoxy Novolac which is suitable for such
harsh environments of chemical attacks. We also got thermal shock resistant coatings.
(Refer Slide Time: 47:36)

674
 So there is wide range of coatings available for floors. But whenever we talk about a
floor coating, we try to understand on the 4 fundamental parameters, the floor coating if it has to
protect the concrete, the floor coating has to be stronger than the concrete. So when you are
looking at concrete strength of M20 or M40 means I should not have a coating of the same
strength it should be better than that.

So the compressive strength of the coating are normally around 60, which means that it
has the power to protect it very well. We have other requirements like the tensile strength, the
ability for the coating to take care of the tensile forces, which is coming and acting due to the
expansion and contraction requirements of the concrete. More flexural resistance is required
when you have a vehicle and it is trying to turn around.

We try to understand the tear resistance; we try to understand the flexural strength of the
particular coating, which is going to give you the better performance height of all the coating has
to stay there on the substrate. So you require a very good bonding therefore the bond strength is
being tested. So there is a Dolly which will be fixed in the lab. We try to pull the Dolly out and
we will check whether the coating comes away from the concrete or the concrete along with the
coating comes off.

675
 In many a case, the coating is so strong that the concrete gets turn off, but not the coating
bond with the concrete. So these are the 4 fundamental properties which we try to check when
we are looking at the floor coatings.
(Refer Slide Time: 49:15)

You have a huge range of performance requirements for floor coatings.

(Refer Slide Time: 49:23)

A quick understanding on how much life floor coating can offer. And this is a typical
case where I have seen, for 9 years this has been performing and still doing very well without
any maintenance other than cleaning it well. This was applied at around 2 millimeters thickness,
I recollect it is a VDF floor.
(Refer Slide Time: 49:48)

676
 Now, condition for coating during application is a topic which we need to understand in
detail. Surface preparation requirements, the mixing of coating requirements, application of
coatings, the various methodologies which are there. What is the importance of drying and
curing and none of them can be taken as all. Many a time, we are not getting involved with the
person who is actually installing the coating.

If the people as a mason, if he is going to play havoc then that the structure goes for a
toss. Same way if the painter is not aware of the product, which he is handling the coating goes
for a toss. So the performance is more dependent in these situations. With the effective
implementation of the application, there are a lot of influences to the coating characteristics, the
film curing characteristics due to the temperature, the temperature of the air, the temperature on
the substrate.

We also have to understand on the dewpoint temperature when there is going to be

condensation or possibility of condensation occurring on the substrate, the epoxies are going to
have different problems called amine blush. So this is not going to help you with a better film
characteristic. So we need to monitor all these particular requirements, right from relative
humidity to the wind velocity whenever we are doing a spray application. So we have many
requirements in this particular area.
(Refer Slide Time: 51:27)

677
 The coating of steel, the coating of concrete, we have to fine tune the understanding and
ensure that it is implemented well. The temperature of the substrate is also being monitored
because most of the coatings have solvent which is having an opportunity to release its solvents
based on the temperature on the substrate. The temperature of the substrate is very cool, the
solvent stays back. It is not able to find an opportunity to move out.

Same way when the humidity is much higher, there is no opportunity for the solvent to go
out. So, understanding the temperature of the substrate, understanding the humidity percentage in
the air and understanding the opportunity of dewpoint and condensation to occur. All these are
very critical factors when we are talking about application of coatings.
(Refer Slide Time: 52:25)

678
 The standard practices we understand on the cure of concrete, we have to understand the
concrete has to be ideally dry, clean and sound and you also need to understand the profile of the
concrete and you have the practices of ICRI 03732 they are visual comparators. I think I have a
slide to show you how it looks and how it is being used.
(Refer Slide Time: 52:53)

When it is new concrete, we have to ensure that the concrete is cured well before we
touch with coatings. Ensure that there is a curing compound and sealers do not have oil
contamination leftover on the concrete. There should not be any dust, salt or laitance or loosely
adhering particles on the concrete. It has to be removed and then we will have to work on the

679
cracks, dents voids, blowholes and it has to be filled with proper putty. And then we work
further.
(Refer Slide Time: 53:30)

The tools and tackles list have been listed which can be kept as a quick reference wherever you
get into a coating project.
(Refer Slide Time: 53:37)

The different methods of applications.

(Refer Slide Time: 53:43)

680
 We will try to touch upon the importance of the caution areas. That is the weather
condition as we told a bit earlier. Then we should know what coating system is there for that
respect of job, which has been taken? Tools which are required? What is the cleanliness we have
to adapt? And whether we have the spares, when it comes to tips or hoses in the case of spray.
(Refer Slide Time: 54:07)

We are talking about the contamination, if salt is there, dust is there, debris is there, oil is
there this is going to have effect. So we have to have a check for all these different
contaminations before we start the painting. It also includes proper lighting. If lighting is not
sufficient, probably coating cannot happen without any holidays.
(Refer Slide Time: 54:31)

681
 It can lead to holidays means there is going to be a small area which has been left without
painting, which can allow the ingress of the corrosive ingredients which can go like oxygen or
moisture or chemicals and start attacking the substrate. So paint has to be applied free of
holidays, free of pinholes, free of bubbles and it has to be uniform in thickness. And this is what
we look for in good painting.

Whenever it is in an epoxy or any other paint, solvent based paint, please do remember
that they are hazardous material. No air is left without understanding the smell of paint in that
particular vicinity. So you know that painting is going on there, so whenever there is a painting
activity going on. Do not create a spark opportunity; there should not be any welding activity
close to the painting yard. This is very important it can cause accidents.

So when you are talking about the transfer efficiency or the right film thickness, this is
very important area. When you are saying that I wanted a coating of say 500 microns then you
have to check on the volume solid content and then arrive at the required wet film thickness to
achieve the dry film thickness of the paint. Then if you are able to maintain the required wet film
thickness, you can be rest assured that the paint will be giving you the desired dry film thickness.
(Refer Slide Time: 56:06)

682
 So I think we have covered all the topics. This is only to give you a single summary
appreciation of what went in this lecture we have to primarily summarize saying that coatings for
concrete are very important and mandatory. It enhances the durability of the structure, epoxy
coatings are in wide use. The latest developments in protecting concrete are with Polyureas and
polyurethanes as well. Fireproofing of concrete pedestals in oil and gas installations are very
important aspect in integrity management. We have Anti carbonation coatings, clean room
coatings. We have coatings for a variety of purposes including pipeline coatings.

683
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology - Madras

Lecture – 24
Waterproofing of Concrete Structures

Hi, in this lecture, we are going to cover waterproofing of concrete structures and
there are 2 lectures in this module, this first module we will look at basic principles.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:25)

This is the outline for this module on waterproofing. In the first lecture we will look at
sources of water, waterproofing principles and some general idea about different
waterproofing systems and in the next lecture, we will look at especially on expansion joint
systems and basement waterproofing systems and systems for roof waterproofing.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:50)

684
 Now, in this lecture I just want to tell what we are going to discuss in today's lecture.
It is, understanding the sources of water. Where the water is coming from? And then water
proofing principles, mainly looking at the forces that are involved in the movement of water
and also how to design effective systems to prevent leakage. We will talk about 3 major types
of water proofing systems. One is barrier waterproofing system and then it is drainage
waterproofing system and then we will look at diversion waterproofing system.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:30)

So, before getting into all that details, let us look at the different demonstrations of
dampness in building elements and based on which we know what the source. So in these
pictures which I am going to show in next few slides, I will also talk about where the water is
coming from. So it will be easy for you to detect the source of water, if you see a particular
type of damage or manifestation of moisture damage.

685
 So, the first picture blistering of paints at the corner of the walls, you can see here on
the picture on the left, the paint is completely getting damaged. Definitely, it is because of
moisture inside the wall and then that moisture might be coming from either a concealed pipe
or from the floor because of the capillary action and you can see in most of these type of
buildings, you will see that this kind of damage is very prevalent in the space like in the
surface which is about 1 meter or 2 meter from the ground level.

If that is the case, it indicates that it is actually due to the capillary suction or the
water which is available at ground and that is being getting into the wall element or the
concrete element we are talking about. Picture on the right side also very clearly shows this.
So here you can say that this is from ground but maybe this portion on the top right that is
definitely not from ground.

But you can also see the direction of the movement like you can see water is moving
something like this looking at the structure of the stains or the shape of the different stains on
the wall surface, so the top right that is because of water coming from the floor above it.
Mostly it is because of either a bathroom or some pipeline which is going and which is
corroded probably or water leaking from the concealed pipes.

Or whatever be the source, even it could be just a roof element above rain water get
stagnated around the corners and then it seep into the walls and then it is manifested as it’s
shown on the top right corner of the picture and here also you can see a lot of dampness along
the joint between the wall and the roof and also on the corner. So, when you see something
like this, you can actually go to the other side of the building and see if there is any other side
of the element and then see if there is any indication of source of water on the other side.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:25)

686
 This is again, couple of additional pictures where on the left side you can see drainage
ducts from the restrooms and toilets. This is a three storey building, you can see a lot of
pipelines coming out from the walls around and the entire shaft is really wet and you can also
see that wetness leading to corrosion of the rebars. So this is not definitely a good thing to
happen.

And also if you look carefully on this paint, it’s all blistered, paints are peeling off
because of the pressure due to the presence of water inside the wall element and it just de-
bonds the paint from the plaster and here you can see again inside a bathroom. Definitely, it
is because of the water leakage from the concealed pipes and here probably, it is because of
either the roof element. You have to see in these cases, what is on the other side of the
element, so that you can really decide on what is the root cause of the problem.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:32)

687
 And here it is a photograph showing dampness, here you can see in this portion here
and in this particular case, there was actually like poor quality mortar and also the ground on
the other side it is a basement region and here on the ground you have water stagnation and
somehow that water is getting into it and also there were concealed pipes; possibility of
concealed pipes in this as I draw there.

And because of all this, so to understand where is the water coming from; first you
look at how the damage looks like or the pattern of the damage and then look at what is
available near so that what is the source of water, it is very important and sometimes it might
be pipes, sometimes it might be stagnant water and sometimes it might be just the water from
the ground.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:28)

688
 Now, here another example on the rooftop; this is very common in the rooftop, you
can see especially on high rise building, apartment, complexes etc., where most often the
terraces are locked, so people don’t go there and check what is the structural condition? So
condition could be sometimes something like this, because we don’t have a proper inspection
practices, so we allow the grass and small plants to grow there and which is not good.

And also you can see in this picture on the right side, you have a lot of dirt
accumulation also, so that when you have soil there that actually keeps the moisture and then
it keeps supplying the moisture to the concrete below, which will eventually lead to cracking
etc., Now, I want to mention here on the photograph on the left side, you can see again lot of
plant growth below and in between that pipes.

But this crack is not due to water proofing issue but it is mainly due to the pipes
which are corroding as you see on the leftmost side, this particular pipe has corroded and
similarly, all these pipes are probably corroding inside that mortar and that is actually causing
expansion and then leading to the cracking of that mortar.

So, all this we need to look at and then if something like this is happening, we should
attack immediately and prevent that problem before letting the pipe corrode completely and
which will end up in replacement of the whole pipe, which is much more expensive than
removing some of these bricks and then relaying that and preventing that. Do proper anti-
corrosion treatments and then prevent the corrosion or stop corrosion from happening.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:30)

689
 Now, let us look at another problem which we often see. This is a typical pedestal
which we will often see on most of the roofs which are like on maybe 2 or 3 floor storey
buildings where in anticipation of going for another floor, people provide these pedestals,
something like this. You can see here this pedestal; there is essentially extended rebars inside.

And the cracked concrete which you see is actually lean concrete; they put that lean
concrete because they want to use the rebars inside to continue as the rebars for the next
column on the additional floor which might come up. However what is happening is because
it is a lean concrete, they end up in functioning like a water sink.

So, it absorbs all the water and keep the water there and that allows the corrosion to
happen and so eventually, when we really want to use this rebar coming from the columns
below, when we want to use them they are most often found to be heavily corroded and we
end up in cutting it and then actually going for anchors to the columns below.

So, if we go for this, please go for good quality concrete, not lean concrete that is the
message which I would like to give here and also one good thing about this particular
pedestal is they are provided a little slope, so that water will move away from the surface. If
you have a flat surface, then what will happen is water will stay on there.

Then water gets absorbed by the concrete faster which is also not good, so go for
good quality concrete and not lean concrete. So this is what we should use for all these
pedestals which we are talking about, don’t use lean concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:00)

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 Now, another demonstration of huge quantity of water can be actually stored on the
roof top especially when there is brick bat coba or a brick layer. So you see the picture on the
top right, where you can see a brick here. Typically nowadays instead of going for a jelly
brick bat and jelly and then mixing it with lime and all that. Nowadays, people are just laying
the bricks and then providing the tiles on top.

So, as you can see here, this is a cota tile here and so I am going to show you this
video to show you that how significant this problem can be and this video was taken just 1
day after a rain. So what happened is all these joints between the tiles as you can see here, all
these joints between the tiles they were not so good, so water actually infiltrated through that.

You can see very clearly in these joints there is no gap in between there is no other
filler material between the tiles. So whenever you lay a tile you should make sure that there is
enough filler material, let’s say typically 5 millimetre gap and then in which you fill other
material, so that it seals properly or you can have good pointing if possible.

So, in this particular image or video you will notice that there is no gap which is not a
good practice to follow, unless you have another set up for preventing the entry of water into
the brick layer below.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:58)

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 So, let us watch this video and you will see that. Water is gushing into this space as
we remove the water, more and more water is coming in. So all these water is stored on this
rooftop.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:21)

You can see here, so which is not at all a good thing to happen.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:26)

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 So, we must make sure that all these joints are very well protected and they are
watertight otherwise, this huge amount of water can stagnate on the rooftop and then that
water will provide sufficient moisture for the reinforced concrete slab or the roof below
which will then lead to accelerated corrosion.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:54)

Now, building envelope; so I have just shown you all different source of water or how
water can affect the buildings. Now let us see how to prevent the intrusion of water into the
building. So, building envelope is a skin to prevent the intrusion of water into exterior
elements and prevent deterioration. In this aspect we are talking about intrusion of water.

So, 3 steps that need to be incorporated to ensure waterproofing are, understanding

the source of water, we already discussed that a little bit. Now, we have to design a system to

693
prevent the leakage from these sources that is to stop it at the source and then also detailing of
each individual envelope component into the adjacent components. So, the detailing is very
important.

Whenever we talk about waterproofing, the detailing is very important. For example,
if you want to create a waterproofing layer and maybe the material is very good, the system is
very good but if the joints are not good, it is going to fail or if there is a small scratch on a
sheet or water proofing membrane that water will penetrate through that scratch or crack.

So, such things must be checked before we approve the work because this detailing is
very important.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:25)

Now, before talking further on those detailing and then different systems, let us look
at how to understand the sources of water and its movement into the interior of the structure.
So, first 5 major ways by which the water can enter a building or a structure is, one by gravity
and then because of surface tension of the water and then because of the wind or air current
Let us say you have a heavy wind and there is rain, the water will splash onto the building
surface that is this.

Also capillary action especially from the ground; the water on the ground level can
rise into the building and also hydrostatic pressure. So all these are the 5 typical ways by
which water can enter building elements and we will talk about one by one.
(Refer Slide Time: 16:28)

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 So, this is gravity, the picture on the left side is a typical roof structure where the
arrows are indicating the downward direction indicating that water will flow like that. So,
typically on the roof we provide like this, so that water will get out of the roof as fast as
possible. So, steeper the roof, water is going to flow faster. On the right side also, it is just,
Coping on a building you can see that here that slope will help the water to drop faster.

And what will happen here and here we will talk later in the coming slides and also
here you can see when water is there, we want to drive out the water early. So downward
direction we have to let it flow. Now, sloping of envelope components maximize the drainage
of water away from the envelope and flat roof design shown is often the cause for leakage
problems.

Water stands or ponds on the envelope, so this is the portion that we were talking
about, the flat roof. So, if the slope is not enough then water will stay there and eventually it
will somehow get into the roof elements and all that. So we must provide adequate slope on
the flat roof buildings and also at the same time, not only providing slope but also drainage;
the holes which we provide at the drainage pipes that should also be larger. Sometimes we
see good slope is provided, the pipe is so small that even a small leaf will just clog that thing.

So, it’s always a good practice if we can have a cleaning up of all the leaves, dirt etc.,
before the rainy season comes in, so during the end of the summer season itself we should
actually remove and keep the roof neat and clean without any leaf and dirt.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:24)

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 Now, other mechanism by which water enters is surface tension and the wetting
ability of the water mainly the surface tension. So, surface tension accelerates the water
infiltration, so like this as you see here on the left side, water can come in, if this is outside
and then water can come into the inside, so that is not something that we want. So, in this
case we can provide this kind of drip edges as you see on the second and third images which
will help the water to just come down like this instead of going into the structure.

And this is similar thing shown here on the picture on the bottom left. You can see a
small drip edges created and also you will see these kinds of things on many of the sun
shades in our construction, you will see that sun shades we have something like this. If I draw
sunshades you will see something like this at the edge of the sunshade which will allow the
water to just drop down instead of getting and flowing like this.

So that won’t allow that to happen. Now, lintel flashing or some kind of systems
where you can see here it is coming all the way something like this. So that water comes this
way and then just flows and it does not allow the water to enter the building. So, presence of
drip edges in building component prevents the water infiltration due to surface tension.
(Refer Slide Time: 20:05)

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 And this is again couple of examples to show you and then make things clear to you,
you can see here on the picture on the left side, there is an element which goes something like
this. So this prevents the water from entering into the brick masonry or even into the top of
this concrete lintel beam, this is the concrete lintel. So, the water just flows down and then
over here it turns left and then turns outward.

So, similar examples on many buildings you can see here because these window
regions have lot of metallic elements which need to be protected from water. So we just
provide these flashing, so that water just comes out, it does not get into the window region.
So, presence of drip edges in lintels prevents the water infiltration due to the surface tension.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:02)

697
 Now, wind and air currents; so here a little bit of pressure is also involved because the
water just hit on the building elements and it is not just capillary suction or anything but that
pressure, the speed at which the water is hitting that can also create faster infiltration into the
building. So to prevent such things what we usually do is you provide an additional element
like this, which really creates a good protection against the water.

So, cap flashing and counter flashing used to prevent water under pressure from
envelope. So here we are mainly talking about water falling onto the building elements with
high pressure.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:57)

Now capillary suction very common problem in most of the buildings when we talk
about especially the ground floor. So, here you can see compacted sand or gravel fill and then

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2 systems which you are seeing, one is waterproofing membrane, the other one is water stop.
So, water can actually enter if these elements are really porous in nature, if the capillary pores
are existing, then water will easily flow like this and enter the building.

So, this water stop actually prevents the water, so if water has to go into the building
it has to go like this, so it just kind of creates an extended path or a longer path for the water
to flow and that is the main idea of providing this water stop and then they help in preventing
the ingress and also even if for some reason water reaches on the right side of this black
membrane shown, the membrane will help it to get into the inside of the room. If this is the
inside, so water just comes here and then it cannot really cross that membrane, so it just stops
here. So, that is how the waterproofing membrane works.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:29)

But also there are other ways instead of providing a layer, there are also ways by
which this particular thing here you can see some injections which we do. Basically, idea
here is to reduce the amount of capillary pores available and then you inject some chemical
into the wall which will fill the pore space available. So, that stops the entry of water from.

So, here in this particular case there is actually a concealed pipe which goes like this
and which is leaking and also the floor behind this wall is actually a restroom. Concealed
pipes and the wet floor, 2 things are here. So, in such cases one is if the floor is wet, capillary
suction might happen, if the concealed pipe is there which is corroded or somehow water is
there that is also another problem.

699
 And if there is pressure then that is also another problem, so in whatever way if we
can reduce the pores available in the wall, then that will probably help to prevent this water
damage.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:58)

Now, let us look at how to design this waterproofing systems, so designing to prevent
leakage in 3 ways; one is by going for a barrier system, the second is by designing a drainage
system and third is by diverting the flow of water. So, understanding the potential sources of
water and the forces that can move this water can enable us to design efficient system.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:23)

So, let us look at the barrier proofing systems first. So there are 2 types of barrier
proofing system, one is positive side barrier proofing and the negative side barrier proofing.
Positive side means it is basically, the barrier which is the red coloured barrier on the

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photograph on the sketch, the red colour barrier which is in between the water and in between
the water or soil containing water and the concrete on the right side.

So, what happens is when there is a pressure from the water body onto the barrier that
actually rests on the concrete and it does not lead to peeling off of the membrane because the
membrane is experiencing a pressure from the left side and it is resting on to the concrete on
the right side. So it cannot really get peeled off but as on the negative side system, which is
on the right side you can see that barrier is actually on one end, on the right end.

Let us say the concrete allows the entry of the water, so eventually it exerts a pressure
on the barrier and then barrier could get peeled off or blistering which we usually call, so that
it can fail relatively easily, unless the concrete itself is treated very well and as the barrier is
functioning like a secondary system or unless you have a very good bond between the
concrete and the barrier system. So, there are ways to go around it but typically, you have to
see if possible, it is always better to go with positive side barrier system.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:13)

And this is some examples or sketches I just wanted to show you how the membranes
can peel off from the concrete surface. On the bottom left, you can see uneven surface, water
can actually come and collect also in that uneven that blue region is indicating the water and
then it can eventually lead to the failure of the membrane.

Because once water gets collected like this, then the membrane is no more in proper
bond with the concrete, so it might eventually fail. Now, also here you can see, again this

701
membrane getting disconnected from the concrete, so this is like if you have some other, dirt
or something if the surface is not very well cleaned then again you can see this peeling off.
(Refer Slide Time: 28:15)

So, you have to look at the different cases and then how this peeling off can happen
and then if you see that peeling off is happening, then we can really look at how to prevent
them and here are some more examples where uneven overlaps of this membranes. This is all
coming to the detailing of the systems, unless you detail them properly, you will not be able
to do a good job.

So, you can see lot of blistering on the right side, uneven surface that is also
indicating that where there is no bond between that element and the concrete. So, if this is
actually a negative waterproofing system, then it is not really going to last that long and also
you can have during the construction, people can use some tools like drills and all that it can
puncture.

So, when we talk about waterproofing membranes, it has to be a full proof, 100% no
damage, otherwise wherever there is a small damage that will lead to the entry of moisture
and then it will get into the space between the concrete and the membrane and then it will
delaminate leading to a delamination and then eventually, the system will not function as
expected and also if there are movements of concrete elements; adjacent elements it can lead
to tearing of the membranes as you see in the pictures here at the bottom right.

702
 So, nowadays there are membranes which come with very good elongation before
they actually tear. So many membranes are also good but you have to see, do we need to
spend a lot of money in going for such materials or systems or can we have such materials
just at the joints alone, so that you can optimize on the cost of the repair work.

Because if you want very high elongation only provide where it is required, so the
engineer at site has to decide that. If there is a joint and there is a possibility of significant
movements, let me put a material which will have very good elongation only in that region
because as you asked for this kind of material, the cost is also going to go high. So you can
use this kind of materials with high elongation only for the joint system and then remaining
regions can be with some other material and then provide proper joint glue between the 2
systems.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:52)

And also water stops are something which are becoming more and more popular, as
you see on the photograph on the top right, you can see different type of water stops, this has
a bulb there, this one is slightly larger and a lot of ribs, so we will show you some
photographs, so you can see here ribs and then bulbs there. So these are different type of
water stops available which will help prevent.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:24)

703
 These are examples of water stops on a site, we can see here different types one of it
is put all around, all along the periphery, so that you can stop, especially used for retaining
walls or elevator shafts all that where we can really stop the entry of moisture.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:50)

Now, examples of water stops; we can see here on the top right the ribs, so that is
ribbed flat and let us look at where they can be used; when there is no movement between the
joints as you see in this picture there is no, it is just one line which shows the joint. There is
no gap. So, when there are joints which are not supposed to move in that case, you can use
this kind of ribbed flat or dumbbell.

Because again, if there is movement like this, then this is going to elongate this region
and that material should be good enough to resist that elongation or it should have good

704
elongation before it can tear. So these are also labyrinth you can see here, how long. Let me
take this example of the first image here, if water is getting in through this, the idea here is
the water should come like this, it has to go through all along and then go like this then only
it will reach the bottom.

And this extended path for the water that will itself stop the water from entering, so it
will be very difficult for water to go from one side to the other, in this drawing which I
showed from top to bottom, it will be very difficult, so it stops the water. Same principle
applied in all the drawings. So all the different models, as you can see here the water has to
come like this, go like this, go like this then only it can reach the bottom.

So, the length of the path is increased in this case, in the labyrinth one, there is much
more because actual length of the path will be much higher, much longer.
(Refer Slide Time: 33:42)

Now, another set of systems which can be used for systems where movements are
also allowed. So here for example we can see here bulb, this is similar to the photograph I
showed in couple of slides earlier, we can see bulbs here and this one especially, it is very
good when you have large movements possible. So what happens is if there is a potential
large movement, so the larger the bulb size, it allows more movement.

So, here this will just tear and that will give really good protection against the entry of
water, so this kind of water stops are very good and they can be used for new construction.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:25)

705
 Now, other thing which we want to look at is drainage water proofing system and so
here, the main idea is allow the water to drain through some predefined locations and then
collect that water and then take it away, so you can see here this drain boards which looks
something like this or it comes typically in rolls and the idea here is you have water which
can flow like this.

And in this case, you can just take it out of a weep hole which is provided. So it
permits the water absorption and some infiltration through the substrate and provides a means
to collect this water and divert it back to the exterior before it causes leakage or before it
enters the building.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:20)

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 It is an example where drain boards have been used. First look at the top right image
where you can see the building standing there and then they are actually protecting the wall
below, so now let us look at the picture on the top left, we can see the drain board being
provided and also you can see these water collection points PVC pipes at the bottom.

And these PVC pipes are taken into the trench on the right side, so this is the trench.
These are the trenches and you can see, this PVC pipe showing up there and then from that
trench, another pipe will be going right. You can see on the picture on the right side, so these
trenches are then filled with aggregates, so that you have enough air space for the water to
flow at the same time, it takes all the mechanical loads.

And then finally, it is shotcreted that is you see on the bottom left photograph
shotcreted and then covered and then everything is set inside. So inside like what we showed
in the previous one, there is a pathway like this or a drain board is installed and then covered
with shotcrete. So, if there is any water coming it will just flow through the drain board
which is kept inside the shotcrete or in between the soil and the shotcrete regions.

Now, drain board installation around the building envelope ensure proper collection
of water and drain it away, so it is like controlling the way the water flows.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:10)

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 Now, for weep holes that these are examples of weep holes which we showed as you
can see here.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:19)

And one more photograph I will show about this weep holes. Look at this weep holes,
what about this? If there is water collected below the weep holes, so this what you see on the
right side is not a good system, weep holes should be provided always at the bottom. I am not
saying not to provide in between but there must be a set of weep holes at the lower most
points, so that no water is staying or getting collected and generating hydrostatic pressure.

So, we must provide weep holes at the lower most points also. Now, just to tell
something that can actually happen, here what you see is this is cracking over here. So this

708
crack is probably due to the presence of the hydrostatic pressure or maybe because the soil
here is swelling, when water gets in or maybe whatever be the root cause.

So, if we are providing weep holes, probably this problem will not happen, this
cracking will not happen. I am eliminating the fact that there may be a discontinuity in this or
the brickwork may not be properly done but assuming that all that is proper and just to show
how important the weep holes are. So when we do something like this please provide some
weep holes like this so that whatever moisture is there, it will come out and it will not allow
that hydrostatic pressure to generate which will lead to the cracking.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:03)

Now, these are good examples showing how the weep hole should be installed, here
you can see there is one set at a higher level and one set of weep holes at the lower most level
also, so this is very important, providing weep holes at the lower most level is very important
and here also you can see there are weep holes provided at different levels and also at the
lower most level.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:28)

709
 Now, diversion waterproofing system is similar to what we just discussed but here we
have again a different type of system. So, it redirects the water forced against envelope
components and divert it elsewhere, you take the water away. So here you can see if this is
the moist soil here, there is a possibility of water getting in and eventually getting into the
interior of the building or the rooms which we want to protect.

So, let us see how it is being protected. So if the water is coming in, so there is a
space between this and the concrete wall, so somehow water will drain through this drain
board and then it will get into here and then into this French drain and then the water will
flow along the drain like this. So this is the French drain here, so water is collected somehow
because of the drain boards; the black thing on the screen is a drain board.

So that collects the water and then drives or diverts the water into the French drain
which is provided below and kept on gravel because again you do not want soil there because
you want air space, so that water can flow through.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:58)

710
 This another example photograph which is making it more clear, you can see here
drain board, so whatever water coming from the ground it will collect it through and then get
it into the pipes. So these pipes have little holes on that. So that water will get into the pipe
and then flow outward, so this is the idea.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:21)

Similar thing, again here you can see different type of these systems, instead of drain
board or different type of commercial products are available which all does similar thing
basically, they all prevent the water from entering the building, this is not allowed.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:46)

711
 Now, again here it is not just laying a pipe over that, so there are some design features
also associated with this, you can see here this spacing between the concrete and the
particular element as you see here; there is spacing that is very important. So this spacing is
very important because you want some air space over there for the water to accumulate and
then take it into the pipe.

The blue arrow over there is showing that how the water is coming through and then
getting into the French drain and also this gravel is very important because you want water
from all around to be collected and then forced it into the drain pipe or which we call French
drain and then one more important thing, the drain is not made out of steel usually, it is better
not to use any corrosive materials.

We should use highly corrosion resistant material because you are dealing with water.
Coatings are not usually used unless we can protect them from scratching or any damage, it is
better not to go for coated metal system. So it is always best to ensure that they will be
corrosion free otherwise, after few years down the line, you will end up in removing the
entire system and replacing.

And then you might say that the system doesn’t work but actually the problem is that
the system itself is corroding and not really functioning. So, when we select something all
these have to be written in the specification in the technical specification itself, we must do
very good homework on what are the possible deterioration mechanisms and then select the

712
materials and systems to make sure that those deterioration mechanisms do not occur during
the lifetime expected or the during the service life expected.
(Refer Slide Time: 43:47)

Before ending, let me also tell little bit about how important it is to consider
waterproofing like, installing new or installing specially designed waterproofing systems,
when we talk about construction. Usually, we don’t do it because or I am not saying, we
don’t do it, we do but sometimes it is looked as something very expensive.

But that is not really true because, typically, if you look at a project cost as such, the
waterproofing systems and materials used for waterproofing might cost you only about 1 to
2% of the total project cost but it can save you 80% of the money which you will otherwise
spend in controlling or in managing the water or in preventing corrosion etc., etc., which will
happen because of the poor waterproofing systems.

Not only corrosion in this case, we are also talking about delamination of the paints
and lot of other problems. In fact, there are health issues also can happen because if there is
mould which forms fungus. All those attacks can lead to other health issues for the
inhabitants. So having said all that I think we should really think about waterproofing, when
we talk about new structures.

And also repairs, think about waterproofing and then look at the cost of the
waterproofing work as a function of the total cost of the project and then value it

713
appropriately rather than just looking at an absolute number and then deciding on not to go
forth.
(Refer Slide Time: 45:41)

So to summarize, we looked at the major sources of water and what are the different
forces like the principles of how water gets into the buildings and then we also looked at how
water flows through the building and how to use them for deciding on water proofing
treatment systems and then we also looked at waterproofing systems and some typical
systems and how they can be installed.

We looked at the barrier waterproofing and then we looked at drainage and diversion
type waterproofing systems towards the end, we also talked a little bit about economic
advantages. So we can spend very little additional money in capital and that can save a lot of
money in minimizing the moisture attack in the buildings, thank you.

714
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology - Madras

Lecture – 25
Waterproofing of Concrete Structures

(Refer Slide Time: 00:19)

Hi, this is the second lecture on waterproofing of concrete structures. In this lecture we will be
looking at control and expansion joints. How do we water proof them and then also for precast
joints and also waterproofing of roofs.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:30)

So, first let’s look at the sealant systems which are available for control and expansion joints.
This is just schematic showing how the sealant systems should be placed in a control joint. On

715
the left side what you see is a control joint, you can see that black line indicates the control
joint and there is no movement allowed.

The sealant material should be detached or there should be no bond between the concrete and
sealant, not everywhere but this portion of the concrete (bottom of the sealant). And at the sides
of the sealant there should be a good bond. In the case of expansion joint the; as you; as we
discussed about the control joint before, the bond breaker instead of providing a tape what we
usually provide is a backer rod.

The idea is it facilitates the positioning or placing or pouring of the elastomeric material,
whether it is in a liquid form or in a semi solid form. Now, what are the material quality or the
essential quality that this elastomeric material should have; it must be elastic why; to allow
movements and at the same time, it should be impermeable to prevent the water flow or flow
of water through that.

So, the blue region which you see on the screen should be elastic enough, so that they can move
or elongate at the same time, they should be impermeable, so that water doesn’t get into the
joint.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:26)

Let’s first look at how the system works or how we do implement this for control joints. So,
the tapes; the main idea of using the tape is to prevent the bonding of the sealant to the concrete
surface which is the inside surface of the concrete not the side but the bottom level of the
concrete joint. And then contain the sealant fluid within the space which you have.

716
At the same time, it does not allow that elastomeric material to be in contact with this concrete
surface (bottom), so that it does not get really bonded. Now, the different type; they come in
as caulk injection and at the same time, as a fluid. Bottom left is the caulk injection and on the
bottom right side you can see that a person is actually pouring that fluid material into the
already prepared joint.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:00)

For the expansion joint there is a wider gap and so typically, the backer rod is what is used to
create the space for placing the elastomeric material. What you see on the left side of screen is
already completed work where you can see this elastomeric material.

And on the right side you see the green circular region that indicates the backer rod. It
essentially provides a back support for the elastomeric material, whether it is a horizontal joint
or a vertical joint, these backer rods help very much.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:54)

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Let’s look at how to position these backer rods and what are the different roles of these backer
rods. You can see here control the depth of sealant application, so in other words, let me go to
the previous one, this depth is what we are talking about, this depth how much, how deep or
what should be the thickness of the sealant.

Now, for that different types of backer rods are also available as you see on the picture on the
bottom left, different size or depending on the size of the expansion joint or the gap. The
dimensions of the gap we can decide what type of or which size of should be selected. Baker
rod prevents the 3-sided adhesion.

The bottom side of the sealant does not bond very well with the backer rod, so there is no
adhesion between the elastomeric material and the backer rod. So, in other words the red semi-
circular region which I just marked semi-circle that is a region without any bond, so in essence
the bonded region is only this and this, the 2 vertical phases which I just marked on the screen,
that is the bonded region.

So, there is no 3 sides only 2 sides are bonded now, because of the circular shape of the rod it
also provides an hourglass shape at the end. So, you can see here also as it was shown in the
previous slide, the shape is something like this, so at the center portion you have less thickness
as compared to the 2 edges.

Now, what will happen if thickness is different and all that I will cover later more detail but let
me briefly explain that here also, typically, depending on the system which you use usually,

718
manufacturers recommend what should be the thickness of this elastomeric material etc., but
what we see usually is that because of use of improper tools or something to insert these backer
rods into the expansion joint, it end up having varying depths.

So, let’s look at as you see on the picture, the backer rod; the green backer rod you can see that
the thickness is varying, there is a varying thickness. so that is not recommended, you should
have a uniform thickness.

And case 2 is where you have more thickness than what is recommended and case 3 is where
you have very little thickness than what is recommended, it is because the way in which you
push these backer rods into the expansion joint. So, what is the problem here; if you see the
case 1, everything is perfect, proper joint everything is fine, no problem. In case 2 because you
have more thickness, there will be a possibility of this elastomeric material to get detached
from the edges or from the concrete surface which is not good.

Now, if the thickness is too little, then what will happen is the failure mode will be something
like this, that means it is failing because of the poor cohesion in the case 2, it is mainly the
adhesive failure, in the case 3 it is mainly the cohesive failure, I will discuss this more detail
later.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:17)

Now, before that let’s look at what are the different type of backer rods available, you can see
that there are 2 major types; one is closed cell and the other one is open cell. The picture on the
top is a closed cell, the picture at the bottom is an open cell, both these are open cell structure.

719
So, where these can be used? the closed cell ones can be used when if there is a joint with the
presence of moisture or if it is susceptible to moisture prior to the sealing process.

In such cases, we will use a backer rod with closed cell and also this backer rod typically have
a smooth surface, so this curved surface will be relatively smooth, and that also helps in
preventing it from getting well bonded with the elastomeric material or the sealant and it is also
widely used for horizontal joints. Now, open cell structure; this is designed for materials that
are moisture cured.

And at the same time, they are relatively much more flexible and conforms easy to sealing
applications. It makes it easy to install but that should not be used when there is a possibility
of moisture attack because if that is the case then moisture will penetrate through this open cell
structure and then that might come in contact with the sealant which is not preferred but if the
sealant itself is cured with the help of moisture, then this is okay.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:08)

Now, what are the typical reasons for failure? I briefly discuss this earlier but in the 2 slides
ago but let me go a little bit more detail into that what is the larger picture of this. First thing is
people do not have a big stake on these backer rods, big financial stake because when you look
at a project, the cost of these rods or the volume of the material used is relatively much, much
smaller, you are only talking about the joints.

But you should remember that these backer rods and the joint sealing systems, if they do not
perform well it will really affect the longevity of the structure and then also the comfort inside

720
the building because water will penetrate through and which is not good and this lack of water
tightness of the joints is one of the reasons why precast concrete structures or that technique is
not really picking up in India.

It has developed a negative perception because of this but that is where we have to work on by
understanding how these systems should work, how these systems work and what are the ways
by which we can ensure quality installation. Quality materials and quality installation which
will be covered in few slides down the line. So, anyway it constitutes a small percent of work,
so there is less financial stake or interest.

And hence there is a negligence to the quality and then the way it is installed all that, so
perfunctorily specified in other words, it is not given enough care just it is done for the sake of
formality. For example, if I have to have a backer rod there, so I am putting it there, so we
normally people do not really look at what is the depth of the backer rod; depth at which the
backer rod is placed inside a joint etc.

So haphazardly applied, so these are the concerns; the larger concerns which we have to really
work on and most often we see that they are incorrectly sized joints. So for aesthetics they are
undersized because people do not want too wide joints.

Now, incorrectly sized joints manifest themselves by causing bending and bowing out of the
wall. So as you see here the bottom right picture kind of shows or indicates what can happen,
when you do it in an incorrect way. There will be an effort from the workers to somehow get
this backer rod into the joint and then it end up in having a poor installation or you will have
uneven thickness etc., or non-uniform thickness etc.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:16)

721
Now, this is a way in which it is usually done. I am trying to use this picture to show that this
is not how it should be done. So you can see here this picture itself over here, you can see the
thickness is slightly keep varying. So, this is not something which we should be practicing.

We should use proper tools rather than depending on the workers skill level to ensure that there
is a uniform thickness. So in this case which you see on the photograph, uniform depth of the
backer rod at every point along its length depends on the skill of that individual or the worker.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:10)

So, there are tools available like this, which can ensure that the depth of the backer rod is
uniform throughout its length. So, these kinds of tools must be available and if it is not; I mean
must be used then only we will be able to ensure quality performance of the sealant, which you

722
are going to put above the backer rod. So, you can see here and there are tools available where
you can actually even adjust the height whatever you want.

So, it is not that for each backer rod size, you have to have a different tool no, it is all adjustable,
custom made tools for various applications. Tools definitely play a role on the quality of the
end product, it is very, very important. It is like, if you take a nail and you want to hammer it
into a wall instead of using a proper hammer, if you use a rock piece or something, it is going
to create more trouble.

I am just giving a general example, it is going to be more difficult and at the end also, there is
a possibility of the nail getting bend etc., but if you get a hammer, proper hammer with proper
head you will be able to drive the nail right into the wall straight without bending, it is possible.
So, every time in construction we should try to think what is the influence of the tools on the
quality of the end work.

And hence I would suggest that we should enforce the decision makers or whoever is the site
in charge etc., to provide proper tools to the workers, so that will make sure that work is also;
the quality of the work is also enhanced, at the same time the people will also feel happy. So
let’s mechanize wherever possible.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:19)

Now, let’s look at what are the different stresses that these sealants go through depending on
the positioning of the backer rod etc. So, the one on the left side what you see here is this deep

723
sealant fails due to the weak adhesion to substrate i.e. weak adhesion on the vertical phases
which you see on the picture.

So, the green one is the backer rod and so as you see in such cases when the thickness of the
sealant is relatively more than half of the diameter of the backer rod, then the chances are high
that it will fail because of the adhesion failure between the concrete and the sealant. The one
on the right side is mainly looking at when the thickness is less or in other words, the backer
rod is not deep enough.

In such case, what will happen is the thickness of the sealant will be relatively much small
which will end up in creating more and more stress at the center portion of the sealant and then
you will have a cohesive failure. the sealant will kind of crack something like this, that is how
that system is going to fail in the second case, cohesion failure.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:51)

Now, this is a clearer picture about this thing, just another demonstration of the same
mechanism but here you can see this is mainly shown for a control joint, there is no de-bonding
here but anyway. So let’s see here also you can see that this is where the bond failure start on
that too, on the corners that is where it starts, if it is a cohesion failure then a crack will develop
right at the centre of the sealant.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:26)

724
Now, if you look at a time dependent phenomenon like a long term performance say, again you
can see that the sealant relaxes into stretched shape, if it is pulled too much. Let’s say, there is
the expansion joint is expanding or in its expanded form in such case, you can see here, here
the gap is more than here. So, in the first case it is in an expanded state or the sealant is
experiencing a tension.

And in such case, if it is tension prevails for long period of time, the material will undergo
relaxation and eventually, the once it relaxed in the stress, I mean all the behaviour will also be
different, so in other words it won’t perform the way as it was expected. Now, if it is
experiencing compression for long term, then let’s say you have a too thin sealant, then the
there might be some kind of buckling which might happen as you see here (2nd picture).

So, it’s not popping out but it will buckle, so if it is under compression for long time and that
is also it will lead to eventually a permanent deformation also, so that is also a failure case.
(Refer Slide Time: 20:50)

725
Now, let’s look at compression set and failure. On the left side picture, we are talking about a
compression and the right-side picture is basically an elongated case. But when if it is at
compression for a long time, again the sealant relaxes into compressed shape, so whatever this
shape you can see this bulging out and then that shape it will kind of relax and that what does
that mean is a permanent deformation might occur.

And after this if it is going back into an expansion, if the joint experiences further expansion
then because of this permanent setting or the permanent deformation as shown on the left side.
When it starts expanding what will happen is the stress will be generated mainly in this region.
So there will be no uniform elongation.

The elongation will concentrate more on the right side or locally there will be a concentration
of that elongation or the stress will concentrate over here in long period of time. So, basically
the idea here is the elastomeric material we should not allow that material to compress too
much or elongate too much beyond its elastic limit that will result in some kind of permanent
deformation which will then lead to concentrated stress at different points on the system.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:38)

726
Now, what are the key specifications which we can give when we use the sealant? So first we
need to know what are the failure types. We already talked about adhesion failure, cohesion
failure, craze cracking, hardening and then disintegration. Also, colour change, I haven’t
discussed that earlier but sometimes you see that these architects sometimes they prefer a
particular colour.

But what you notice is sometimes these materials fade. The colour fades after some time which
then leads to poor performance or it does not look as good as it was in the beginning. Now,
resistance to puncture and vandalism. This is also very important; puncture I can say it is a
technical term. Resistance to vandalism, how do we prevent that something which we have to
really look at the managerial part of it or conceal it with something else.

Then UV exposure and chemical resistance, abrasion resistance depending on the type of
surface we are talking about, if you are talking about a building façade or something with
vertical phase, there abrasion may not be a good or may not be that important but if you are
talking about a road surface definitely abrasion resistance is very, very important.

And ability to resist extreme weathering that is also depends on what type of structure you are
talking about, if it is an exterior element definitely, this is something important to look at. Now,
ease of access for application and repairs, let’s say for example if you are talking about a high-
rise building, there if it is very difficult to reach there and apply this, then people may not prefer
this type of system.

727
So, whatever repair system which we adopt we should also look at constructability and how
easy it is to implement. Otherwise, eventually somehow people will get things done but it may
not be of good quality. Now, reaction to continued submersion. If it is exposed to lot of water
for long period of time, then how the material will behave, so water resistance to moisture
attack that is something important to look at.

And ability to resist dirt pickup, this is something which is an important feature when we look
at dusty environment. Typically, in a construction site you will have a lot of dust flying around,
so this material or the sealant material which you apply should not attract dust and keep it on
the surface which might affect the surface texture a little bit. These are all the different features
that you can specify when we talk about selection of these materials, technical specifications.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:39)

If you see the picture on the top left, if I have to repair it there might be a tendency that just get
a new material and then just fill it up, instead of removing the existing sealant material which
is already damaged and cracked.

So, this material is what I am talking, already damaged and cracked. We should remove the
existing elastomeric material completely and then replace that with a new material. So, old
sealant between the concrete expansion joint need to be removed and replaced and use a grinder
or to make sure that it is completely removed.

Why I am saying this complete removal is important is we should avoid the presence of any of
the old or damaged sealant which is not good anymore, there should not be any residue of that

728
sealant on the concrete surface. If you have some residue of this, let’s say you just pull out
these sealant material, there may be still some residue left on this.

And that will prevent the new material which you are going to inject or which you are going to
place there from getting well bonded with the concrete, when you place the new material all
these have to be removed, this should be completely removed, so the concrete surface should
be very clean.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:48)

Now, let’s look at something about water proofing of the roofs. This is something which we
usually see how people do water proofing. Typically, this brick-bat coba is used but ideally, it
should be brick jelly and lime mixed together. That is how in olden time where people used to
do but nowadays, there is this trend of just laying the brick on top of a mortar layer and then
sometimes even more than one layer we have seen.

And then expecting that to provide good resistance against water proof against water. Now it
is believed to give proper insulation from water and heat; heat maybe we can agree there is no
issue with that but water is not always correct. Especially, when the performance of this thing
depends on many factors such as cracks etc., I will show you that in the next slide.
(Refer Slide Time: 28:56)

729
So, they are rigid system, very rigid not a flexible system and they do not allow the slab
movement caused due to temperature variations. So, when you have this brick bat or a brick
layer, I am going to call it brick layer, and then you have concrete at the bottom and so when
there is temperature changes and there will be a possibility of cracks formation.

Once the cracks are formed in the brick layer, then rainwater or something that can easily
penetrate through these cracks and then reach the concrete below.

Usually, we will also have a tile or something on top, terracotta tile or cotta stone something
we provide on the roof top, so that we can walk easily. Now, on the tile also you will have
some joints between the tile that will also crack over a period of time. now all these will let the
water to enter the brick layer but it finds it very difficult to evaporate. So that is the major
problem.

It is not only just entering but it stays there for long period of time, it does not evaporate that
fast, so that is our major problem.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:42)

730
Now, here I am going to show a video which clearly demonstrates, this is not a video just made
for the purpose of this class but this is something which happened in a building. So, you can
see this video, you will see the brick layer is there, you can see here brick layer.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:10)

And you can see water gushing into this opening, so this is something you can see the amount
of water which is collected inside that brick layer on top of a roof.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:33)

731
So, very, very important thing to think about. Let’s stop using this is my opinion, others might
disagree but my opinion is that let’s stop using this brick layer unless we are also providing
systems which will prevent the entry of water into the brick layer. So, I think the better way of
going ahead is that making sure that we can provide some thin layers waterproofing chemicals
are available or some layers which will ensure that water does not enter into or no water is
available for the reinforced concrete slabs below.

Now, what are the qualities of this waterproofing chemicals; they should be flexible so that
even if there are movements, they do not tear or no cracks are formed and they should also be
abrasion and puncture resistance because while we walk also, if the material or the if the top
layer is not abrasion resistant, then it will have wear and tear in very short period of time.

And also these are all exterior elements we will keep many things on the rooftop which might
have sharp edges etc., that is a simple example if you put a furniture on the rooftop you will
drag the table etc., so all these can lead to damages through which water can enter the roof, so
abrasion and puncture resistance are very, very important parameters and also they should be
resistant to UV.

This is one of the main problem with most of the water proofing chemicals is that they tend to
degrade over a period of time because of the exposure to sunlight but now there are chemicals
available which are UV resistant, sometimes even chemicals with about 10 year guarantee etc.,
are available, so but point is you should specify these things when asking asking for good
quality durable waterproofing chemical.

732
So, resistance to UV radiation is very important. Resistance to acid, fungus attack and heat all
these are specific cases. So depending on what type of application you are talking about you
have to include these specifics into the technical or tender documents because if you just ask
for a waterproofing chemical you will get some chemical which may work for some short
period of time but may not really last for long period of time.

And also include another specification which can be like, you should check the performance
after a rainy season or just after a rainy season and then only like, if you give some conditions
like this which are performance specifications, then I think this is really a good thing which
must be done instead of just asking for something you should come up with these are the
exposure conditions which the waterproofing layer can experience.

And hence, I need these tests and you can also mention that I will wait for a rainy season to
complete the testing because sometimes people also do ponding tests but that again limited
time. So again all these case to case basis you have to decide but it is all these one engineer I
mean, once you know that these are the different ways by which the system can fail, then you
can devise specifications to go around it or to resist such failures not going around.

Now, bitumen based polymer modified membranes are also available, really flexible and
puncture resistance also. Because it is flexible, it allows the movement on the slabs or whatever
the structure you are talking, they do not tend to tear so easily.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:07)

733
Now, when you apply these kind of waterproofing chemicals or coatings, one main thing to
look at is the multiple coating layers to be applied in perpendicular direction. So that there is a
very good filling happening in a microstructure or even let’s say, in millimeter scale or in a sub
millimeter scale.

When you have these multiple layers applied, then definitely it enhances the quality of the
waterproofing layer or it enhances the impermeability, it makes it more and more impermeable
as opposed to multiple layers applied in the same direction.

So, the brush should move in perpendicular direction then it will kind of fill up very thoroughly
and then you will get better performance. Now, at the same time the roof surface must be sound
and clean before the application of the coating.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:25)

Now, another thing is when we talk about waterproofing, it is not just a small area we should
focus on, it is not only the horizontal surface that we should focus on as you generally watch
these images, you can see that every image there is a little height also. It is not just the area
where we want but we look at the possibility of water entering into the system.

And how they enter, if there is a little flood or not necessarily flood but let’s say you have a
heavy rain there could be easily a couple of centimeters of water on the rooftop in such cases.
Also, you should not have water getting in between the waterproofing layer and the concrete
below. So, any small opening anywhere on the system will end up in the failure of the system.

734
Because these membranes are not like breathable membranes. Once water gets in they do not
allow them to evaporate, so that is the danger of this, or that is how the system should be also.
If you have a parapet which I do not have a picture here yeah the one on the bottom left is
slightly okay but let me just draw a parapet wall here.

If you have a roof element like this and on the right side, you can see the parapet. So if we have
to waterproof this, instead of just waterproofing on this bottom or the roof top, we should also
go around this and then put it like this. So in that way what happens is even if there is some
water on the top of the parapet right here, it will just try to flow, there is no possibility of this
water getting in between the horizontal layer and the horizontal roof slab.

And also if possible provide a slope for the parapet, at the top of the parapet we should provide
a slope, so that water will easily flow like this and then you can take it to wherever the drain
is.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:12)

With that we will summarize this, so we talked about sealants used in expansion joints and
what are the properties of that they should be elastic, made of highly impermeable material and
also the size of the sealant is very, very important. Because the failure mechanism will depend
on the thickness of the sealant and the backer rod. We discussed in detail, how important they
are in ensuring that the sealant actually performs very well.

So, they should be inserted in a uniform manner, uniform depth. During repair old sealant must
be completely removed and the concrete surface should be ground, so that the new sealant will

735
bond very well with the concrete surface inside the joint. And brick bat coba, we looked at
what are the failure mechanism, so how the cracks can get initiated in the brick layer.

And which will lead to the entry of moisture into the brick layer but at the same time it does
not allow it to evaporate that fast because of which the concrete roof below might have
significant amount of water, might get exposed to moisture for long period of time. So, in other
words they function like a water sink, the brick layer so it is better to avoid such systems.

And also, these brick layers and I did not tell this earlier but they also add a lot of weight to the
structure. Imagine that brick bat coba will be about 6 inches or at least and they also add a lot
of weight to the structure. So, if we go for a very thin waterproofing chemicals or a thin
membrane, then we can actually have a thin structure which also have sufficient insulation both
from water and heat.

So, such products are available, look for such products but at the same time make sure that the
technical specifications which you provide are equally strong enough to reject the poor quality
materials. We should always think about the life of these products and how long they will last.
So think about what are the failure mechanisms and then write specifications individual line
items in the specific tender documents, so that the quality of the entire waterproofing system
can be enhanced.

So, individual specification to address the different failure mechanism must be included in the
tender specifications and instead of just saying high, low we should just come up with some
kind of numbers also. So if you really look into the market look at various product, compare
how different properties are listed and then see whether, sometimes you also see that there are
products which has so many properties which you really do not need for the specific
applications.

So, when we make tender specifications we should think about the specific application and
look at the possible failure mechanisms, not only in short term but also in the long term failure
mechanism and then write technical specifications for addressing all those.
(Refer Slide Time: 43:48)

736
These are the references, took a lot of images etc., from the internet. Thank you.

737
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology – Madras

Lecture - 26
Structural Strengthening & Stabilization (Load Effects and Introduction to S&S)

This module is on structural strengthening and stabilization. There are 4 lectures planned in this.
The first one is on load effects and introduction to strengthening and stabilization.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:24)

This is the outline. In this lecture, we will look at needs and strategies of strengthening and
stabilization. Why do we need to strengthen and stabilize these structures and also we will look at
what are the various effects of loads on different structural members or different type of loads,
which are acting. And then we will look briefly various strengthening and stabilization techniques
and also some general design considerations in this lecture.

The remaining 3 lectures will focus on strengthening of beams and slabs and strengthening of
columns and walls and then we will look at how the joints and connections are or can be
strengthened in the next coming 3 lectures.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:22)

738
Now let’s look at first what is the difference between strengthening and stabilization.
Strengthening is the process of adding capacity to a member of a structure. Now one easily
recognizable example is jacketing of concrete columns to increase its axial capacity. What is
stabilization? It is the process of halting or preventing a particular unwanted situation from
progressing.

For example, if you have a crack and if you want to prevent that crack from growing, then we
usually say that process by which we prevent that crack from growing is stabilization. A good
example of stabilization is grouting to stop settlement, so that the cracks, which are forming due
to settlement can be stopped from further growth. And also there are a lot of projects, which
involve both strengthening and stabilization and sometimes people also use these two words
synonymously.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:38)

739
When do structures need strengthening and stabilization? Now structures need strengthening and
stabilization mainly because of four reasons. The first one is fault in the design, then damage due
to accidents, and then material deterioration and increase in demand.

So, let’s first look at design faults and damage due to accidents. So design fault is lower or poor
performance before even the structure is taken into service. So let’s, first we look at this graph here
or the chart. Where you have time on the abscissa and the performance level on the ordinate. In
the first point, which is design fault, we are talking here (indicated on the chart). So if we find the
blue line is the design minimum or minimum performance, which is expected from this structure.

And if you find that there is a faulty design even before the structure is put in service, then we have
to do something so that the performance level can be enhanced or strengthened, and brought to the
point, which is above the blue line or above the minimum expected performance level. So that’s
indicated by this first arrow here, first arrow here.

Why this faulty design happens? One reason is that may be sometimes people don’t consider the
long term effects. For example, creep or shrinkage, fatigue, etc. the problems because of these will
show up or start manifesting not necessarily in the very first week or so, but may be after some
time, may be sometimes even months also and in case of fatigue, it might come many years later
and chloride ingress, carbonation, corrosion, sulphate all these deterioration mechanisms also can

740
play a role or can be counted as a design fault. And when I say that the design fault, I mean not
only the structural design fault, but also the durability based design fault or because of not
considering some of the material parameters.

The second point is damage due to accidents. So first we covered design faults, second is damage
due to accidents and when I say accident, this is something which we don’t really expect, but
happens.

So collision or overload, typically vehicle accidents, if we are talking about a bridge, there are
many cases, where the bridge columns are hit by vehicles, incoming vehicles or even sometimes
you might see that the girders, if you have an overpass, you will see that the girders are hit laterally
by the vehicles coming, if the height of the vehicle is more than what is allowed. Even though they
are not expected, but it happens in some cases and the natural hazards, flood, wind, etc., all these
will also can lead to an impact load or additional load to the structure.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:40)

Now let’s look at the next point, which is material deterioration. Typically, these are associated
with the long-term loads and when I say long term load, it’s both structural and environmental
loads, and also accidents come into the picture. The accidents which lead to degradation of the
property of the material. For example, fire or blast load, these might induce some micro cracks in

741
the concrete system and that might affect the overall behavior or the material properties, of the
concrete.

And then, so that is shown here in this sketch by green curve, the performance level is slowly
degrading and then going below the design minimum and at one point of time, we go for
enhancement, which is indicated by the green arrow, vertical and then, we raise the performance
level to a point above the design minimum.

Now increase in demand is the fourth point. Increase in demand is shown here on the right end,
right here and what are the typical scenario where there is an increase in the demand. First one, we
can think of a seismic or any other excessive loading. Typically, if you go for a repair of a structure,
which was built before the seismic code revision in 2003. So if you go to repair a structure, which
were designed and built before that and now if you go and repair, you will have to actually meet
the new design condition or criteria.

So that will give you increase in demand or in other words, we can call it as a retrofitting process.
And other case is change in design code requirement, already mentioned, then the modification of
structural systems. Maybe some structures, they were not meant for the change in the loads, which
are being experienced by the structure, because of a change in the functionality of the building or
because of a change in the structural systems itself.

So those are these two points here. So these are the main major reasons, like seismic or any other
changes in the loading conditions or change in the codal requirement or modification of the
structural system and also modification in the load pattern because of the change in the
functionality of the structure. In such cases also, we go for something called retrofitting, which I
will cover later, what is the difference in these terminologies.

So that is the fourth arrow, which you see on the right end. So again, you have a new minimum
performance criteria, and so you have to maintain the structure at a performance level, which is
more than the new minimum.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:12)

742
Now what are the type of upgradations, which we talk about. Now first maintenance, repair,
restoration and retrofitting, so we will talk about these four, when they come into action and what
is the difference between these three. Similar to the previous slide, we also are looking at here,
time versus performance level and let’s first look at the red curve, which is how the structure would
behave if there is no maintenance.

So, you can see that the performance level keeps going down or keep decreasing as a function of
time. Now, maybe if we perform some maintenance activity, then I am talking about this point
here, then from that red curve, there is a blue vertical arrow, that kind of during that maintenance
activity, the performance level is slightly enhanced, that is we have here and then the structure will
follow the dotted or dash line or dash curve and that is basically aging with maintenance and repair.

One more possibility which will happen is, let’s say, if your structure is either maintained or
without maintenance, if there is an accident, then the performance level decreases significantly at
one point of time, immediate reduction in the performance level and then if accident happens, there
may be some time period during which you may not do anything, you may not really repair the
structure immediately. So that is this time lag, which we are talking here.

And then you repair the structure and then bring back the performance level to higher level not
necessarily to the original requirement, so that is when we call repair or typically these are all

743
cosmetic repairs and then, the structure experiences further degradation in the property and at one
point of time, the safety level might be very low or something. So we tend to decide to restore the
structure to its original performance level or originally expected performance level or the original
requirement.

So, you get the performance level to that point. Then, if there is another reason for retrofitting to
increase the capacity or performance level to a point which is more than the original requirement,
then we go for this arrow here or we enhance the strength further, so that you can get higher
capacity and that is when we call retrofitting. So basically, you start with original requirement.

If you perform some maintenance and some repair and then restoration to reach to the original
level again and if there is a code changes or functionality changes or load conditions are increasing,
then you go for a new requirement, which is higher than the original requirement and in such case,
we call retrofitting. So, I think just these four words are very important to know and then how
different they are, it is very important. So, we are talking about maintenance, repair, restoration
and retrofitting. Structures must be upgraded to meet the performance requirement as and when it
changes.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:19)

Now factors affecting the selection of strengthening and stabilization methods or techniques. So
first thing is magnitude of enhancement, how much enhancement is required? That depends on the

744
original design, original requirement, and what is the current strength of the system and what is
the retrofitting action, or what is the new requirement.

Now the effect of strengthening on the stiffness of the systems and redistributed loads on to the
other members. That is also very important factor which needs to be considered while selecting a
stabilization or a strengthening method. Now excessive strengthening of selected members may
change the load path or the stress flow and hence it may not always be a good idea. In general, it
might feel that it is good, but not necessarily always.

For example, if you are putting too much of steel reinforcement than what is required, then you
might actually convert an under-reinforced structure system to an over-reinforced structural
system, which is not good idea. Sometimes there is a tendency for the on-site personal to just
change the type of reinforcement from a lower grade to a higher grade based on the availability
without really consulting the structural engineers.

These things happen, so it is very important to make sure that such things are not happening and
whatever is the grade of the steel, which is recommended by the engineers that must be used and
if in case you want to change it, it should be checked again for the brittleness and all the structural
behavioral aspects. Now size of repair project and cost effectiveness, that is also something very,
very important, special material, systems and methods may be less cost effective on smaller repair
projects.

Some technique, which might work very well and very cost effective effectively for a larger project
may not be the best possible repair methodology or the repair system for a small project. So, for
the specific project you are talking about, you have to analyze how is the cost effectiveness, but at
the same time when you talk about cost effectiveness, it is not the cost effective the capital
effectiveness of the capital investment. When I say capital here, it is for the repair not the original
construction.

What we need to look at is, what is the impact of that on the residual life cycle cost? Residual life
cycle cost, So whatever happened, happened, we cannot do anything about it, but at least for the

745
rest of the life of the structure, we can think about going for a best repair methodology, which will
give you the minimum life cycle cost. Now environmental conditions are also very, very important
to consider.

For example, if you look at high temperature or even humidity; humidity is another important
aspect; temperature, humidity and we have to look at; for example, if you are talking about an
adhesive which is used for repair procedure that adhesive should work even at high temperature
or whatever is the temperature condition prevailing and whatever is the moisture condition, which
is prevailing, it should work in that condition.

So the selection of materials should definitely be depending on the environmental conditions and
if you have corrosive chemical environment for example, if you are talking about repair of a
chemical plant, a structure in a chemical plant, so what are the fumes of chemicals around must be
considered while deciding on the type of material, which will be used, materials and systems. So,
let’s say you are having very corrosive environment and if you are having repair systems which
have exposed steel elements, then that may not be a good idea to go for.

You will tend to have more frequent repairs. So all these must be looked through, so that we will
have minimum repair, maximum life for the repair, which we are doing and at the same time cost
effectiveness and when I say cost effectiveness, what I am meaning is residual life cycle cost, not
just the one time investment.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:37)

746
Now we will see factors which affect the selection of stabilization and strengthening techniques.
Properties of the repair material in place and its integrity with the substrate. The bond is very, very
important. How compatible this repair material (long term) is with the existing or the substrate
material. So compatibility and not only the short term compatibility, but also the long term
compatibility. For whatever life, the structure needs to last, so for that entire time period how
compatible the repair material and the existing or the substrate will be.

And typically, shrinkage stresses, creep and all that will lead to bond failure, which need to be
thought through. Now dimensional or clearance constraints. Feasibility of section enlargement,
this is relatively simple procedure maybe, but you have to think what its impact on the available
space, whether you can really afford to loose such spaces or not, or you should go for a more
sophisticated or another technique.

I will explain all those techniques later, so I don’t want to introduce those techniques right now.
But depending on the different type of techniques we use, each technique has its own advantages
and disadvantages. So we have to look at what technique is the best suitable for the particular
problem, which you have at hand.

Now aesthetics will also play role, because if you go for, section enlargement, one example is
increasing the size of a column or increasing the cross section of a beam, so they might influence

747
the aesthetics of the structure. So that is something very important to look through or to look at.
Now accessibility and feasibility of the work. Some of the repair techniques may not be very easy
to implement at every locations on a particular structure. So you have to see, if you are talking
about a high rise building, something which can be done very easily on a ground floor level may
not be that easy to do on wall element, which is at a particular height.

So accessibility and feasibility are very, very important to think through before deciding the
technique to be used. And also the time taken for the repair work or the strengthening work, that
is also very important, fast track completion. Nowadays, everything we want to be done very fast,
and also light weight and high-performance materials are preferred. Why? because if you go for
light weight and high performance, typically the chances are that you will still get not much
changes in the shape or size of the structure and so you would not even know that a repair was
done, if it is high performance material. Most often case by case it differs, but in general we can
say and at the same time, when you go for lightweight materials, you will not add more weight to
the structure.

So in other word, the dead load of the structure will still remain more or less similar, not much
changes might happen and high performance means again durability is something which is thought
through and also structural performance. Then, safety very, very important and not only for the
structure, when we say safety, it should be for safety of construction workers, whoever is the users,
and the structure.

So workers who actually perform the repair work, how safe they are, is also very important to think
through and after the work is over, then the users of that structure, how safe they would be.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:08)

748
Now let’s look at what are the various type of loads, which act on the structural members. So here
you can see three letters mainly T, C, and S. T stands for tensile stress and S stands for shear stress,
and the compressive stress is C. So if you are talking about let’s say this particular structural
system, where you have, here you can see that, that is like a cantilever section where on the top
side you have a tensile stress and bottom portion is experiencing compressive stress and right here
near the support here, you have shear stress.

So like that, different types of stresses are acting at different parts of the structural system. Why
this is important is, it is very important for us to know what type of stresses are acting and which
will help us to understand the failure mechanism and which will then help us to understand or to
suggest more suitable repair or strengthening techniques. So understanding what type of stresses
are acting is very, very important. So that we can really come up with a strengthening technique,
which is very useful, which will really work.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:35)

749
And at the same time, if we know that a particular portion of a member will only experience
compressive stress, in that portion, you don’t need provide something, which is designed for taking
tensile loads. So this way, we can actually optimize the amount of repair material used and the
amount of repair work, which is being done, instead of just doing everything everywhere, that will
add to the cost of work also.

So these kind of optimization will help in saving money and material, so you can really have a
sustainable approach, especially these are important when we talk about very large structural
repairs. I am not saying that for the small repair, you don’t need to think about it, but that is up to
your choice, but on large projects, it becomes much more important to think about such things, so
that you can save money and material and also time.

Now loads acting on continuous spans, if you are talking about a continuous span like what is
shown in the sketch on the left side. You can see continuous load is acting. So the deflected shape
is kind of shown here. Now because of this kind of load, which is acting and the type of the
structure, continuous span, you can see that the crack at the top because of the negative moment
and then cracking here and cracking here. So there is a typical pattern.

These are not anything new, which you don’t know, but just thought of refresh your memory on
all these things. Now this type of cracks, so we know what is the reason for that type of crack and

750
then address or come up with a strengthening technique. Now reversal in deflections and vibrations
can also happen. For example, on the right side graph, on the abscissa you have the distance of
vehicle from point A.

Point A is here and what is the deflection at point B. That is this graph is indicating the deflection
at point B, when the vehicle, the point B, when A to B is the or when the vehicle is at any point.
so now here, let me just restate this. So here the abscissa indicates the distance of vehicle from
point A, that is point A is here. Now as the vehicle is moving towards the point B and then past
point B,

So you can see that the type of load, which is experienced by the material at point B is different.
Initially, if you say it is compression and then it becomes tension, let’s say looking at the bottom
fiber of the girder. So initially it might be compression, then tension and then compression, tension,
compression, tension and then it fades away as the vehicle is very far away from the point B, then
there is no much load acting.

And also we have to think about static and dynamic deflections, because based on this, these needs
to be considered to decide on the property of the material, which have to be used and the
strengthening technique.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:45)

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Now loads acting on continuous spans, we just little bit zooming in on the sketch, which was
shown in the previous slide. So you can see here, these are the flexural cracks, because of the
negative bending moment and these are the flexural cracks because of the positive bending
moment, like this here and then similar negative bending moment cracks and then we also have
shear cracks, combined flexure shear cracks here.

So these are different type of cracks and based on the type of cracks visible, we can decide and we
can identify, what is the problem or why the crack is happening and so what type of resistance
need to be enhanced at various points on the structural system. For example, looking at the bottom
sketch, if you have a crack which goes like this, if I want to handle this problem, I have to provide
a vertical reinforcement.

If I have to handle this crack, then I have to provide a horizontal reinforcement. So we can decide,
you know by looking at manifestations of crack, how to handle or how to address those issues.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:06)

Now loads acting on a cantilevered member, again if you see cracks on the top portion of the
cantilever near the support, we know that what is the reason for that, because it is a flexural crack
and due to the negative bending moment acting in that region. Now what is the problem with this?
If you zoom in and let’s say imagine, you have reinforcement, which goes like this, Imagine, you

752
have reinforcement at the top portion and if they are going through the crack, the zoomed in version
is shown on the right side.

You can see that reinforcement are actually exposed now because of these cracks, or if moisture
or anything can easily go through these cracks and attack the steel rebars. So one thing is the
reinforcing steel must be located in the upper portion to carry the tension load. Why I mention this
here is I have heard many cases, where without really understanding how the load path is or
sometimes it is also that the mistakes are done at the site, may not be based on the structural
drawing, but at the site.

Structural drawings might be good, but at the site, people make mistakes and where there need to
be a tension reinforcement, they don’t provide the tension reinforcement, instead that goes to the
bottom surface or bottom location. So all these can happen and then will help us in understanding
the problem and then address the issue anyway. The point is steel is good for tension or it is meant
for taking tension. So wherever tensile loads are acting, that is where you have to provide steel and
not in the other places. I mean, unless the load reversal is not considered, that is a different story.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:57)

Now loads acting on slab or beam to column joints. Now volume change might be possible when
there are changes in temperature from one point on the element to the other point on the element
or if there is an overall change in the temperature also, but these might lead to differential stress,

753
lead to generation of stresses at various points on the structural members and also elastic shortening
can lead to some stresses.

And because of the elastic shortening, it might pull some other members because of post tensioning
forces. So you have to look at how the different elements are interacting each other also. Now
settlement or ground motion is another thing which lead to stresses. So let’s see all these how
through the sketches over here. Now on the top right, you see a slab and a beam and a column joint
and now I am looking here, this sketch here.

So you can see that if there is a horizontal force, let’s say take an example of temperature variation.
Let’s say the element over here is expanding for some reason and it is pushing the whole column
towards the left side. If that is happening, so if it is expanding, that can push the column to the left
side which might eventually lead to some cracking on this portion of the column and maybe also
here depending on how the stress levels are.

But you can see on which side of the column the cracks and where they are. So these all can help
us in identifying the root cause. And also, there may be a possibility of shear cracks, diagonal shear
cracks in a beam column joint because of the heavy load or some movement in the ground. For
example, in this case, assume that the other columns in this structure are actually settling, which
might induce a downward force on the girders, eventually leading to shear crack.

And also, there are possibilities of punching shear, as you can see here in this sketch. Punching
shear here, which will lead to cracks like this (you can see on the picture on the left side). So there
are different types of loads acting at the joints between a slab and a column or between a beam and
a column and we have to identify what type of loads are acting and based on the manifestation of
the type of cracks, based on the analysis of the type of cracks, we can identify what is the reason
for it.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:24)

754
And if you are looking at just a column, what is the type of loads acting on a column, elastic
shortening definitely, because it is under axial compression and creep shortening, which is an
effect of a long term behavior and drying shrinkage also. So especially when you talk about large
columns, you can have very significant problems because of creep and drying shrinkage and elastic
shortening is something, which happens immediately. So let’s go through the sketch here.

So the column is constructed and then load is applied and as soon as the load is applied, whether
it is prestressed or other gravity loads, then you can expect an elastic shortening, that is elastic in
nature, so it is immediate effect and after some time maybe months or years, you can have creep
shortening also and drying shrinkage also will add to that. So you can see that the delta or the
change in height because of elastic shortening and then further reduction because of the creep or
drying shrinkage shortening.

So just what will be end effect of this when there is a shortening happening? Because there is a
load acting in the axial direction that might also because of the Poisson’s effect, that might lead to
a lateral expansion or laterally outward forces, which might tend to crack the concrete and the
reinforcement also might tend to bulge out and which will push the concrete cover, so that is kind
of demonstrated in this picture here. So this is something, which is possible if you overload the
concrete element.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:21)

755
The types of crack, here again we can very clearly say that whether this is due to an excessive
overloading or due to a lateral load which is acting. So that is where these understandings are very
important so that you can design for those forces. Now if you are talking about a post tensioned
member, initial prestress loss, I mean, maybe we can think about seating loss as one example,
strands are tensioned and concrete experiences compression. So this tension, so this whole concrete
here is under compression and the strand is in tension. So, first thing which happens immediately,
in the previous slide, we talked about a column, here we are talking about a girder. So immediately
what happens, elastic shortening. As soon as the prestress is applied, the concrete experiences a
shortening. So the elastic shortening happens.

At that process these columns are also pulled towards each other. Because of this, it is possible
that you can develop some cracks on the outside surface of the columns. Now if it is continuing
for long term, then again, creep, shortening and drying shrinkage might continue to happen.

So this much is the extra shortening, which happened and here also this much is the extra
shortening which happens (bottom picture). So this is additional shortening due to the long term
effects such as creep and drying shrinkage and prestress losses can also happen because when there
is a creep and shrinkage happening, the length of the strand is also decreasing. When the length of
the strand is decreasing, that means that there will be a loss in prestress.

756
So all these factors will have to be considered and then the type of cracks can tell us what is really
happening in the structure. So that is the idea. We should be able to make visual observations and
from those visual observations, we should be able to identify the damage mechanism or what is
happening in the structure. So that we can design suitable strengthening techniques or
strengthening methods.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:13)

Now more on the loads acting on post tension members. You can see here if you are talking about
parking garage for example, usually they have very short column, because these are not really a
high bay structure. Imagine this whole roof element here is post tension, a PT slab. A post tension
slab and short columns, this is combination is what we are talking.

Now if the prestress or post tensioning is too much, then there will be a pull. I am talking about
this column here that there will be a pull to the right direction from the top slab, whereas the bottom
slab is pulling the short column to the left direction. This is indicated by these two black arrows.
So direction of the pull to the right and then short column is trying to resist that.

And that will lead to inclined cracks like this. Now, short column is trying to resist, but at the same
time, there is also a possibility that the bottom slab is pulling the short column to the left side. So
whichever reason, the type of cracks you can look at what is the angle or direction of the cracks
and that will tell us which force is actually creating this crack or reasons for these cracks.

757
Now let’s look at the bottom column here, bottom portion of the column. Again, the crack direction
is opposite. It is going in the 45 degrees in the opposite and there the reason is there is a leftward
pull by this slab or that post tensioning element and the short column is trying to resist because it
is sitting on ground. So it tries to resist and then it leads to the inclined cracks like that.

So different type of cracks, you can see the top portion or this region is experiencing the crack in
one direction and whereas this region is experiencing the crack in the opposite direction. But both
are in 45 degree angle. So there is something to do with the shear resistance.
(Refer Slide Time: 44:03)

Two types of strengthening designs, one is passive and another one is active. When do the loads
act on the additional components? That is how we tell whether a particular design is a passive
design or an active design. Now when you talk about passive strengthening, they are the type of
repairs or strengthening elements, which don’t take part in the stress sharing until additional loads
or live load are applied and/or until acceptable levels of additional deformation occurs.

So they don’t take part in the beginning, whereas the active strengthening they immediately take
part. In the first case, the passive strengthening they don’t take part until either the load level
increases or there is a significant deformation whereas in the active strengthening, the

758
strengthening elements will take part immediately after they are installed. They will take part in
stress sharing and no additional deformation is acceptable in the active strengthening designs.
(Refer Slide Time: 45:20)

I will show you one example of each of this. So passive strengthening is when live load changes
are anticipated. One example is dampers. The dampers, let’s say, if you have dampers to resist
earthquakes, magnetorheological dampers, for example, they actually start functioning when there
is an earthquake. Until that moment the dampers don’t really have a role. They are there, but they
come in to action when there is a significant load.

And then upgrading of a bridge to carry heavier loads. When a bridge is to carry heavier load, but
it is not necessary that always the bridge will experience that heavier load. So when there is the
heavier load, at that time the passive strengthening elements will come in to action. In the case of
dampers when there is an earthquake or when there is heavier lateral loads or something, at that
time the dampers will come in to action, So these are just extreme cases.

Or in other word, structures are designed for the extreme cases. So when that extreme load
condition occur, at that time these elements will come in to action. Now example is here (picture
in the slide). You can see a beam with a plate something below and a plate element is below, which
is not prestress. So this plate element will come in to action only when there is a significant
deformation or a significant loading. Until then it just stays there.

759
(Refer Slide Time: 47:18)

As opposed to that, there is an active strengthening system, which immediately participates;

example is prestressing. If you have plate element like in the bottom image, you can see a laminate,
CFRP laminate here or any prestress element; in the top one you can see a prestressing or external
post tensioning unit, which is under stress and it takes the load as soon as it is in place. One example
on the top is the external post tensioning and that the bottom is external post tensioning using a
laminate. Both kind of functionality is very similar. So both will take the load as soon as they are
installed. They don’t wait for that excessive loading to come. In other words, they start taking the
loads as soon as they are installed.
(Refer Slide Time: 48:23)

760
Now different methods to strengthen and stabilize structural elements and system. One is
replacing, first thing to do is replace all that is bad or replace poor quality or defective material.
Poor quality means the material properties are poor. Defective means they might have been good
in the beginning, but something happened and then it got degraded. So replace them by using good
quality materials and then redistribution of the loads through imposed deformation.

You allow some deformation to happen, so that the stresses are not really happening the way which
is harmful. So redistribution of the loads through imposed deformation of structural system and at
the same time sometimes we can add new members, which will take this additional load and then
other methodology is attaching new load bearing materials or systems to transfer, relieve or reduce
the stresses.

Three things, one is if there is a stress generation somewhere, if it need to be transferred it need to
be transferred. If it does not need to be transferred, there are in some cases where we will try to
relieve the stress or have some space available so that the stress does not get transferred to the next
element like expansion joints. Another way is to reduce the stress by having a system, which will
distribute and then reduce and stress on the members.

All these we will cover in the coming 2, 3 lectures, but the idea here is just to give you an
introduction. So three terms to be remembered here is transfer, relieve and reduce the stresses.
Now how we do all these? By using high quality concrete, by using reinforcing bar internally
maybe by drilling an extra hole in the concrete and then providing a bar inside and also some times
by thin plates or thin steel plates or non-metallic or FRP fibre-based straps and some laminates,
which are usually placed as an external member. They are glued to the concrete surface.

And then post tensioning tendons, which are external, but not in direct contact. So they are post
tensioned with some anchorage points and deviator points. I will discuss all that also later. And
grouting is done usually to stabilize the structure, so that there is a proper load transfer, and then
proper joints and connections, which will help in transferring the load in the way which we want
or sometimes to not to transfer the load, which we want.

761
Now enlargement of cross section, span shortening, these are all kind of different techniques by
which we can control the, stresses and that way minimize the damage on the structures.
(Refer Slide Time: 51:53)

And above all one very important thing is we must think about short term and long term loads, not
only the short term loads, because even if a system works very good for a short term load condition,
it might not really work for long term load condition and in the such case usually it is the material
properties, which are very, very important. You should think about how the material property can
degrade over the time and make sure that the material, which we use don’t degrade over time.

So whatever assumptions you have on material properties at the time of construction should remain
like that during entire life of the structure. So cracking of repair material at joint, definitely that
must be prevented by providing enough time for that material to build enough strength and stability
or stiffness, so that crack don’t really happen. Now different type of materials used are polymers,
cement-based mortars, concretes.

You have to see which type of material is good considering finance also, which type of material is
economically feasible and technically feasible and then use such material. It is not necessary that
always you have to use something, which is available in the market, I mean something, which is
widely used. So sometimes you will see that in many places, people use unnecessary material and
waste money.

762
So judicious decisions have to be made, so that you can optimize both the technical aspects and at
the same time the economic aspects. Now loads during curing, this is what I just briefly mentioned
earlier. How the material will behave the curing period? So in other words, you have to ensure that
the material get cured properly and build sufficient strength and mechanical properties, so that it
can actually take the load at a later time.

Now static and dynamic behavior should be looked at. If some crack is there, it might look like
that crack is not growing, but it may actually be growing or it may actually be closing and opening
in case of fatigue loads. So all these have to be thought through and the material selection is very,
very important. It is not only the structural system designs, but the materials, which we use should
actually take those loads also.
(Refer Slide Time: 54:28)

So I am going to summarize this lecture. We talked about the need of strengthening and
stabilization. We looked at different strengthening, like different terms like maintenance, repair,
restoration, and retrofitting, what this difference between them and also looked at different type of
loads acting on structural members and also talked about general design consideration, material
consideration, while selecting a strengthening and stabilization techniques.
(Refer Slide Time: 55:00)

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These are the various references which we used in this lecture. So in the next lecture, we will talk
about how to go for strengthening of beams and slabs. Thank you.

764
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology – Madras

Lecture - 27
Structural Strengthening & Stabilization (Beams and Slabs)

Hi, this is the second lecture in the module on structural strengthening and stabilization. In this,
we will focus on beams and slabs.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:21)

And we will look at methods to enhance both the flexural and shear performance.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:33)

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So for first, let us look at how to enhance the flexural performance or flexural strengthening
methods. I am showing here five general methodologies. First one is section enlargement that is
basically enhancing the cross section of the concrete sometimes with and sometimes without
additional reinforcement. Second is externally bonded plates and laminates, then we will talk
about external post-tensioning, then also supplementary support systems and finally we will talk
about span shortening. So these are the five general methods for flexural strengthening and we
will look at one by one.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:33)

First let us look at section enlargement. I am showing here six different ways by which we can
enlarge the section and enhance the flexural resistance. In all these drawings the dark gray region

766
indicates the existing concrete system and the lighter gray towards the outer or peripheral region
with typical concrete hatch that indicates the repair material or the new concrete. The area inside
on the left is actually not shown as dark region. It is just to show that that is the area inside the
stirrup. There is no other significance for that.

Now when you talk about beam overlay, as I mentioned earlier, this is the new concrete which is
added and you can also see that there is new primary reinforcement and also new shear
reinforcement, the dash line kind of indicates the shear reinforcement. And sometimes like in the
first case the shear reinforcement is not drilled into the existing concrete, but if you look in the
second case, the shear reinforcement is drilled into the existing concrete, you drill a hole into the
concrete, existing concrete and then pass the shear reinforcement through that. Sometimes it is
easy if the amount of work is less, but if you are talking about large number of repairs, the
process of drilling holes itself might end up in a very big job. So you have to really think whether
that is always necessary or is there any other way by which you can still enhance the integrity of
the new concrete and the existing substrate and proper load transfer.

Now third one is slab beam overlay, where you have new concrete both on the top of the slab and
also around the beam elements. So slab and beam overlay and also you have through stirrups,
which is indicated here, you can see that this stirrup is actually going through the flange of the
existing concrete system so that from top to bottom all the elements can actually function as one
integral unit.

The fourth case is overlay on top of slab, which can actually enhance the compression resistance
and thereby enhancing the flexural capacity of the member. And in this case there are two things
which I would like to mention, one is with the additional reinforcement and also it is possible to
do this without the additional reinforcement, depending on the type of concrete and the material
which we use. I will cover that on a later slide.

Then case number five is soffit slab overlay, which is done at the bottom surface of the flange, an
additional reinforced concrete provided at the bottom surface of the flange. And also there are
strategies by which you can go with beam overlay and the tendons. In here the green circles

767
indicate the new tendons which are added but at the same time they are not external tendons.
They are added tendons, but they are tendons are actually inside the new concrete or embedded
inside the beam overlay concrete. So, now we will go through, not all six of this, I will show you
some examples of each one of these and then we will discuss how they are.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:02)

So in beam overlay, as you see on both the pictures at the bottom, undercutting is very important
to do. And if we are exposing the existing reinforcement, it may not be the case all the time, but
under cutting is very important and at the same time when you put the new reinforcement that
reinforcement should be anchored or as you see here, in this case it is going right up to the top
flange. I mean, in the picture it is not very clear whether it is going into that, if it is going into the
top flange, it is perfect. Now the bar should be clean and also sometimes depending on the
exposure condition, you can actually apply anti-corrosion treatment but make sure that those
chemicals are not spread or pasted or painted on to the concrete surface, because then that will
function like a very weak layer, which will lead to delamination of the new concrete from the
existing concrete.

So on the photograph on the right side, you can see additional rebars which is provided. So what
I did is in future slides also, I am going to show you a lot of photographs collected from the
internet and other sources and which will kind of help you to really visualize things in addition to
the sketches, which we have. Sketches looks very good, very neat and clean, but at the same time

768
it is important to really know, how reality is. So that is why I am putting all these photographs,
so that you will remember things much clearer and better.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:09)

The next thing is beam overlay with tendons. This was the sixth picture in the slide two slides
earlier when I showed or different types of section enlargement, this was the bottom right. And
you can see here those green circles indicate the tendons and this is a section over here, if I show,
not necessarily the section at the mid span. If it is at the mid span, all those green tendons will
come kind of here. There will be one here and there will be a couple of them there (Red dotes in
the top right sketch). So you can see two sections. In that image you can see 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
tendons, these tendons typically are provided inside the new concrete or inside the beam overlay
and here you can see the additional stirrups, which are actually drilled into the flange, so that you
can have very good integrity and a very good load transfer and then the entire section functions
as a single unit

In the sketch at the bottom right, these stirrups are not really going into the flange, but they are
drilled into the portion of the beam itself. So all those are depending on the case to case basis,
which is easier to do looking at the site conditions and practical issues. That is why, it is very
important for the structural designer to actually go to the site and then see the reality and then
come up with a design which is more feasible and which is easily constructible. So these are also
very important, because sometimes we see drawings, but when you go to the site it makes a lot of

769
difficulties to actually implement them or constructability is not really thought by the designer.
So structural engineers should really always think about how their designs are going to be
implemented. So, good engineers will think about all that. So I request you all to make sure that
you know what are the practical difficulties and all that must be thought through before
suggesting a particular design to the site.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:53)

Now another way of section enlargement is overlay on top of slab. So as you see on the sketch
here, this is the additional material. So you can see that on the photograph, it is a small bridge.
You can see that, there are additional reinforcements placed and then new concrete added to
enhance the capacity. So some of these pictures are just used to show you real-life scenarios and
there may be things which are not relevant for this particular applications or the point which we
are talking. But look at the relevant points in all the photographs I am going to show you. So
here the photographs are selected, because I can show you the additional reinforcement and at
the same time the additional overlay concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:58)

770
This is an example where there is no reinforcement provided. In other words, these
reinforcement is not provided in this particular example, but the concrete is ultra high
performance concrete, which has very fine fibers to prevent cracking and they are very thin layer
but very strong material so that you do not really need a very thick concrete layer. Because when
you provide more and more concrete you are actually adding dead load to the structure, which is
not always preferred. So here you have a concrete which has very high strength and good
resistance against cracking, etc., and because of those features we are able to design an overlay,
which is very thin, but at the same time it helps significantly in enhancing the flexural capacity.
So, less material quantity means fewer effects on the dead load.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:15)

771
I will show a little more detail on the same photograph. This is Chillon viaducts in Switzerland.
You can see that here in the bottom right. Now the picture, which I showed in the previous slide
is this one (top right). Now you can see the details here. It is actually done using a screed
vibrator. You can see that the screed vibrator there, which is the truss structure and then people
are pulling and then the concrete is laid in a very fast manner, and you get a nice surface finish
also because of the screed vibrator being used. And the height is, you can see that wooden pieces
which are kept here which is just about 1 inch height and that is the height of that new newly
added concrete overlay. So it is a very thin element and very high strength concrete which helps
in increasing the flexural resistance or flexural capacity of the bridge.

The details like why they went for this thing, they had an experience of alkali aggregate reaction,
then the structure was about 50 years old, then major upgrade was conducted or the structure was
upgraded to ensure that the new seismic resistance standards or whatever the requirements are
met, then to make more water resistant or moisture resistant and improve the overall structural
properties. So these are all the things which were considered and based on that consideration,
ultra high performance concrete was used as overlay and more importantly no additional
reinforcement were used. So we can enhance by just adding a very thin layer at the top.

One most important thing when you talk about these thin layers are, how good the bond between,
like we said there is no reinforcement. The reinforcements are not there, but the very important
thing is how good the bond between, I am drawing this red line along the interface between the
existing concrete and the overlay. So that bond between existing concrete and the overlay is very
important to consider and it must be very good, otherwise this will not function well, because
then when there is a deflection possible, then this new layer will pop out or it will delaminate
from the existing concrete. So it is not only the strength of the new overlay material, but also
how well it can bond to the existing substrate surface. That is very important, otherwise all these
systems will not really work for long term.
(Refer Slide Time: 16:31)

772
Now where, which type of systems can be used. Enlargement below and side of the section is
suitable when we have sufficient space or headroom. If you do not have sufficient space or
headroom below, then that is not a feasible option. Second case is when enlargement is done on
above the section, that is when you do not really have sufficient space below the section or the
section below is not really accessible. For example, if you are talking about a bridge, it is much
easier to go over the bridge and do the repair work rather than going below the bridge by make
some scaffolding or stay above the water etc. So based on the case to case basis, we can decide
which is the easiest way to perform the repair and come out of the work with minimal
disturbance.

If you are talking about an urban bridge, maybe you do not want to go above the bridge and stop
the traffic etc. But if it is a rural bridge with very limited traffic, where rerouting or you can use
one lane at a time like the photograph shown earlier, they did the work with two lanes, one lane
was opened for traffic, but that was a rural case. If you are talking about an urban case, maybe
you do not want to stop traffic on the top surface or above the section. So in such case, you may
want to go for repair practice below the section, but then again you have to see whether there is
traffic below gets affected or not. So, all these have to be thought through before making a
choice.

773
And section enlargement will add more dead load to the structure and how that is going to affect
the performance or how that is going to affect the other elements or the foundation, should the
foundation also be strengthened, all need to be thought through. So, all these are important.

Now also very important thing is construction time. Typically this section enlargement takes
more time compared to other ways of construction. Because most often you will need scaffolding
to put the rebar cage, then field trials, then placing concrete and then once the concrete is placed,
you have to remove the formwork and then you have to cure. So all these processes takes time as
supposed to go and stick something to the existing element. Sometimes money plays a role,
sometimes technical things, and sometimes the difficulty to the others. So whichever is the case
we have to decide on what type of repair or strengthening technique need to be adopted?
(Refer Slide Time: 19:43)

Now externally bonded plates or laminates is the second methodology, which we are going to
discuss. And this is adopted when enlargement of size of concrete does not suit. In other words
you do not have space or you do not want to enlarge, increase the size or you do not want to
increase the dead load. In such cases we can go for this type of bonded reinforcement. And here
when I say reinforcement, there are two types in general, steel plates are used sometimes and
FRP or CFRP laminates which could be flexible or rigid used sometimes. I mean depending on
the case to cases we will, we can use. But these are the materials which are available. And
usually these plates or laminates are provided on tension side to improve the positive moment

774
capacity. So whatever it is, it is applied where there is a tension force acting, whether it is above
the beam system or below wherever there are tension forces coming that is where we install these
types of plates and laminates.

And while installing, it is very important to consider or make sure that there are no freely moving
or there is no defects or there is no loose materials on the surface of the concrete. There should
be no coating residue, no weak friable surface and also no defects. It is very important, otherwise
it will not glue very well and if it does not glue very well to the concrete, then there will not be
any integrity between the plates and the existing concrete thus they cannot function well together
and they will eventually delaminate.

Now how to anchor or glue these plates to the concrete? Sometimes only glue is used, but most
often glue plus bolts or some kind of fasteners is used so that there is a mechanical anchoring
also happening. Because if the glue fails, the system should still be there and sometimes because
of the bolt system it helps at the time of construction, because the bolted system will hold the
plate in place and you can use glue and we can take more time to cure also. So it is more of an
application or a practical issue, why bolt and glue are used.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:23)

Now bonded steel plate, let us look at steel plates first and then we will talk about examples of
FRP laminates. So steel plates or other shapes can be attached using adhesives. Other shape are, I

775
have also seen angle lines, if you are putting this on the edge of a beam or something, then you
go with something like an angle shape, so whatever is the shape of structure. And gluing is easier
than drilling plus bolting, but sometimes considering the field conditions, you do not want to
hold this plate with hand or something for long period. So it is sometimes better drill hole, bolt it
and then inject the glue or epoxy to the space between the plate and the concrete.

Quality of workmanship is very important and critical. How surface is prepared, how the bond
strength of the epoxy or the glue to the concrete and plate should be long and thin, that is also
something important to think. They should be long and thin to avoid brittle plate debonding. So
the plate should not come off. If it is too rigid or too thick then there may be a possibility of
debonding from the concrete surface.

Now supplemental anchors to prevent debonding caused by the high local bond stresses, we can
provide anchors that is the bolts also they provide additional shear capacity. If you are talking
about plate, when there is a lateral movement or a movement along the interface, if you provide
these mechanical anchors or the studs into the existing concrete that will also help in increasing
the shear resistance or they will not fail due to shear force.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:39)

So steel plate, you can see an example here. This picture I showed it is not a steel plate, it is a
CFRP laminate here, but I thought this is a good photograph to show you how this process

776
should be. Whenever we are talking about strengthening the first thing to do is, release all the
loads acting on that element, if possible. So here you can see on the sketch on the top right, there
is a dashed line which is basically showing the deflected shape of the member. So you can see
that black dashed line that is a deflected shape. First thing to do a repair or strengthen this is to
lift this using a jack or something and then retain that original shape of the slab. Once the
original shape is retained, then we stick a plate or this steel plate or a CFRP plate to the bottom
surface and glue it there. And let us say the glue takes long time to cure, in such cases we can
actually anchor it or bolt it and then inject that into the space in between. So it will take its own
time to cure and then you can do other things during that time.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:25)

Now in a building, example for a building you can see here there are bolts provided, whatever I
just showed in the previous slide. And here also you can see a lot of rivets and which is provided
to hold the plate and then facilitate injecting grout into this place. I mean first you will anyway
provide some glue there or adhesive but if required we can also go the other way by injecting
into the space between the plate and the concrete surface.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:07)

777
One more example of this injection is the same what I just discussed. This is a very old example,
you can see here these are all the bolts, which are holding the steel plate and then this person is
actually filling the gap between the concrete and the steel plate and then allowing that material to
take its own time to cure. Once it is cured, then you can remove the support system. This is the
support system, you can see here. So once it is cured and then glue can take the load, the
adhesive starts functioning, then you can remove temporary support systems.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:54)

Now let us talk about fiber reinforced polymer composite. It consists of high-performance fibers,
very strong and very stiff fibers embedded in polymer matrices. So you can see the stress-strain
graph of fiber which indicates high strength and stiffness which is embedded in a resin, which

778
may not have very high stiffness. So the composite have a behavior which is in between. So this
FRP composite behavior is what is important to consider and these comes as a flexible roll
material, which you can roll over and at the same time thick stiff plates or rigid plates are also
available. So comes in three major fibers which are used are carbon fiber, glass fiber and aramid
fibers. The key properties which making us use these materials are they are light in weight, so it
is not really adding any dead load to the structure. High strength, then they do not usually
corrode or in other words it is nonmetallic material, so they do not have the typical metallic
corrosion, then non-magnetic, so you do not need to worry about electrical short-circuit etc.

Only one problem is they are brittle in nature. So the designer should think about the failure
mode of the structural system or provide redundant systems, so that the structure does not fail in
a very brittle manner. So multiple laminates may be provided, so that the structure does not fail
in a brittle manner, even though individual laminates might fail, the structure will still fail in
more of a ductile mode.

Now preparation of concrete surface is a key process, otherwise they will not glue very well, I
already told about it. Very positive thing is they are very easy to handle as compared to other
procedures. And it can be done in very fast way, I have heard projects where the entire work is
done in a couple of days; that is all, it is very fast. And if you do the preparatory work earlier,
then just installation is very fast.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:25)

779
This is an example showing a two-way slab where you have these plates going and these are
CFRP or carbon fiber reinforced plates. In a building structure, you can see they are going in
both directions for two-way slab.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:47)

I am showing all these examples just to make you more realizing the field structures, how they
look and all that, rather than just drawings. Now bridges with minimal headroom, so you can see,
this is a culvert actually. You can see that only very small headroom available here and it was
very easy to install something like this rather than going for an increased thickness or more
concrete at the bottom with additional reinforcement etc.

780
So beam overlay at the bottom will be very difficult to practice and getting a quality product at
the end is more challenging. And one thing is this is passive strengthening with CFRP plates and
you can see here that they are not prestressed or anything. It is just glued and it is not even going
till the end, because it is mainly to resist the flexural properties. So you can see here it goes up to
here and this glued to the concrete surface.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:10)

Now other typical application of this kind of plates is prestressed, which is an active system.
Again you can see this girder here which is prestressed, you can see the marking of how the
concrete surface was cleaned, you can see that in a bushing wheels marking on that. So cleaning
is very important, otherwise they will not work very well. They are cleaned and then glue or
whatever the adhesive is applied and then the carbon fiber reinforced polymer is placed and then
it is prestressed.

So first you create an anchoring region with the metal system, then attach this CFRP laminate to
that and then from the other end pull it or you prestress the whole laminate, you can see the jack
here, which is basically pulling or prestressing the laminate. This will result in an active
strengthening. In other words, as soon as the work is over immediately the CFRP laminate start
taking the stress or start sharing the stress.
(Refer Slide Time: 33:35)

781
Now I am going to show a case study where this FRP laminates were used. This was actually a
building, which had fire incident and basically like a lot of furniture, cushion materials, partition
walls, panels, etc. were actually functioning like the fuel for the fire and it lasted for a couple of
hours. And then the hall with RC concrete frame, roof slab and brick masonry walls; they were
all attacked by the fire.

And then beams and columns were strengthened to compensate for damage and for taking
additional floor to be built on top. So this incident was used for enhancing the capacity so that
we can build one more floor above. So you can see in the picture, first thing which was done was
removal of the plaster and the concrete which got damaged, as you see here all the plaster and
concrete everything is removed. Not much damage was observed on the brickwork anyways, but
concrete really had a lot of problems. So here also all the plastering material and the damaged
concrete was removed.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:59)

782
And then new plastering material was applied or re-plastered and then cleaned, the surface of the
plastered surface was cleaned so that the chemicals or the primer and then can be glued well. So
after the surface preparation, you can see a person cleaning it here, then to the cleaned surface
this primer was applied and then the laminate. The stiff plate was glued to the bottom where the
tension forces are acting, bottom most fiber.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:46)

And then after that for better confinement the flexible sheets were also glued to the surface. So
the flexible CFRP sheets were also glued to the surface, you can see here this is the primer and
then you can this blue color, it is again the glue and this is the laminate. After that for preventing
the delamination of the sheets from the concrete surface, they were anchored to the substrate

783
concrete. And how it was done was, I am going to draw that here. So, as I draw here, first the
fibers were inserted into a hole which is drilled into the concrete with sufficient glue and once it
was held in place the remaining fiber which is protruding out what kept like a star shape or
spread like this, you can see here also, look very closely and here also you can see how the
anchoring was done. So I am going to delete these markings so that you can see what I was just
telling. So just opens up and then again that was glued so that you have a really a nonmetallic
nail over there or a very good anchor.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:44)

And then after that, before the chemical was dried, to have additional paintings and other
coatings, you need a rough surface. For that purpose, sand was sprayed on the epoxy surface. So
you can see here to get a rough surface finish, sand was sprayed so that other additional
paintings, etc., can stick well or bond well to this surface. So that was the work, recent work on
CFRP or strengthening using CFRP.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:33)

784
Now next way by which flexure strengthening is done is external post-tensioning. I am going to
show some examples on this too. You can see here an anchorage; a tendon is placed like this,
these are the deviator blocks and this black line indicates the additional tendon. Photograph at the
bottom very clearly shows the tendon here and it goes like this and goes up on the other end of
the bridge and this is the deviator point there.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:02)

Now the same picture, I am reproducing here, so that you can compare one thing, here on the top
picture, you see one tendon, at the bottom you can see two tendons, mainly to take care of the
change in the bending moment as it reaches the near support. So where you do not want too
much bending moment, you change the direction in which the tendon goes, so that you can have

785
an adjustment on the bending moment, whatever the pre-stress is required provide only that at
that cross section or post-tensioning is required. So corresponding to that I am showing here two
tendons and in this case, there is only one tendon. But these are all case to case basis, how you
want to do it.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:52)

Now this is a case where there are four external tendons provided. You can see four tendons here
indicated by these circles and similar tendons are on the other side of the girder also. So, this is
just one more example. One thing to note here is, in these types of structures, you have to also
think about how you will apply the tension. So the anchorage zone, do you have enough space
for placing the jack, if you do not have space, how do we actually do the stressing operation,
whether we do the stressing operation from the end or we can use some couplers and stress not at
the ends, but somewhere else along the tendon. For example, if you do not have a space for
jacking, then we can also design a proper coupler system and have it somewhere along the
tendon and then tighten there like a turnbuckle or something similar to that. Those things are
discussed later in two lectures down the line on repair of prestressed concrete, but similar things
can be done in this repair also. So availability of space for placing the jack is also important to
think about.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:23)

786
This is another example. I am just trying to show you more and more photographs, so that we
can think in different ways on how these systems can be actually implemented not just knowing
the theory using a nicely looking sketch. So this you can see many structures have been repaired
or strengthened by using all these technologies.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:49)

This is another one, where you can see a straight tendon is provided. There is no deviator block
or anything, but this goes up to that point only, it is not really reaching the end of the girder and a
straight tendon is provided. So it all depends. This is the way in case you have a very long
tendon, how to connect them. So you can see a very nice system there, where you can actually
increase the stress or decrease the stress as you want. Because when you talk about multiple

787
tendons like this as you see in this bridge, the load which you apply on one might actually have
an impact on the other tendon. So you may have to come back and check that each tendon is
actually taking sufficient stress or in other words, when you apply prestress or post-tension to
one of the tendon, the already existing tendon might lose some of the stress. So we have to think
about all that. That is why these kind of flexible systems are essential.
(Refer Slide Time: 43:02)

This is another example showing two tendons.

(Refer Slide Time: 43:08)

And external post-tensioning is also done on bents, pier caps, etc., not only the girders, but also
the elements which are supporting the girders. So here is one bent cap or pier cap, you can see

788
here, which was showing some cracks like this in this direction, vertical cracks as it is shown
here, these kinds of cracks. So when we see those kinds of cracks, it is very clear that there is a
reduction in the prestress or horizontal prestressing is not adequate. And that is why those
vertical cracks are forming. So how to prevent this is first we have to seal or close the crack and
then apply a horizontal prestress in this direction (as arrows shown in the sketch). So first you
have to fill the cracks with epoxy and then compress the element, so that the problem does not
happen again and so flexural cracks are pressure epoxy grouted prior to prestressing. It is not that
you first do the prestressing and then fill the crack. No, it is the other way. First you fill the
cracks with injecting epoxy into it and so that there is proper load transfer possible or uniform
load transfer possible and then you apply the prestressing. So the cracks have to be closed, so
that load from one side of the crack is actually going to the or transferred to the other side of the
crack. That is very, very important process.
(Refer Slide Time: 44:57)

This is another example where similar strengthening is happening. You can see all these. In this
case, if you look very closely they are not strands, they are actually high-strength prestressing
rebars. Usually you will see both, strands and rebars are used in this, but if it is strands they will
be typically monostrands, which are coated with grease or wax and then placed inside a plastic
sheathing.

789
So, protection mechanisms of these repair systems are also equally important or probably more
important, so that the system last for as long as possible or as long as we desire. In this
photograph, there is a column, section enlargement is also being done, but I am not going to
discuss that right now. That is a separate topic.
(Refer Slide Time: 46:01)

So what are the key features, which we have to think about when we talk about external post-
tensioning? If they are very effective to increase the flexural and shear capacity of both
reinforced and pre-stressed concrete members, minimal weight is added because essentially they
are high strength materials and then effective and economical for long span beams to correct
excessive deflections. When the longer the span, then these becomes more economical and more
effective and standard prestressing strands or rods can be used. End anchors can be made of steel
fixtures bolted to the structural member that are cast in situ like it was shown in the previous two
photographs also, there were thick steel plates at the end of the bents. Now all existing cracks
need to be epoxy injected first and if there is any spalling or any of those surface repairs also
need to be finished or completed before we do the prestressing of the element.
(Refer Slide Time: 47:27)

790
Now next is supplementary support system, where we are talking about structures which might
have significant deflection and which need to be strengthened. One example is, look at here in
the bottom left two images before and after, you can see there significant deflection and then that
deflection can be nullified or the whole system can be jacked up by using some supplementary
support systems. You can see here this is an example photograph; it is a jack where the height is
actually adjusted.
(Refer Slide Time: 48:18)

Now span shortening is another widely used practice to enhance the flexural capacity. Not only
capacity, it also helps in enhancing the stiffness of the member by reducing the amount of stress

791
coming on the existing members. Then various methods by providing column capitals, as you see
here. That is mainly for a slab system where even for beams it works.

But the picture shown is for a slab system, where by providing these capitals the span for the
remaining slab is actually slightly reduced. And also you can provide diagonal bracing system or
additional columns like this. You can see here this photograph over here, it shows that, how they
look like and main problem is when you provide this additional bracing or knee supports the
space constrained is a problem and cost-effectiveness is also another thing which we have to
look at.
(Refer Slide Time: 49:40)

I am showing a zoom out image of this, so that you can see this is the bracing which we are
talking about. You can see all these inclined elements; they are all the knee supports, which we
are talking. And now when you talk about this, these knee supports, they are actually resting onto
the columns which are visible and how the columns take these loads? That is also something
needs to be considered and if they also need to be strengthened along with this work that also
need to be done.
(Refer Slide Time: 50:15)

792
This is an example photograph, not a concrete structure here. It is just a bamboo structure, you
can see there is an additional support given here. On the picture on the bottom right, you see a
deflected bamboo beam. It is essentially a beam and that is supported by providing additional
knee bracing and also sometimes this vertical column. So I just thought of showing you this nice
image, which I took it in one of the restaurants in Gujarat.

So it is not only concrete structures which have problem, even other structures also have problem
and there are these types of techniques, which are not necessarily adaptable or applicable only to
concrete. It can be applied everywhere.
(Refer Slide Time: 51:06)

793
This is a roof slab which is a heavily corroded reinforced concrete system. I actually visited this
site and it is almost nothing, it is not really taking any load. I felt that even it is standing because
probably by the arch action or something of the concrete itself, the whole concrete is probably
under compression and this temporary supports are there. So in such cases, how we can do
without really removing everything? We can go for an overlay, but at the same time overlay just
to cover up, but at the same time if we can reduce the span that is a feasible way of doing it. If
you want to renovate these kinds of structures, you want to also come up with a feasible solution,
which does not take much time and does not create much difficulty to the inhabitants.
(Refer Slide Time: 52:16)

So, attaching just simple crossbars like this to that floor will actually finish the job faster. You
can attach to the concrete beams available. I am going to go back (previous slide), if you take
this beam here, you can actually attach the additional supports like this onto the beam. So
essentially what you are doing is, you are shortening the span for that slab. So that might work
and then you can provide some minimum reinforcement required and so that it can be really safe.
And also if such steel elements are provided, depending on the environment, if it is an indoor
environment, I think it is okay, but if it is an exterior environment where you have moisture
issues, then you can also probably provide concrete around the steel and then or encase the steel
member inside a concrete, which will help in protecting the entire structure.
(Refer Slide Time: 53:30)

794
Now shear strengthening is another topic. Until now, we discussed about flexural strengthening,
now we have few slides on shear strengthening methods. Typically, most methods which are
adopted for flexure strengthening can also be modified and used for shear strengthening. All
these methods which we already discussed, first is internal post-tensioning, then external post-
tensioning, then internal mild reinforcement, mild steel as a passive reinforcement, then bonded
steel members, and then enlarged member cross section or even provide a straps. So all these are
the different ways by which flexural strength can be enhanced.
(Refer Slide Time: 54:20)

So I am going to show you couple of examples on some of these and then close the lecture. So
strengthening the Parapet bridge using internally placed post-tensioning method, this is a case

795
study where you can see here a long drill and that is used to drill a very long hole through the
deep girder which is visible and which is in very bad shape. So they drilled this hole without
damage. You can see the hole here on the second photograph without really damaging the
reinforcement. So they found a space between the reinforcement and then drill through that and
then placed the additional cables through that and then post tensioned them or in this example it
was cable duct, but you can use either a strand system or a cable system or a high-strength rebar
or high-strength rods. So anything can be used depending on the amount of stressing required or
the load required etc.
(Refer Slide Time: 55:26)

This is the external post-tensioning, because drilling that hole if it is a deep beam, it is a lot of
work and sometimes it is not very easy and practical. So in such cases, we can go for external
post-tensioning where drilling is required only for this much length very short amount of work
and then you connect either a rod or a strand or a cable system, so that the shear resistance can be
enhanced.

One thing to tell again, if you do this, the crack should be filled first with an epoxy injection or
something before doing the post-tensioning of the element. And why we fill the crack first is, at
the time of application of post-tensioning the load can be easily transferred and in an uniform
manner all along the crack. That is the reason.
(Refer Slide Time: 56:23)

796
Now CFRP straps are also widely used for external post-tensioning for enhancing the shear
strength. You can see the sketch here, all these brown color vertical thick lines, they all
indicating the straps and you can see the inclined shear cracks over there. One important thing to
notice here is when you talk about straps, these fibers should not get torn or the tear resistance of
that should be considered. The best thing is and they are very good in tension, but sometimes
they might get torn. So we have to provide a smooth surface or smooth corner, so that at the
corner they also can slide over and then take that stress while prestressing and at the same time
they do not get damaged. So half round bar stock is important, something which is curvy in
nature can be provided or you can also chamfer the beam. As you can see in this photograph
here, the beam is chamfered at the corner, not sharp 90 degree turn.
(Refer Slide Time: 57:46)

797
I am going to show another photograph. You can see here this beam is chamfered and this strap
is nicely curved so it can easily take that load and give very good shear enhancement.
(Refer Slide Time: 58:03)

This is another example. Again you can see, the shear region is only the near support region. So
this girder does not have any problem with the flexural resistance. The problem is mainly for the
shear resistance, because shear cracks were probably observed in these elements like this and
they wanted to fix that issue. So they provided this FRP laminates and that is only provided
where the failure was observed not the entire bridge. So it is a good way of optimized use of
repair materials.
(Refer Slide Time: 58:50)

798
Now also internally placed passive reinforcement is also used, this is not an active system, it is
just a passive system, which is in fact I should have made this (vertical rod in left most sketch)
also blue in color, so that you can match. So this rod, vertical rod is also assumed it to be blue.
So all the blue rod, they are actually passive reinforcement. So a small hole will be drilled, then
placed and then hole and then grouted. So they will come into action when there is a
requirement. So that is why we are calling it as a passive reinforcement. Unlike a post tension or
a pre stress system, in a post tension system the moment you provide the anchoring or the
prestress, then from that time onwards that is actually taking part in load sharing.
(Refer Slide Time: 59:46)

799
Now another mechanism which some of the long span structures experience is hinge formation,
because of the temperature variation and we do not know where this hinge might form exactly,
region wise we can tell but exact location may not be possible to predict. So when you have very
significant variations in temperature at different points, in this particular case, the top portion is
getting heated and is expanding where the bottom portion is still under cool or in low
temperature under shade. So because of the expansion, these kinds of hinges might form, where
there is a bending action also coming.

Now the repair system which we adopt should allow the movement of these hinges. If it does not
allow, then what will happen is, it will just transfer that stress to some other location and then it
will form hinges elsewhere. So it is better to allow these hinges to form and then design your
repairs material system in a way so that the system will function.

So, if you provide epoxy, if that epoxy is very brittle or very rigid, that epoxy is not really a
flexible material. So you have to really think about what type of material to be used. So any
repair of moving cracks, if the cracks are forming, closing, forming, closing or moving, then by
bonding the crack with epoxy will definitely fail. If not in short term, in long term it will fail. So,
it is not a good practice to adopt.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:01:44)

800
In such cases, what we should do is something like this, where you provide a steel support,
because our idea here is to transfer the shear stress. So you can provide a vertical rod like this
and then main idea is to provide a horizontal plate, the dark grey region (in the bottom of right
sketch) is the horizontal plate and there is a thick thick red horizontal line, that is the teflon slide
which helps the concrete element to slide or move horizontally (showing the arrow) so that the
shear stress is transferred, but not the other stresses. So it is essentially like an L-shape steel plate
on which the element on the right side or the concrete on the right side of this moving crack,
concrete on the right side is resting on that and whatever that vertical load is transferred through
the plate and the left side of the element is taking that load.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:03:21)

Now look at what are these different external members which we talked about as strengthening
systems. So we talked about bonded reinforcement, post-tensioning using either straps or strands
etc., and also post-tensioning using FRP laminates. So bonded reinforcements, strands and
laminates, these are the three systems we are going to compare. Weight wise bonded
reinforcement has negligible weight and post-tensioning has minimal additional weight, but
laminates very lightweight. So it does not really add anything to the dead load.

Cost, economical and reasonable if it is bonded reinforcement, strands economical but also it
depends on the span or the amount of work and laminates are costly and also they may not be
good for significant increase in the strength.

801
Now durability, in the case of bonded reinforcement durability is enhanced, because the bonded
reinforcement itself will provide that additional protection, it will cover the concrete surfaces in
some cases. And post-tensioning systems, in that case they must be protected, they are very
vulnerable to corrosion sometimes, so they must be protected. And in case of laminates the
anchorage is the most important part, how well they are anchored to the system is important, If
the anchorage fails, the entire, the system does not function.

In case of strength, bonded reinforcement and strands enhances the strength and FRP laminates,
it enhances the strength, but there is a possibility of brittle failure. So multiple laminates or
system should be designed in a way that the brittle failure of the structure is not going to happen,
maybe one of the straps can fail in brittle in way, but the structure should not fail in a brittle way.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:05:26)

So to summarize, we talked about different techniques adopted for flexural strengthening and for
shear strengthening of beams and slabs.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:05:39)

802
I think these are the references which we used. Thank you.

803
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology – Madras

Lecture - 28
Structural Strengthening & Stabilization – III (Columns & Walls)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:19)

This is the third lecture in this module on Structural Strengthening and Stabilization. In this we
will talk about columns and walls and how to strengthen them or stabilize them.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:25)

804
Let us first look at the three common types of failure with respect to columns. The first one is an
example of a compression failure, I mean you can see that there is little bulging of the
reinforcement, but let us say that is mainly due to Compression failure, the second one you can
very clearly see the bulged out reinforcement which is a Buckling failure, and the third one is a
shear failure, very clearly that inclined plane indicates a Shear failure of the entire column or
pier.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:09)

Now, how do we strengthen these columns? There are four major approaches by which we can
strengthen them, one is Compressive strengthening by enlargement, the other one is Shear
strengthening using shear collars, then Beam-column joint strengthening, mainly the moment
resisting capacity of the joint and then the fourth one is Confinement strengthening. So all this
you can see it is all different mechanism one is compression, then shear, then flexure and then
also looking at confinement.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:52)

805
These are the major ways by which we can fix the columns or strengthen the columns. So in case
of Compressive strengthening or Compression strengthening by enlargement of the section, there
are three major types, we are going to call it method A, B and C. In these drawings here the
white region is the existing concrete and the gray shaded region is the new concrete or the repair
material.

So you can see under method A where an existing concrete is on the left and then you can see a
new concrete with additional stirrups, details on this column is not really provided here to keep it
simple, but that will have other reinforcements as well. But now let us see how the new concrete
is integrated with the existing concrete is, it is by a post-tensioning tendon. You can see here
there is a post-tensioning system which holds the two together. So if you are talking about a
column of several feet tall, you can have multiple of these tendons which will hold the entire
system together. In method B there is a smaller column which is the white region and then there
is a C-shaped or a channel shaped three-sided cover of the new concrete. And the stirrups
actually go through the existing concrete, so you will have to drill through and then come up
with a full stirrup so that the entire system is again functioning like a single unit. In the method C
depending on the cases, the existing column is completely encased by the new concrete which
also has additional reinforcement and both primary and stirrups.

806
The sketch at the bottom is basically showing the elevation of these type of systems where main
thing to show is columns are supposed to take the compression loads. So during the compressive
action what might happen, or if the new material starts shrinking, what will happen is over a
period of time the length of the new material can decrease a little bit and then it will probably get
detached from the roof element or the beam below which it is kept. So what we need to do is, to
ensure that there is proper continuity or the proper load transfer directly from the roof element or
the beam element to the column or the new part of the column, then we can actually fill that
space with some dry packed material basically make sure that it is well compacted and there is
no space left behind. So that then the load transfer will happen smoothly and uniformly and
combinedly the existing member and the new member will take equal load.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:50)

Now we will look at the compressive strengthening using section enlargement, column jacketing,
what are the key features or what are the things we should worry about while doing this or we
should focus on and how to do things also. So first thing is whenever you talk about column
jacketing or section enlargement, the additional material which you are going to put around the
existing member is supposed to take the load along with the material of the existing member. So
to make this happen, first thing to do is at the time of construction or at the time of repair, there
should be no load acting on the existing column or the remaining column element which is there,
the load should be directly transferred to the ground from the beam above or the roof above. So

807
best way to do that or achieve that is to provide props, adjacent to the columns, right on either
side of the column you provide props. So that the entire load goes directly to the ground and the
column itself does not experience any elastic compression. Whatever permanent deformation has
happened, we cannot regain that, but all the elastic shortening can be regained. And so that when
the new load is applied, both the existing and the old concrete take the load together. Now other
important thing is you have to prepare the surface of the existing concrete very well so that the
new material will bond very well with the existing concrete and apply the bond coat or whatever
the ways by which you can enhance the bonding of the new concrete to the existing concrete. A
bond coat can be provided or shear anchors can be provided, so there are many ways by which
we can enhance the bond between the two. Now provide shear reinforcement to integrate with
the old and new concrete. This is basically drilling rebars into the existing concrete so that the
interface between the old and new concrete does not experience any movement along the phase
or there will not be any shear failure.

Now fabricate and erect watertight shuttering, so that while we place the concrete into the
formwork water should not come out, if water comes out, it means that there may be an
indication of segregation etc., which will eventually lead to the formation of honeycomb also
because if all the water goes out then you can have regions where cementitious materials are
going to be less. Then place the concrete, self-compacting concrete is very good option in these
types of repair work because it flows. Usually the thickness of the jacket will be relatively less
and sometimes you may not be able to place your needle vibrator, whatever be the case if you go
for self-compacting concrete or free-flowing concrete. Micro concrete nowadays comes with the
self-compacting behavior or property, so, that can be used and at the same time this self-
compacting concrete it gives very nice smooth finish, so it looks good also after the work is
done. Now one thing one important thing is the SCC or the concrete or micro concrete or
whatever concrete you use, a repair concrete should be placed before the drying of the bond coat,
then only you will have proper grip, or a proper bond will develop. So you should not allow the
bond coat to dry completely. Curing is very important but usually people also plaster the
concrete surface, but if SCC is used you do not need to plaster because it really gives a very good
finish and plastering is not at all required, especially one thing is for example, if you are talking
about a round circular column, it is very difficult to get a good circular shape with plaster. So it

808
is best to go for ready-made formwork and then go for SCC and plastering can be actually
avoided.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:04)

So here is an example, a case study on this, in this particular project you can see here the
concrete at the bottom portion was found to be corroded. So they removed about one to two
meter height portion of the cover concrete. The reinforcement was found to be corroding
probably because it is a poor quality concrete, capillary suction, then it keeps that lower portion
of the column moist for long period of time and it started and continued to corrode.

Now in this case you can see that, before it was removed, the proper props were provided, the
metallic support, you see all these temporary columns which have a truss element on top, so that
they really take the entire load and transfer into the ground through the footpath which is
provided. So the columns at this moment as you see in the picture, they do not take any load
coming from the roof or beam above.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:21)

809
This is a similar structure, you can see that in some cases we also provide additional
reinforcement depending on whether it is a retrofitting work or is it a restoration work or how
much amount of steel has already been corroded, all that has to be looked at and then we can
decide whether additional reinforcement is required or not. And we can use micro concrete for
filling the space in between the existing and the formwork.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:57)

Now this is again another example to show, in the previous one, the support system was not
really a heavy-duty support system because that was just a footpath type structure, here you are
talking about a huge load where the girders carry heavy loads. So at this moment, as you see in
the picture, the column system or the pier is not really experiencing any load, all the load from

810
the girders are directly transferred through this prop and it directly goes to ground. Here also you
can see the load is directly taken and transferred to the ground by these heavy-duty props. So
depending on the type of structure you have to decide what type of temporary support system
need to be used. And you can see here this is the region which is going to be repaired, a
significant amount of area has been removed from the pier and then when the new material is
placed that is supposed to share the load with the existing concrete. So this kind of load removal
before the application of the repair material is essential when we talk about any column repair or
any structural member repair, because the load has to be released, if we are talking about beam
then you have to lift the beam so that the beam at the time of repair does not take any load.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:27)

Now let us look at another example here, why I made this slide is to tell you that how to select
repair system, because same column can be repaired in multiple ways, but the way you choose
should be in a way that the repair work is easy, fast and of high quality. Three things are very
important, it should be practically easy for people to actually practice, because most often
designers, if they do not go to the site and they do not realize what is the site conditions, the
design which comes out might create a lot of trouble for the construction engineers and decision
makers at the site or for the workers, also sometimes the construction time will also be very long
if the design is not really a good one.

811
So this is an example of a project, where it is a three storey building, column strengthening work
was going on and it involved erection of a longitudinal reinforcement which is this you can see
here (big red dots), there are 10 additional longitudinal rebars, the white region is the existing
concrete and the shaded region in the periphery is the new concrete. And also there is lot of shear
connectors, this blue hook like in the Centre indicates shear connector. The recommendation is
actually to drill a hole through the existing concrete and then provide this hook, but when it came
to the site, there were a lot of challenges associated with this because even providing and holding
this hook you have to really think the practical way of doing this. Let us say you provide the
hook on one side of the column but the other side, if this portion is actually bent then you cannot
really do this job. So you have to keep one side straight push it through the hole which is drilled
once it comes to the other side then you have to bend it as it is on the column. So these are clear
examples of how not to do repair or design. This is not a good design, what I am showing is not a
good design. Ideally what could have been done is, I am going to draw it a little away from this
so that you can understand what I am talking. So if this is another primary bar so you can draw a
hook which just goes like this and if you really want to be safe, we can go a little bit in length
also and then draw it in the opposite side also and then bond this region. Provide proper bonding
agent and then bond that hook to the existing concrete, that will also give sufficient integrity
because the system will there are also additional reinforcements. So this is enough, or this kind
of design can be conceptually looked at and then design it accordingly whatever the diameter of
the hook or length of the hook embedment length, all those can be designed but conceptually.
This might be a better practice than expecting the workers to get this hook done as the hook is on
the column. So it is important sometimes some designs are not really easy to adopt, or feasibility
is not that good.

Now formwork should be slurry tight, there should be no leakage, why this is very important for
columns is usually we have seen that it leaks out through these narrow joints and the columns are
like very long elements. So the gap between the different parts of the formwork will just leak out
and wherever it is leaking there the chance of poor quality concrete is high because the cement
paste is leaking out and then you might have honeycombs also. Now adequate support should be
provided and grouting materials for filling the holes, the holes means is the holes for the shear
connectors, I just gave an example here, but a non-shrink grout is very, very important, that is the

812
property we have to really look at and then the grout should be also highly flowable. But again
let us not go for this through holes for the shear connecters, it is very difficult to practice, we
should design something which is something like this and then bond them well into the concrete.
As long as you can transfer that stress, that is good enough. Now the type of concrete can be self-
compacting. So the main takeaway or the reason why I showed this slide is just to make you
think about whether you should go for a through-hole or you should go for a shallow fastening
system or some kind of anchor system.
(Refer Slide Time: 20:31)

Now the other way of enhancing shear strength is by using collars to resist punching shear. You
can see here in this example here, assume that this brown colored collars are not there, so there
may be cracks which might happen something like this and something like this (like red line
drawn on the sketch) which is kind of an indicator of a punching shear failure. . So if you look at
the top view of this it might look something like a circular crack as drawn in the coming slide, So
to prevent this what we essentially have to do is increase the area of the circular crack. So how
do we do that is you place this collar, so once you place the collar then the shear critical region
moves from here to here (from inner vertical red lines drawn to outer vertical lines drawn, as
shown by arrow in the sketch). So this becomes the shear critical region and there you have
much more the radius of curvature is much more for that region. So you get more surface area
and then the punching shear can be avoided. So the shear resistance of the system can be much
higher.

813
So this is how it will look, you can see that this is now the region (outer lines), earlier it used to
be here ( inner area). So this has moved from here to here, when you go for a larger area there
will be no crack. And this gray portion here, this is basically to ensure that the load transfer is
happening in a uniform manner, we have to fill that space with either a neoprene pad or
something like that or fill that space with a grout a non-shrink grout. Again non-shrink is very
important, either non-shrink or shrinkage compensating, basically there should not be any space
between the grout and the steel and between the grout and the concrete. Grout and steel, it may
not be a problem, because of gravity all the grout will settle down, but you might have a gap
between the top flange and the grout. If you have a non-shrink or a shrinkage compensating
grout that can be avoided.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:32)

814
Now another example of different types of these collars, you can see here there is a channel
section used with the post-tensioning. So this section over here also and then this is post-
tensioned like this, so all the four sides are under compression and then on the right side you can
see a capital type structure where you have a little bracket here and a plate and then also another
capital here. So basically in the right case probably you can imagine a scenario where capital was
designed but that itself was not thick enough. So they went for something like this, an additional
steel capital or collar around the column.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:21)

Now we have beam-column joint strengthening. Until now we were talking purely about the
column, punching shear and etc., it was all about column. The beam-column joint is the key

815
failure location for the principle cause of collapse of many moment-resisting frame buildings.
Now strengthening of column only is generally not sufficient because the joints then become the
next weakest link due to lack of transverse reinforcement, discontinuous bottom reinforcement of
the beam and also for lack of adequate ductile reinforcement.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:06)

Now how to strengthen this, there are multiple ways, one is by providing a bonded steel member,
other is a shear wall construction, concrete overlay can be placed and also, and we can provide a
confinement. So these are different ways by which beam-column joint performance can be
enhanced.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:26)

816
So here it is the bonded steel plate or bonded steel members. What you see here is actually a steel
plate and on the right side is the other side view of this, so two steel plates on either side of the
column. When I say this works very well for a square shape, if the column is rectangular or
square in shape then you can actually provide a steel plate and then this is anchored or fastened
to the concrete, you can see there is a nut bolt system here and there is also a horizontal plate. So
essentially what you are doing is you are preventing this movement of this beam-column joint or
enhancing the strength of the joint itself, not necessarily the strength of the column or strength of
the beam but the strength of the joint alone.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:38)

Now if it is very difficult to place steel plates then other option is FRP laminates. So it does not
matter whatever the shape of the member or the joint is, you can actually provide very good
confinement with the FRP laminate as you see on the left side, a four beam joint. Then all sides
can be covered with FRP or confined with FRP, on this right side also this is the joint before
repair or yet to be repaired (in yellow color) and this is a joint which is repaired (white color), a
nice job, so this is also possible with FRP laminates.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:25)

817
And the strengthening punching shear and moment capacity of beam column joints, you can see
here how the capital can be added there like a column capital. And so here how it is done, I want
to also talk about the way in which it is constructed, you can see that a first a formwork is made,
it is completely sealed formwork with just an opening for an inlet and air outlet. So you see this
is the inlet (person pumping through the inlet), so the SCC is pumped into it and then this space
is provided, so that the air can be released and then you can see a similar setup on this formwork
on the right side where you can see this is the inlet for the pipe and for the pump. So also it has
heavy reinforcement, I am showing this picture on the right side to show that there is also
additional reinforcement in this or drop panels.
(Refer Slide Time: 28:30)

818
Now other way of increasing the bending moment of the joints is by providing additional
reinforcement and because it is done on the top of the floor you do not want these things to be
projecting above the floor level because then it will be a falling hazard. So what they do is they
actually cut grooves like this all along and then inserts these plates or additional reinforcement
into the grooves so that after the work is done it can be flushed with the concrete surface. There
is a huge negative bending moment acting here, so this is supposed to take care of that negative
bending moment or enhance the resistance of the structure against that negative bending
moment.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:30)

819
Now a problem with lack of sufficient confinement, this is what is going to happen if your
concrete column does not have enough confinement. This is again a very rare case where the
entire bridge deck was lifted and then dropped down with an impact load so that the column
became something like a flower. This happens very rarely but this is something which we have
to avoid in our infrastructure system. So it is not something which we should neglect, it is very,
very important, because infrastructure development it means huge investments. In this particular
case, when it happened, they had all this concrete rebar everything got damaged, rebars might
have been recycled but the concrete might have just gone as waste. So that is something we
would do not want structures to fail.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:28)

Now how to confine the column? Passive and active systems exist. Method A, on the left side
you see the column, on the right side there is a passive system and an active system, both look
very similar in the drawings. However, one thing to note is, let us say this brown circles are the
steel jackets and then you place the cement grout, but if the cement grout is pressurized or let us
say we use some expansive agent in the cement grout, once they are placed in between the RC
column and the steel plate, if they have an expansive nature, they will try to fill the space and be
under pre-stress or it will provide that stress to the system. So in the active case usually we go for
a fiberglass system, not a steel system steel pipe in the case of passive system we usually go for
steel jacket. So in the second case you provide a fiberglass system and then provide a cement or

820
resin grout which can actually exert some pressure onto the jacket and that way the jacket will
immediately come into action and it will function like an active system.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:00)

So here is an example, on the left side you see a passive system and on the right side you see an
active system. So on the left side, before the repair this was a rectangular column and then after
repair it became a circular column, so you provide a circular ring or a steel jacket and then fill
the space between the steel jacket and the concrete column with cement or concrete or whatever
the system, need not be something which has an expansive nature. But on the center you have a
pre-stressed system, you can see here there is a straps which are prestressing and the straps are
always under tension which gives very good confinement to the concrete inside. And on the right
end the third photograph, is an application of an FRP laminate, they are just wrapping around the
column and here like I mentioned earlier in the previous lecture, it should be make sure that the
corners are round in shape so that the fiber does not get torn. Otherwise if this is a sharp 90
degree corner then the fibers might get torn and they may not slip which is necessary to ensure
that the uniform load transfer.
(Refer Slide Time: 33:24)

821
Let us talk about stress reduction technique for columns, especially when we talk about
earthquake there may be a lot of lateral loads which comes into the picture and then because of
this lateral load the columns might move and then if there is a lateral load, the column will fail,
they will try to bend. So the idea is to prevent this bending but at the same time allow that
movement to some extent.

So what we do is this is the region which has to be removed (left image) and then replaced with
this new bearing system. So how do we replace? When you cut something like this, you have to
provide shoring otherwise the column will fall down, so the shoring is provided first or no load
will be acting on the column while the strengthening work is going on. Once it is done then you
cut and remove and then place this isolation bearing system and then what you do is there
provide a flat Jack like you can see in the center picture, provide the flat jack in between the
bearing and the bottom face of the concrete, the hanging portion of the column. Flat jack
provided because once you put in there may still be some space available and then a proper load
transfer may not occur. So for making sure that proper load transfer is happening, we provide a
flat jack kind of system and inflate it and then keep it under tight or some other mechanism based
on which you can ensure that there is a uniform and continuous load transfer. You can even
provide a cementitious system which has some expansive property so that there is no space and
then there is a proper load transfer between the top portion of the column and to the bottom
portion of the column. And this is showing (right picture) how it will be like during the

822
earthquake, the bearing will take the lateral load, it will not allow the bending of the column. So
the columns will still stay straight, so this portion will still stay relatively vertical.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:55)

So this is more detailed sketch, if you want to look closer. So this is the flat Jack, but we can
provide other systems also, the point is there should not be any air gap or there should be proper
load transfer from there to here.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:12)

This is an example in the airport in Turkey. This is for a new construction anyway, I just wanted
to show a photograph on how these systems look like, you can see this is the system we are
talking about.

823
(Refer Slide Time: 36:27)

And this is for same airport, you can see here short columns where it is actually support and then
you want to completely isolate the portions above this bearing. So even if there is an earthquake
there will be no movement above the bearing or the portions above the bearing will stay straight
while the ground can move laterally and then that way the resulting movements or stress
generated in the portions above the bearing is very limited.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:59)

Another building in Tokyo, you can see similar system where the rollers are in the perpendicular
directions. So you can see the roller at this level and the roller and in this level are in the
perpendicular direction so depending on whichever direction the lateral movements are the

824
system will adjust to the same and will it will not allow that force to be transferred to the
structural members above.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:32)

Now let us look at a little bit on how to repair or strengthen the walls, different failure modes we
look at first. First is mainly due to the flexure, when additional live load is acting. Because of
additional live load or wind or impact, or an insufficient lateral reinforcement, all these can lead
to a flexural failure of the wall system.

If the walls are experiencing a impact or explosion then also there could be major failure. So
sudden impact damage, vehicle hitting or striking, blast accidental damage, from some other
structural members like if a member is falling onto some something like that can lead to failure.
Sudden loading conditions, cracking due to settlement of foundation and thermal movement
these are also can cause significant stress and these are very important. Nowadays we have lot of
structures with entire shear wall system, or wall frame structures where shear walls or in other
words the entire wall system is made out of concrete reinforced concrete of course, but there
could be significant thermal movement which will generate stresses in which, if one member
expands that will generate stresses to the apply stress on to the other members. So this is
probably something to look at.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:08)

825
Now, how to strengthen the walls? So here is an example where you can see a steel plate
attached, so retrofitting by steel sections, coupled steel plate shear walls. So you have shear steel
plate on this side and on the other side of the wall also and then that is bonded well to the
existing wall. So that is one way of enhancing.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:34)

The other way is providing additional reinforcement and reinforced concrete that is concrete
jacketing. So the problem with this is the thickness of the wall will significantly increase as
compared to the steel plate system. An additional steel reinforcement is used to increase the
strength and ductility, which is also case with the other one, but then foundation need to be
strengthened to carry the additional load. If more weight is going to come, we have to also think

826
about, both in this case and the previous case, the when the more dead load you put onto the
structure, you have to ensure that the that load is also taken into consideration and we have to
check whether the foundation is were design sufficiently for that or not.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:24)

Now concrete shear walls provide necessary support at beam column joints. See nowadays there
are lot of structures where ground floor is typically taken as parking lots or something and what
we are having is stilt wall construction, one floor essentially is very weak. So in such cases, those
structures might be very vulnerable to failure during the earthquakes and one way to enhance
their resistance is by filling the space between the beams and columns by additional wall
elements.

So this gray region in this drawing here is essentially resisting, for example if this column on the
right side is trying to move to the left then the wall will actually resist that. Similarly if the
column on the left side is trying to move to the right then the wall will actually resist that
movement. So it is very good approach to enhance the earthquake resistance of many of our
buildings. Especially the parking lots if you have ground floor parking lot think about this
problem and then see if some of the space between the concrete columns can be filled with walls
so that even if there is an earthquake your structure can be safe, and you can be safe.
(Refer Slide Time: 42:05)

827
Now other examples, this is a school building where you can see here the mesh is provided, you
can see the mesh structure there, the performance of the wall can be enhanced by providing a
mesh and which can be affixed to the existing wall by using any sort of nailing system or some
sort of anchoring. In this example they used steel rebars, very small steel rebar with a washer
type steel plate or a doughnut shaped and then provide the anchor with grout you place around
the washer so that it functions like a big nail. So you can see that this functions like a big nail and
then it keeps that mesh on to the concrete the surface. And this is also possible when you talk
about fiberglass mesh or steel mesh. So, different type of material usage.
(Refer Slide Time: 43:07)

828
Now other example is or other procedure by which you can strengthen wall element is by using
shotcrete, very widely used for retaining walls. Thought of showing that as an example here, we
already discussed the shotcrete in other lectures. And here there is an elevator shaft before and
after, you can see this is all region is nicely done with the shotcrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 43:36)

So there are different techniques where essentially it is increasing the thickness and here in this
case new concrete wall cast next to the existing one. So this is the existing one and this is the
new concrete wall and then you can see reinforcement here and then additional reinforcement of
course other details are not shown here but this is something very practical and especially these
are very widely adopted for retaining wall structures. Because on the right side you have earth or
soil and that is rusting against this wall applying a pressure like this towards the left and then you
have to provide something to resist that movement.
(Refer Slide Time: 44:23)

829
So this again another example where already some deformation has happened, how do we take
care of such scenario? Already the element on the vertical element is just bent like this. So you
now you look very closely, the height of the three I sections are same, but what they have done
is, the gap between the bend concrete element and the I section is filled with different thickness
materials so that there is again a direct load transfer possible. Now the after the installation of
this, the load is directly taken by the steel frame anchor directly to the slab. So this steel frame
will take the entire load right now and then transfer it to the other elements.
(Refer Slide Time: 45:19)

To summarize, we looked at different type of failures in column, mainly compression, buckling

and shear type failure and then we also looked at how to strengthen the columns and how to

830
strengthen the wall elements. We looked at different ways, we also talked about different modes
of failure involves with elements and how to fix them also.
(Refer Slide Time: 45:54)

These are the references which we used. Thank you.

831
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology – Madras

Lecture - 29
Structural Strengthening & Stabilization – 4 (Joints and Connections)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:25)

Hi, welcome to this lecture on joints and connection which is part of the module on structural
strengthening and stabilization. So here we will look at basically the purpose and the issues faced
and the remedies or rather good practices of various types of joints. So, when I say joints here, we
are going to look at control and contraction joints and then construction joints and then also
expansion joints. And then finally we will also look at the connection between the girders and
columns and what are the various durability related issues associated with them or bearing
pedestals and how we can repair them very briefly we will cover that.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:02)

832
Now concrete we all know can crack and fracture and why it is happening because concrete can
shrink or creep and here, I am not talking about the structural load-related issues but rather the
material properties where mainly shrinkage and creep plays a major role especially in the long
term and so concrete can expand and contract due to thermal variations also. Now such movements
can lead to fracture of the concrete if the concrete is restrained by the embedded reinforcement or
other elements in contact.

So for example very simple thing if you look at the pictures below you can see the one at the top
has more reinforcement ratio than the one at the bottom and in such a scenario, we can expect that
the one with the more reinforcement will have less cracking or to be precise maybe less crack
width. But the crack width and crack density also depend on other factors, so I am not getting into
more detail of those.

So these the red arrows here that you could spend these red arrows here indicate the direction in
which concrete shrink the one on the left side shrinks towards the left and the one on the right side
so that lead to the crack formation.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:33)

833
Now, what is the purpose of joints in concrete members mainly the idea is to prevent movement
and or transfer loads. To prevent movements and or transfer the loads at the same time when we
do this we also try to avoid cracking and curling and warping. But also, there are types of joints
that we provide not to avoid cracking but to control cracking. So those types of joints are called
contraction or control joints and then we have two more types of joints that have construction
joints and the expansion joints.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:19)

Now joints in concrete members so these be three types of joints control joints, contraction joints
that can be combined, and then remember they are not to avoid cracking but to control the crack
location. So, wherever we provide those joints we force the crack to happen right below that joint.

834
In the case of the second case of construction joint they are not for releasing stress there are for
designed for load transferred actually through those joints the load can get transferred and there
are also some types of construction joint where we do not expect the load to be transferred across
the joint.

So, we will cover these things more detail later this slide just gives you a bit a summary of this.
And the main purpose of the expansion joint is to relieve stress and it does that by separating the
elements on either side of the joint and sometimes we also provide the expansion joint to prevent
the generation of the stress. Especially when we talk about thermal-induced stresses.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:31)

Now there are three ways of making control or construction so now we are getting into the first
type of joint which is the control or contraction joints. Three ways by which we can do this is tool
joint which is provided on the picture on the bottom left the first image which is this the tool joint
and then the saw-cut which is this and then the zip strip which is the third one over here.

So you can see there are three types of contraction joints or the ways by which contraction joint
can be formed but the purpose of all the three are same the idea is they reduce the cross-section of
the available cross-section across that vertical plane which when the load comes will induce more
stress right at that section and that section will lead to the cracking or it will crack before the
remaining portion of the concrete.

835
So this is the whole idea, the whole idea of providing the joint is to reduce the cross-section which
will eventually lead to an increase in the local stress and which will force that concrete right there
to crack before the other parts of the concrete can crack. So that way we control the location at
which the concrete cracks.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:57)

So, these are the examples of good contraction or control joints slabs on the grade you can see
three different ones. This one at the bottom left looks very good because it was made by a nice
tool which has that particular shape and not just a trowel but a trowel with a particular shape with
V groove in that and this type of joints can be provided or any slabs on grade kind of systems
industrial floors pavements and the most important thing here are the providing adequate depth
and spacing.

As I showed a picture in the previous slide so this is where on the right-hand side sketches you can
see that where we are providing induced cracking and the depth one-fourth of the total depth of
the element that is how it looks like this one here that is a typical or typical depth to which you
have to cut. So that you can induce the crack right below that. The picture at the bottom also shows
how the crack.

836
Once you cut the saw provide the saw-cut that portion should be filled with some material typically
an elastomeric material or a hard plastic also is provided. But the idea here is it should not be a
space for the soil to collect. So, it might not look good also, so you have to have that crack as it is.
(Refer Slide Time: 07:40)

So, this is an example of a couple of examples showing inadequate provisions of these Saw-cuts.
What you can see on the three photographs on the top is that the crack like for example here the
crack follows here and then it just continues to propagate in this direction. So, when why that is
happening because it is inadequate and the shrinkage on the other part of the concrete is probably
more.

And then if we have, we were providing joint probably here, here like this then probably it could
not have this crack would not have happened rather than crack would have occurred right below
the new Saw-cut. Similarly, here also you in the second photograph also you can see that the crack
the spacing of the Saw-cut is inadequate so when and the third photograph also very clearly shows.

So here if this the Saw-cut was properly provided something like this we can see something like
this then you might not have had this much of cracking or the crack would be right below, and the
structure will still look without like a look like a crack-free structure.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:07)

837
now let us talk about construction joints these are the joints that are formed by concretes which
are cast separately what it means is. In the previous one when we talked about control or
contraction join both the concrete on the left and right side of or either side of the crack of the joint
was the same concrete cast at the same time. But here the concrete which is cast the one on the left
side like this concrete is cast at a different time than this concrete.

So, the two are separate concretes the same design and all that but it has just cast at different times.
So, you have a very clear joint between so in other words when this is done it is mainly to help the
construction practices. So, to make it easy for constructing sometimes it is not very easy for casting
monolithic slabs, etc. So, we go for smaller elements like in precast concrete and so that is major
applications of all this and wherever you cannot really cast large sections in one go there we go
for this type of construction joints.

So, the first one is a butt type joint where the vertical movements are allowed which also sometimes
leads to problems like differential settlements, etc., which is indicated by those red arrows on the
first sketch. The second one is a joint with a shear key, I am talking here, the joint with a shear key
where it is like a tongue-and-groove type joint and I will show photographs later. So, in this type
of joint neither horizontal nor vertical movements are allowed. Very limited movement.

838
But it is theoretically it is not really allowed they are supposed to stay together and prevent it from
moving horizontally and vertically. And then C joint the construction joint with bonded rebars the
one at the third also sometimes known as tie bars not that these bars are not extending like here.
These bars are not extending they are only about maybe one to two feet across the joint. So, it is
not like a continuous bar which goes through the entire under the structural element, but it is just
at the joint like a dowel bar but not a dowel bar actually. So, no horizontal and vertical movements
are allowed in this case also.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:49)

So, we will see one by one. This is the first one Butt-type construction joint basically stabilizes
how to most of the time we have this problem when these types of joints exit, I already told there
may be settlement-related issues. So, you can see the picture on the top left which very you can
see a settlement right here and such problems can be avoided by drilling a hole on the like this
here.

Drilling a hole here, you can see a drill a hole here and then grouts that subgrade below that slab
and then so that that will lift up the slab and then make it look at uniform surface. So, you can see
that bottom left picture there is not much settlement it is done by grouting.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:47)

839
So, this is how it is done a sketch showing that the first image. it is the elevation of this butt-type
joint system or like a driveway imagine loose inadequate subgrade is shown and because of that
the slabs are settling, or differential settlement and it is an uneven surface. So drilled a hole through
the slab. On the second, the plan image if you look at the plan drawing you can see there are five
holes drilled or three on the Left slab and the two on the right slab.

It is just an indicating I am not saying how one should be 3 and one should be 5 or anything that
is just that you have to drill holes on either side and the spacing of the hole from the edge. So, this
is about 1 to 1.5 feet and whereas in the other direction, the spacing can be in the range of about 5
to 6 feet. So, the idea here is once you drill this hole you pump the grout the green color grout you
can see the green color indicates the grout.

You pump the grout into the space below the slab and then allow the grout to stiffen and then make
the ground stronger and it also helps to lift the slab upward and you get a flat surface or a horizontal
surface as it is desired. So, this is the whole idea behind this grouting the subgrade and then
stabilizing or repair practice like this.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:25)

840
So, these are some examples showing how this is done it is not only theory in practice it is widely
used, and we can use it in many places. You can see the picture on the left you can see lifting
practice going on here and here also you can see the person is drilling a hole and then pumping the
grout into the slab or the space below the slab and also not only the driveways there are also such
kind of projects are done on typically on the approach road slabs etc. or bridges or anywhere where
you have concrete slabs. These are done mainly on rigid pavement systems or wherever concrete
slabs and you might have seen somewhere we have problems on one slab settling more than the
others. So, if you want to level it this is a very good practice to adopt. Grouting the subgrade and
polymer type grouts are used of different types of grouts.

And so that you can lift and really penetrate into the soil material below and stiffen the soil material
and then make sure that until the surface of the concrete of both the slabs are even and that will
also make the rider comfort that will increase the rider comfort.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:52)

841
Again, examples of construction joint with the shear keys. This is the second type of construction
join where we discussed this kind of shear key in couple of slides earlier where they are mainly
used in segmental bridges slab on grade and also on tunnel linings. So, you can see here on the
picture where you have segmental bridge you have shear keys like this is to avoid the vertical
movement of these segments.

So, you can see here also lot of the shear keys. I have seen many places where these shear keys
also are broken before the installation during the transport etc. And that is something which is very
important, and the people do not some I mean sometimes they do not give much care to these shear
keys. Because I have seen places where segments being erected without repairing the shear keys.

Let us say it is just, but it is not like that you have to have all the shear keys should be taken with
care they should not be damaged. Because if it is damaged then the purpose of the design is lost
and that is again when we talk about how to prevent its the concrete should be good enough to
resist the impact load or the shear resistance of the shear key region should be good enough high
enough so that they do not really fail.

So that is again designers’ job to ensure that the good resistance is there. This is the second picture
on the right side if you can see again a positive tooth here and let me show this one you can see
the negative side of it. So the right side shows the tongue and the other side shows the groove so

842
it is a tongue groove system so that these slabs can be used for this is typical precast elements for
roof elements or high-rise buildings. These kinds of elements can be used the one on the bottom it
is showing basically you can see here this is lining for tunnel segments you can see the slight step
on this and that kind of indicates the tongue groove system and the other side it will be negative
so it matched cast very nicely. So, these are some typical examples of construction joints.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:28)

The second type of construction joins with the tongue groove system. Now examples of
construction joints with bonded rebars or tie bars so this is the tie bar I was talking about earlier
and it does not extend beyond a particular length typically one to two feet on either side of the
joint. Now they do not allow either vertical or horizontal movement. Because the vertical
movement is resisted by the shear resistance offered by the rebar and horizontal movement is
resisted because of the ribs on the rebar.

So, they just do not allow any movement and this is a good technique which where you have
difficulties in casting large areas and then you still want the same surface level to continue. So in
such cases, these types of joints are widely used you can see the image here where this surface
here is cast on one day and then after these bars are provided then the remaining part the bars will
be embedded in the other concrete which is going to come.

843
Then they provide good resistance again both vertical and horizontal movement. One very
important thing when we talk about this kind of joints is the concrete on either side even though
they are cast at different times they should be very well bonded otherwise what will happen is the
small gap or the cold joint which is formed between the two concretes will function like a fine
crack in the system and the reinforcement at the crack at the joint will be exposed to moisture and
then lead to localized corrosion.

So, to prevent such problems we have to ensure that these type of joins when we go for, we should
make sure that adequate bonding between the two concretes are there and one thing which we can
do is use bonding agents. So before placing the second concrete, you apply them in a bonding
agent on these surfaces this surfaces here you have to apply the good bonding agent. And so, all
these concrete surfaces which you see apply good bonding agent and then that will ensure that the
concrete and apply sufficient quantity.

So that it does not lead to any sort of moisture leakage throughout this especially this region you
have to really make sure that the water-resistance of the joint is very high. Otherwise, you will end
up having localized corrosion and once localized corrosion is there then these bars will not play
their role of shear resistance. They will be very weak in shear at that section. So that is something
very important to note down when we talk about this kind of joints.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:35)

844
Now in this kind of joints, I just put this picture to show that there could be unparalleled rebars
you can see that these bars are not really placed in a parallel fashion. But in this case, because they
are really designed only for vertical shear transfer and it is not expected that these bars will be an
expansion joint type strength is movement in the horizontal direction so this could be in this case.

However, such the joints are NOT in such unparalleled dowel bars are NOT in the case of
expansion for this kind of construction joint it is, but not for expansion joint.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:23)

Now expand now let us talk about those expansion joints. There are three major types of expansion
joints which I am going to discuss in this lecture. The first one is with the expansion joint with
shear dowels and before getting into that there we already talked. They are mainly used to prevent
or relieve stress by separating the elements . So there will be some space in between the elements
which will allow space means either it could be an air space, or it could be a space which is filled
with an elastomeric material or which does not develop much stress when there is a significant
strain.

So, we will see how that is done one by one so the first one is an expansion joint with shear dowels
where it allows the horizontal movement but not the vertical movement it is not designed for
vertical movement. So horizontal movement is allowed like this you can see here that is allowed

845
and expansion joint in the second one it allows again both horizontal and vertical movement in
this case here.

And then expansion joint in the third case where it allows only horizontal movement and not the
vertical moment. So we will cover these three and in the second case, I must mention this even
though when you talk about the second case the vertical movement is allowed but there are other
systems which are put in place to prevent those kinds of vertical movements by other support
systems which I am not going to talk here I am going to focus only on the joint area how they look
and all that.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:14)

So, let us talk about this dowel bars or the expansion joint with shear dowels.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:24)

846
The picture on the top left you can see a wheel load moving towards the right and then is an
approach slab and a leaving slab and where you can very clearly see a settlement over here. Now
you can think about that we when hits the leave slab you will hear it is a discomfort to the rider
and it might also damage the wheels in the long run maybe. But this is not something which is
come which is good or comfortable for the rider. Imagine the case of a concrete highway if every
slab you have this problem you hear this sound tuk tuk tuk tuk sound every slab and that is not
something which is comfortable. So, you have to have a smooth transfer from one slab to the other.
So that is shown in the second picture here which can be possible by providing dowel bar 100%
load transfer from one side to the other and also you have a smooth movement of the wheel from
one side to the other.

Now main thing about this dowel bar is it must be free to slide inside the concrete free to slide and
it allows the two slabs to move horizontally and independently. It is very important it move allows
the horizontal movement and also the independent movement of these two slabs. So, because of
this, it does not allow the stress to be developed so it does not; so, there is sufficient movement
possible. So, the two slabs do not come and hit each other, and it prevents that stress generation.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:07)

847
now typical dowel shear device looks something like this. This is the same picture which is shown
on slide one also. So, you can see it is not just providing rebar at the intersection it is you have to
have a smooth rebar which provides the easy sliding we call it dowel and then parallel placement
is very important. If you have multiple dowel bars you have to provide them parallelly otherwise
they will not function as a single system.

And it will the alignment of one will have an influence on the movement of the other . So, we will
cover these details in detail later, but these are the 4 major things which we have to think about.
Of course, it should have corrosion protection and also a ribbed bonded sleeve. So, the sleeve is
very important may need to protect but why I put this as a fourth point is the ribs on the sleeve is
also very important.

It is not just providing a sleeve but because then the sleeve itself might slide in the long run. So,
this you have to keep the sleeve in the same position in relative to the slab on the left side so it
should not move. So only the steel dowel should move inside so that yellow region here it indicates
the grease and the red one is the ribbed sleeve and then the blue is the extension cap and then the
green is the foam which is placed inside. So that the dowel can still move to the left without
creating any stress and we do not want airspace there something some material should be there so
that it is always better in the long. Because if you put air then the grease might flow from one side

848
and they will go and settle in that space, so you do not want any air space inside this that is the key
thing.
(Refer Slide Time: 28:05)

Now dowel shear device layout how this is laid out typically as shown on the shown earlier also
the first drawing over here this indicates how that local settlement and how to fix the plan of the
slab is shown here how to fix. So, this is the top view of the dowel systems you can see all those
six horizontal darker regions indicate the dowel shear device or the dowel bars. And then how if
you look in an elevation of the system how it will look.

This horizontal thing here is a dowel bar this one is the dowel bar and then that is then covered by
a grout fill. So, this is a grout fill you can see grout fill and then existing concrete is this thing I am
going to show you for a sketch a photograph of a practical application after that it will be very
clear.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:09)

849
How it is so you can see here these dowel bars slots are provided where depending on where the
wheel path or where maximum shear assistance is required. So you provide this dowel bar there
and then the second picture shows how the dowel bars are placed and then so you can see this blue
thing here that is also to show that the center of the dowel bar. So that it is not misaligned and then
finally that whole slot is filled with grout and then leveled and then that is the final structure.

You can see that a nice repair work being done here, and slots are filled with grout and after
diamond grinding to ensure that there is no unevenness right where the slots are. So, let me go
back to the other picture. So, if you can look at this again you will know very clearly how the
system is . So, the concrete slot is actually filled with the grout this portion is filled with the grout
after placing the dowel bar.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:18)

850
Now there are different types of dowel bars available the two of them rebar dowels and square
dowels I will show two more in the next slide. But let us look at these two first. Rebar dowels are
the most widely used one you can see the ribs over here as I discussed earlier, and this is the cap
which is provided and then this is the rebar dowel how it will look and so that green color bar
which you see there I mean it looks it is an epoxy coated dowel bar which there are problems with
such type of bars I am going to discuss that later.

But as for a representation purpose I just showed this epoxy coated dowel system here so this
should be covered with a plastic sleeve which will have a longer life and a cap and maybe you can
put grease also inside and then the right one shows a square dowel you look at the shape of this it
is a square not a circular one so essentially it is a highly shear resistant material which is steel
provided here in different shapes, different cross-sectional shapes and here also this portion has
grease inside. So, they really help in providing that shear resistance and at the same time allowing
the horizontal movement.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:51)

851
Now, these are two other type plate dowels where it also comes in general in diamond and square
shape. So it is up to the engineer’s choice what is the best for each particular project but most of
them work in a similar way it depends on how much spacing etc. you need to have or how much
movement you need to allow things like that. So here also in this dowel the plastic sleeve or in a
plastic sheeting or covering you have and that if you provide enough grease inside that will provide
enough flexibility or movement to the system.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:26)

Now let us look at the some of the misalignment we are going to focus more on this rebar or the
circular type dowel sphere systems in this lecture. The other three like the square and the plate
dowels I just showed as an example to tell you that there are systems like that also available in the

852
market. So, dowel misalignment you can see here there are five different types of misalignment
possible and they will have impact on the poor performance.

So first is horizontal translation you can see this unfilled rectangular region indicates the expected
or the original location or where it is supposed to be, and the gray color region is where the dowel
is actually placed. So in all the pictures it is like that all the diagrams so you can see here there is
a horizontal misalignment and in the second case there is a longitudinal or in other words along
the direction of the dowel itself.

In other words, on one side the thick horizontal black line indicates the joint so this dowel on one
side you have less reinforcement than the other side than this side. So on the above the on one side
you have more reinforcement than on the other side which is also not a good idea so you have to
provide equal length of the rebar on to both sides of the joint and then here is the horizontal skew
where it is kind of dowel is moving in that tilted I would not say tilt but horizontally it is not in the
perpendicular direction to the joint.

So, these are all creating problems for the easy movement of in the direction of the dowel bar.
Now vertical translation so this the bottom two sketches drawings are showing the elevation of the
joint you can see this is joint now this is the joint and here also this is the joint you are talking.
Now you can see here in the bottom left one you have vertical translation the dowel is actually
placed slightly above than where it needs to be and the last the fifth image fifth diagram you can
see that the dowel is in an inclined position.

So all these misalignments can lead to additional stresses when there is a movement of the concrete
and it does not allow the dowel bars to move freely or slide freely inside the concrete that was the
first requirement for a good dowel design dowel shear device. It should be allowed to freely slide
inside the concrete.

So this misalignment if it is there it may lead to especially the horizontal skew and the vertical tilt
they will lead to additional stresses and it might form something like this also you can see here
especially on the left side you can see that these are mainly caused because of the vertical tilt and

853
while there is a movement they try to push the concrete and then damage the concrete surface. So,
this is not something which is always acceptable.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:08)

So, we have to see how to ensure that this is not happening. So parallel alignment of dowel bars
are very much essential it can be done either in a manual way like it is shown in the left picture
photograph or on the or use a dowel basket which is kind of an automatic system where you place
the dowels and it ensures that all the dowels are placed in a parallel way like you see on the picture
of photograph on the right side.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:37)

854
So this is a picture showing how badly a dowel bar can corrode you can see here severe corrosion
and even this bar is also started corroding this is actually an epoxy coated system with a cap etc.
to prevent the damage on the corner but it did not really work out very well detailed study showed
that these kind of bars can also corrode because even though it is epoxy coated we are using this
for this is a system where the epoxy the coating surface is rubbed against the concrete on a regular
basis.

As there is an expansion or contraction the concrete surface actually rub a is rubbing the epoxy
coating and eventually because the epoxy coating may not be highly abrasive the system it will
crack or the damage and then after that then the moisture will get in and then it will start the crevice
corrosion and then or under film corrosion and that corrosion is much worse and you will expect
localized corrosion.

So, this is not something which is recommended even though you will see in many places epoxy-
coated dowel bars are used. I would request not to use such bars because even if at the time of
placement even if they are very good coating. Because the design itself has this shear in parallel
to the surface of the coating or there is a significant abrasion happening during the life of the
structure there is a high tendency to crack this epoxy which will lead to corrosion in not very long
period of time very short period you can expect this corrosion to happen.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:33)

855
So what is the impact of that corrosion I have shown the same picture on this again on the left side
because corrosion leads to expansive stresses the corrosion products have a larger volume six to
eight times more volume than the steel then they expand significantly and because of that
expansion the entire joint gets locked. So, the whole purpose of sliding of the dowel bars does not
happen anymore.

The bars are now locked because of the rust formation around the bar and the space whichever is
provided is filled with the rust and it cannot move anymore. Now what happens because the lock
joint is locked right now the new cracks will form as you see on the second picture so you can see
here the new cracks are formed here . So, these new cracks are formed and right where the dowel
bars end.

So if you look at the spacing here let me just erase this yeah if you look at the spacing here from
here to here it is the length of the dowel bar on one side or half the length of the dowel bar so
exactly along that the ends of the dowel bar you can see the crack forming like right here . Now
that is because all the dowels are locked now what happens is after these cracks are formed there
may be a reduction in temperature or some shrinkage it can happen.

At that time what will happen is it will crack a widen that crack it will widen this crack this crack
will get widened let me erase this so that you can see it. So, the crack will get widened and the
third picture is also showing widened crack. The third photograph here you can see the crack is
really widened I know it is a new crack which is formed is actually widened.

So, this is not something which we always want so and then eventually once that happens there is
no more shear resistance for that location and then it will start deflecting and settlement and all
that will happen.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:14)

856
So what is the way out is either provide a steel dowel bar which is having a corrosion resistant
steel and at the same time provide a durable plastic system which will have a ribs also to make
sure that the plastic is staying the sleeve is staying in one place in relative to the concrete on the
left side and provides some grease inside and a form inside at the end of the sleeve to provide a
proper cap which is the green color and the blue color over there on the photograph in the sketch
and then other way of doing is stainless steel dowels.

Before going further, I would also like to say that this portion should also be with some elastomeric
material so that it if it is provided it will prevent the entry of other soil or water etc., to this to that
intersection. So, this is very important to protect that intersection then also other ways are stainless
steel dowels and nowadays we are also getting FRP dowels which are claiming to be corrosion
resistant. Yes, metallic corrosion is not there because it is not a metal but at the same time you
have to look at chemical deterioration of this FRP dowels .

So are they really resistant against the highly alkaline and moist environment which is present at
the joints and what is the life of these dowels for that lifetime expected lifetime will this FRP stay
in that is another big question and that must be checked before we straight away moving from steel
dowels to FRP dowels. So, this must be put in the tender specifications etc., then only you will be
able to really get that good quality product at the end .

857
Now let us summarize what are the key mechanical and durability features of good dowel shear
devices. The dowel bar itself should have a smooth surface so that it can slide easily they should
be placed in a parallel fashion otherwise if there are misalignments it is not going to function, and
it will lead to mechanical damage or stress generation and local stress generation or prevent the
sliding etc.

And then corrosion protection system you can use a corrosion resistant dowel material and at the
same time use a good quality sleeve system or a corrosion protection system. Now what are those
good qualities there should have a rifts which keeps them in place or provide good grip with the
concrete the adjacent concrete and it is not to provide grip for the dowel but to provide grip for the
sleeve .

Now enable the placement of the grease when you in place this is for a repair system. So there
should be you should be able to do the placement of the grease and then cap to seal the grease and
then good quality plastic for long-term performance and I would like to add this also this entire
region should be grouted and if it if you are talking about a new construction then this region
should also be perfectly protected from entry of moisture.
(Refer Slide Time: 44:57)

858
Now let us go into the second type of expansion join which is mainly free space we are not free
necessarily a space between two concrete elements where it allows the expansion and prevent both
horizontal and so allows both horizontal and vertical movements .
(Refer Slide Time: 45:21)

So typically, this is how an expansion joint. I am going to focus more on a bridge structure in this
section because that is where this is creating a big problem. So, I am going to show you a few
slides with inadequate expansion joint systems. The first one here on the left side you can see a
photograph where the blow of the photograph where the expansion joint itself is filled with debris
like a soil or even the aggregate fine aggregate particles or the between particles from the road
surface itself is coming and settling inside this expansion joint or the bridge surface is settling
inside the expansion joint and the joint which is an unsealed joint and an open end.

So you can see that now actually speaking the when there is an expansion this material the debris
inside the joint is not going to allow that expansion to happen and it will build the stress and
eventually you can have scenarios like this significant blow up , so this is possible if you do not
clean the expansion joint or keep it free of debris it is very important.
(Refer Slide Time: 46:34)

859
This is also something similar happened you can see the girders also blowing up because of it so
now you can imagine how much is that stress developed because of the thermal expansion so you
have to provide sufficient space, or provisions for the concrete elements to expand without creating
stress . So inadequate to overlay design is also another example sometimes I have seen places
where the overlay is continuous without really having a joint. So that is not really a good practice
you if you are saying an expansion joint it should look like an expansion joint.
(Refer Slide Time: 47:21)

Now inadequate expansion joints damage at the expansion joint on a bridge approach road system
you can see here where you have significant cracked concrete at the expansion joint. Here because
yes, a strength is very important but at the same time toughness of the concrete is also equally

860
important if you want to prevent cracking of that concrete and also you can see unwanted soil, or
inside the expansion joint.

So basically, this whole joint area is completely filled with soil which or sand which is going to
prevent the expansion and then it is going to induce stress on the elements. So that is not something
which we want to happen.
(Refer Slide Time: 48:14)

Yeah now I am going to show you other example of corrosion of expansion joints materials.
Because in this particular case this is actually a photograph taken during the repair work or just
before the repair work during an inspection we can see soil was filled in these joints and what
happened is once the joint is filled with soil or debris during the rainy season or somehow if water
gets in there that water will not drain out. It will stay there for long period of time which will then
lead to corrosion of the metallic materials or the join system itself. So, which is not advisable to
happen so what are the things which we have to do is. Make sure that these foreign materials or
the soil whether it is soil or bituminous material from the overlay whatever that material we should
not allow them to enter the expansion joint. If we allow them, make sure that there is a routine
cleaning process and provide adequate drainage.

So that there is no water stagnation in that expansion joint. So this is very important now if there
are expansion joints with open joints what we should probably do is, do something so that we

861
provide a sealant or some system so that either we prevent the soil or this material debris to enter
that place that can be done by providing a sealant or make sure that we have a routine cleaning
processes in practice.

That is probably the first one is more efficient and easier to practice because of the manpower
shortage. The first one is probably more easy to practice rather than having somebody routinely
keep on cleaning and then you need another person to check whether it is happening all that in a
managerial perspective it may not be a good idea. So, it is better to see provide a sealant so that
you can prevent this problem elastomeric sealant so that you can prevent this problem.
(Refer Slide Time: 50:25)

Now this is an example where when water stagnation this is an expansion joint you can see here;
I will talk more about this type of joints later. But this photograph very I found it useful to show
how the presence of water can lead to corrosion of the rebars. You can see right where that
expansion joint at that rebars at those locations are corroding heavily this is not something which
is good. So, this need to be addressed or we have to make sure that the water is drained off
completely.
(Refer Slide Time: 50:57)

862
These are examples showing some mechanical damage because of improper designs etc. You can
see complete misalignment of the different elements of the joints in each of these photographs and
degradation and also here in the top right one this is an example where the overlay is kept
continuous. So definitely it is going to crack like this in a non-uniform manner which is not
supposed to be like that it. If there is a joint, it should be kept as a clean joint with some well-
designed material in place not just filling up with the overlay material.
(Refer Slide Time: 51:39)

So, to summarize what are the different problems which the expansion joints face. One is an
inadequate width in some times which will lead to blow-up and other is the airspace of joints
getting filled with soil or debris or aggregate materials from the fine material from the overlay etc.,

863
getting into the airspace and then the repeated loading conditions and cracking of the concrete.
Because you might have fatigue and impact type of loading for which the toughness of the concrete
or the material in that region should be high not only the strength.

Then the stagnant water and corrosion of metallic joints and so the water in the expansion joint if
it stays there then that will give sufficient moisture for the metallic elements to corrode and so
inadequate drainage system. Then water stagnates at the top surface of the bends or girder these
are the elements which are below the expansion joint and that can also corrode. So, you have to
make sure that the water is drained out completely from the bridge or the structure you are talking
about and also some of the mechanical damages.
(Refer Slide Time: 52:57)

So, let us see some good construction practices and repair so depending on the case I am showing
here the technologies available. So as an engineer you can decide whether it is for new construction
or for a repair so all these can be also adopted for repairing the existing system, so I did not want
to really create separate things for that. So, I am just showing all the good construction practices.

Now first thing is filling the elastomeric material so strips as I showed earlier also there are open
expansion joints those can be filled with the elastomeric materials which will allow the concrete
to expand at the same time not allow them to generate stress or preventing the stress generation.

864
So very clearly, I want to say that you do not want an expansion joint with air and open if you are
talking about an outdoor expansion joint you do not want air to be in the joint.

You want to fill that space with some other material which can expand and contract without really
generating stress. So elastomeric materials are the choice here and what it does it prevents the soil
or debris from entering the joints or gaps and at the same time it provides sufficient compressibility
without generating stress on the concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 54:25)

now other option is if you are talking about slightly wider gaps then you can provide strip seal
joint systems these are a little advanced joint systems is to play exclusively designed for this and
it provides good drainage of water I am going to show more photograph and sketches in the coming
slides you can see advanced systems here.
(Refer Slide Time: 54:50)

865
And this is how it looks so you can see here this this portion here. this is the portion which allows
that expansion to happen at the same time contraction if they have expansion contraction to happen.
But at the same time this portion here allows the drainage to happen so the water can drain
horizontally and the transverse direction or along the joint it will drain and then it can be taken out
of the bridge structure without allowing the water to fall onto the bends or columns below. this is
very important, so very good designs provide good drainage system and especially useful for wide
gaps when there is a requirement mainly for long span joints.
(Refer Slide Time: 55:45)

So, these are some of the sketches showing typical designs like that you can see one on the left
side. It allows significant compression and expansion so when you have a long span structures

866
these things become very useful to provide that large expansion or the gaps or width and here it is
a moderate system where you can again enough space for water to drain. Here also water can drain
easily, and it can take to the end of the joint.
(Refer Slide Time: 56:25)

Now this is again another type of joint which are also known as finger plates where you will see a
lot of interlocking metals look like again a teeth system interlocking metal teeth. So, this is also
used when you are talking about large gaps or wider gaps.
(Refer Slide Time: 56:46)

You can see these are the real examples. So, you can see here when you have wider gaps this kind
of systems are very useful. Different sizes it comes in different sizes the length of the teeth will

867
depend on how much expansion you need to allow. At the same time why this heavy-duty steel
because you want to ensure that there is no vertical movement. So, there should be a smooth
transition the traffic should move easily without any vertical movement. So, these steel pieces
provide that good support for the traffic the vertical support at the same time allowing the concrete
to expand and expand as and when required.
(Refer Slide Time: 57:35)

This is another good practice make sure that the expansion joint is extended by crossing the
sidewalks and railings . You can see here it goes all the way to the end of the bridge or in other
words all the way to the edge of the bridge not the end of the grid but edge of the bridge and this
is a view from outside you can see here this joint is taking the water all the way to outside. It does
not allow that water to fall on the girders bends and columns below.
(Refer Slide Time: 58:10)

868
So then again, another example where you can see there is river below or a water body. So this
expansion joint it carries all the water and then it is taken out and it is not allowing that water to
fall on the girders, vents and columns below which is essentially making the bridge watertight or
watertight bridge expansion joints. So, this is something which we have to really look for because
if you look at the bridges most often the failure happens at the durability related issues happen at
the expansion joints and we have to protect those systems.
(Refer Slide Time: 58:46)

Now another type of joint is the expansion joint is the bottom one which allows horizontal
movement but not the vertical movements.
(Refer Slide Time: 58:58)

869
So, I am going to show example first the principle here the idea here is to allow this to create new
expansion joint at the point of zero moment . So that across the joint there is no real requirement
for moment transfer but there is a requirement for shear transfer. So, if you look at very carefully
you can see how it is done, this step design. So, it prevents the vertical movement but at the same
time allows the horizontal expansion of the system on the left and right.
(Refer Slide Time: 59:34)

So some examples you can see here as a repair thing if already constructed you have to make this
huge cut and large source are actually used in many places where designer might not have thought
about this expansion or due to some problems in the construction material inadequate properties it
is actually expanding and creating more stress. Then the one way of fixing that problem is cutting

870
this making this expansion join and then allow that strain but not the stress generation or in other
words allow the concrete to expand. But provide in a free space so that concrete can expand and
not really generate any horizontal stress. So, this you can see this is the type of joint we are talking
about you can see here also I just showed some pictures so that it is clear for you . Now world over
it is this type of joins are used you can see this step type design, and which is done mainly at the
point where the moment is zero in a typical continuous beam system.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:00:54)

And you can prevent the stress generation however adequate system must be put in place to prevent
corrosion of the reinforced concrete elements below how. I already discussed this, but we have to
provide proper expansion joint on the top surface. So that it prevents soil dust or debris from
entering the gap and at the same time with all the water is drained out adequately and not allowing
to drip like what you see on this picture. So, this is not something which is this should not happen
we do not want that corrosion to happen over there.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:01:31)

871
Now if you are talking about steel bridges steel girders with concrete decks. So, I thought this is
also relevant for this picture because we are talking about concrete bridges even the girders
sometimes might be made of steel. So in such cases what they go for is this similar practice again
cut is made at the theoretical zero moment region and so that the moment transfer required is very
minimal or it gets nullified at this new cut which is made.

And then it transfers all the shear from left to right and now how it is done is like basically make
a clamp on both the elements. The beam is cut and then a clamp is made on either side and so the
left side beam is actually hanging on the right-side element. The red inclined line here it indicates
basically that hanging system this red inclined line indicates the hanging system plate hanger.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:02:37)

872
So this is an example where you can see a plate hanger you can see a rod inside that red rectangle
you can see a rod over vertical rod which is basically hanging the rights which is basically hanging
supporting that system. So, there is a roller also.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:03:02)

And now this picture is a plate hanger system where you can see the right-side element this element
is hanging on the left element . So, this plate is under tension so now the plate is under tension and
then you have two pins on the top and bottom of the paint of the plate. So that is this pin the
corrosion resistance of the pin is very important because this imagine this is the bridge element.

873
So, you will have fatigue type of loading on this. so, corrosion fatigue is very important to consider
in this and then these pins must be cleaned painted or monitored very well whether that is corroding
or not they must be free of corrosion. Because they might fail due to fatigue also so fatigue
corrosion is their key failure mechanism in this. So essentially my point is now the entire bridge
is now hanging on these two pins or each girder is hanging on these two pins. So, their corrosion
protection is very important.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:04:23)

Now let me also talk a bit about the connections we were talking the relieving stresses in girders
by using steel rollers. So, most bridges you will see that there are rollers or sometimes rockers,
etc., to transfer the load from girder to the column and at the same time allowing that horizontal
movement so that there is no stress generation.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:04:50)

874
Now the many places we have seen these systems because we were talking about the significant
localized the loading of this. Because when you provide that rollers it is essentially a local point
load acting on the pedestal so that eventually leads to failures like what you see on the photograph
here. So mainly because reduction in the bearing area it is a local load and our stressing of the top
of the abutment of the pier or the pedestal and leads to stress concentration because of uneven
surfaces etc., and then differential settlement of the supported superstructure.

When there is a movement like this the superstructure is also going to vertically there is a
movement for the superstructure. So that might induce some other problems to the superstructure
also. So before we leads to all such of all sorts of such problems, we should make sure that the
pedestals are strengthened or replaced immediately to avoid further damage to maintain the
structural integrity of the support and the both superstructure and sub structure elements.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:06:04)

875
Now typically what we see is everywhere people use this neoprene packs typically we call it
neoprene packs, they are basically heavy-duty industrial elastomeric bearings with steel
reinforcement inside. Typically plate elements or laminates. So, we can call laminated or steel
reinforced elastomeric bearings that is what is used. Basically, you have multiple steel plates which
are sandwiched between the layers of synthetic or natural rubber and for further details you can
look at this AASHTO LRFD of the bridge construction specification section 14 and 18 talks about
this.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:06:46)

This is our typical design of elastomeric pad looks like. So you have a neoprene pad here with
steel reinforcement and then there is a steel plate stainless steel plate at the top and bottom and

876
then which is supposed to give sufficient resistance against horizontal movement etc. and that is
supposed to take the load.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:07:18)

So, what is the purpose of providing this bearing pads is mainly to provide the flexibility to the
bridge and at the same time it transfers the load from the superstructure to the substrate. So,
flexibility is very important otherwise if everything is very rigid the structures different portions
of the structure will tend to crack. So, you have to relieve the stress somewhere so that is what this
flexibility means here.
So, these bearing pads provide that stress relieving mechanisms . So, they take compression load
they take shear compression plus shear compression plus rotational. Now where are these loads
coming from mainly because of the thermal shrinkage and creep movements of the movements
due to thermal expansion shrinkage creep of concrete and which sometimes take longer time to
showcase the problems.

I am going to show you some photographs of this later very important for long span of bridges and
very important for long life of the bridges not only long span I miss told that I mean it is very
important for the long life of the bridges. Mostly neglected because of low cost but larger repair
and lifecycle cost might be the result. So, these are elements which are low-cost high-risk elements.
So, enough care should be given for the for obtaining or for place in good quality neoprene packs.

877
Why I am emphasizing on this is many places we see that these parts are not given enough
importance and leading to failure premature failure and leading to replacement. I have even heard
cases where neoprene parts are being replaced in a frequency of 2 to 3 years so which is not at all
good practice you should have longer life for this.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:09:21)

Now type of strain which these pads experience you can see on the first picture it is a pure
compression and then in the second one slight bulging you can notice here which is indicating the
shear in that region and so effectively you have deformation like this where both compression and
shear are there. The bottom left you can see shear this one and then bottom right you can see
rotation and shear .

So, these are different type of strains which are experienced by these elastomeric packs and they
need to be resisting these for long period of time. Imagine the number of repeated loadings which
are going to be happening on these bridges, so it is too large. So this prior element should be
because why it is not recommended to replace them many frequent is because it is a huge job to
replace these you have to lift the girder close the traffic lift the girder take the pieces out replace
with a new one.

878
Looks very easy but very tedious procedures and is very costly repair practice itself is very costly.
Even though the element replaced may not be very costly. So, it is better to provide good quality
durable systems .
(Refer Slide Time: 01:10:48)

So, this is an example showing how badly these are done in some structures. So, you can see on
the left side here very classical shearing of that pad towards the left. You can see on the right image
you can see even the see-through I can see through this see here there is a wide gap here. So that
is basically there is no contact in some portions of the pads are just sitting there is no contact to
the girder above.

So, what it means is the portion which is in contact is now heavily overstressed or it is overstressed
so that is something which need to be avoided so there should be uniform loading. Even on the
bottom one also you can see there are some regions which are this portion here which is not in
contact, so these are not, and I just wanted to show you an example of how badly these things are
done in many of the structures.

So this at least when we go for repair, we should do a very good job in repairing them provide a
good quality neoprene pads and at the same time treat that concrete in a better way rather than just
placing micro concrete why I mentioned micro concrete. Nowadays most repair procedures they
just simply say we place the concrete with micro concrete that is not the idea.

879
(Refer Slide Time: 01:12:16)

so blindly replacing the existing concrete top or that concrete element witness micro with high-
strength micro concrete may not be the may not be a good idea because the problem in this concrete
is not about the strength but it is about the resistance against the impact load. Because this girder
they have experience they experience impact loads and because it is a bridge girder, so number of
vehicles passes by and then you have impact and fatigue.

These are the type of loads which we have to look at. So, the toughness of the concrete should be
very high. So, first thing which when we talk about repair of these things is, we have to understand
the type of loads acting and then decide on the repair materials or concrete. Strength alone may
not be the criteria we have to look at toughness also.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:13:11)

880
So here it is very clearly said the type magnitude and the path of the loads through the pedestal
and their failure modes must be understood. You have to consider impact and fatigue loads strength
is important but at the same time toughness of the material is also very important of the concrete
material of the pedestal. What are the strengthening measures if you have already some cracks
visible first thing is to inject the cracks with grout to ensure integrity depending on how much
cracking is there?

If you are trying to retain the element this is the practice and so that once you inject the cracks
with grout you can ensure integrity and uniform load transfer, then you can provide a concrete
jacket or an FRP wrap it. If the damage is too severe then it is better to replace the elements rather
than going for repair.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:14:10)

881
Now to summarize we talked mainly about different types of joints what their purposes are and
what are the deterioration or damage mechanisms and then we also talked about remedies or good
practices we talked about control joints, construction joints, expansion joints and also be in column
connections and bearing pedestals.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:14:36)

And these are the references which we used and also, I provided all the references website links
from which various photographs were collected to make sure that you really understand and also
feel that the theory is actually being practiced. Thank you.

882
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology – Madras

Lecture – 30
Injection Grouts for Concrete Repair

Hi. Today we have Mr. Seshadri who is a Consultant from BASF India Limited and he has been
working; he is a Chemist and has been working in the industry of construction chemicals for last I
think 38 years and one of the major project in which he was talking is he worked on the 3 gorgeous
dam in China for the repair work and deciding on how to inject and seal the crack in dam structure
and so today, we will have detail discussion and also on the practical aspects of selecting injection
grouts and basically on the how to apply and how to choose the materials especially for chemical
injection grouts.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:02)

Thanks Dr. Pillai for the nice introduction and friends, we are going to spend next 30-40 minutes
on basically injection technologies, chemical injections for cracks and basically for concrete repair.
I am Seshadri. What you see in this first slide, they are not planets, but they just are proportionally
sized spheres depicting different types of chemicals. It only says if there is a very narrow crack
then the largest ball that is OPC 50 microns it cannot go in.

883
And same way as a cracks size or a fissure size keep reducing, we need to use different kinds of
material or put the other way around. If you take the finest kind of material it is very effective in
filling all the narrow spheres, pores, capillaries or things like that. That is what the picture depicts.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:12)

And the module, the outline we are going to talk about something about Injection Grouts their
applications. The use of injection system is term to repair concrete. And the broad crack repair
methods, types of different resin grouts, you would have heard of Epoxies, Polyurethanes and so
on. These are broad topic we are going to cover.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:34)

884
Now let us say, let us look at grouting; what grouting is about. Since we are going to talk about
injection grouting, grouting is a key thing. The grouting is a method of filling voids in a structure.
Voids we cannot avoid in any sector, you can have voids that are designed that are accidental, the
designed voids, for example I can say if an got expansion joint you deliberately design a void there
and fill it with some flexible material that is designed voids.

The accidental voids which no engineer likes to have is something like a crack or a honeycomb.
Now how to repair that, that is grouting. And when you fill the voids it should be filled completely,
and it should be filled permanently. And the material that is used to fill a void is called grout and
the process of filling is called grouting. Accessible, see if the voids are accessible and they are
large we use a procedure called Gravity grouting method where we use the force of gravity to fill
the voids.

But if the voids are not accessible whether it is large or small voids, the other methods of grouting
are taken, we apply external pressure to ensure that the voids are completely filled. This is called
pressure grouting. And sometimes you got accessible or inaccessible voids which are very narrow,
something like a very fine crack or a fissure inside some concrete. Then that cannot be done with
pressure grouting, we need to do; actually, it is a pressure grouting, but slightly different equipment
and tools and viscosities are used, and we call it as injection grouting.

That is also filled by application of pressure. I will just give you couple of examples. This picture
what you are seeing here, this is post-tensioned cable that, you know it is an illustration of it. What
you find here these are all for example this is a cable strand and there are several cable strands in
duct and the space between the strands they have to be grouted to protect the strands from getting
corroded. And here the voids are not narrow, but they are small, but it requires pressure to fill it
in, we use a pressure grouting method to fill with cement.

Then we got; you see another example here. This is a rock grouting, rock strata grouting wherein
water is leaking through a tunnel and very fine fissures are there in rock and dip hole have to be
drilled and particular kind of packer has to be introduced and it is grouted. This is another kind of
grouting. So, this is just to give a feel of it.

885
(Refer Slide Time: 05:54)

Now we are going to discuss about injection grouting. What is injection grouting? It is the process
of filling narrow voids whether it is accessible or inaccessible. And this; this is done using very
low viscosity liquid grouts. It sets to harden after some time a gel or a soft foam or a rigid foam or
a hard solid. It depends upon the kind of injection grout we are using. Some resin setting to a gel,
gel means it traps water inside or it sets into a soft foam or a rigid foam depending upon the
application which was a different type of grout.

And usually they are polymers of very low viscosity and by applying external pressure we apply
a very low pressure for example less 2 kg per square centimeter to quite high pressure up to greater
than 20 kg per square centimeter or put it simply less than 2 to even more than 20 bars. Using a
machine or equipment, to develop this kind of pressure we need some special equipment and
machines and it is a very, it is a very simple system is there.

System equipment like a syringe to a very sophisticated complex machine-like high pressure, twin-
line system kind of foams. Injection grouting is employed commonly for several purposes to repair
defects to damage; repair defects or damage in concrete or to densify soil, but or even though fill
fissures in rock strata that is in tunneling work and all that. But what we are focusing here is we
discussing injection grouting to repair concrete. And this an equipment, a Pneumatic Injection
Pump. This is one of the pieces of the equipment I am showing you.

886
(Refer Slide Time: 08:15)

Just I am giving an example of Rock Strata Grouting, strata control. What you see in the picture,
you see several arrow marks green, blue and all that. So different density of foam in this field at
different areas of the rock strata, what happened was in a tunnel project as you see on the right-
hand side the top picture some amount of collapsed place, lot of rock and you know muck and all
that they fell down and then this grouting had to be done to hold the strata together so that no more
such damage occurs.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:00)

Common repair objectives of Injection grouting, you find it is to repair structural crack or to restore
structural integrity and it can be a wet crack; wet means leaking crack water could be leaking out

887
of it or a dry crack. But if it is wet, we also have to stop the leakage that is if water is leaking you
need to stop it. To repair leaking joints or leaking non-structural cracks to stop leakage, this is a
second objective.

See one is structural cracks where the main objective is to restore the structural integrity, but if it
were to be leaking then you have to stop the leakage also. Then we got the other one and structural
crack or a construction joint which is leaking, here there is nothing to do with just structural
integrity part of it, but we need to only stop the leakage. The choice of grouts, the method of
application and the equipment it depends upon the objective.

And there are two; broadly you can say there are two types of grouts; see all these grouts are fluid
in nature. You will be knowing that there are broadly two types of fluids Bingham fluids and
Newtonian fluids. Bingham fluids typically are particle suspensions in water or a liquid whereas
Newtonian fluids are pure liquids they are chemical grouts something like polyurethanes or
acrylates and so on.

This graph, it will show you the difference between Bingham fluid and Newtonian fluid. The eta
(η) in other words the shear force that is required to make it deform, deformation could be in the
form of flow where what we are interested in flow. The amount of shear force required for making
it flow is higher for a Bingham kind of fluid and it is much lower for a Newtonian kind of fluid.
This graph, I mean just it gives an idea.

So when we have this kind of chemical grouts what it says; what this graph says is, it has got very
low viscosity, it requires very little shear force or a very little force to make it go and fill and even
this narrow voids.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:29)

888
Okay. This are all just a preliminary and just I want to show you a few codes guidelines that are
applicable to this particular topic of grouting.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:45)

Some of the selected codes for example EN 1504-5 in 2001, it talks about products and systems
for protection and repair of concrete structures, definitions, requirements, QC and evaluation for
conformity. The Part 5 covers the concrete injection. And then you have got EN 14068 in 2003.
These are all products and systems for the protection and repair of concrete; Test methods;
Determination of water tightness of injected cracks without movement in concrete.

889
Then you have got EN 12617 Part 2, 2004, products and systems for the protection and repair of
concrete structures: Test methods. Here Part 2 covers the shrinkage of crack injection products
based on polymer binder that is basically volumetric shrinkage. Same way we have got Japanese
standard for Epoxy injection and there is another important standard ASTM C 881 – 90 which
specifies the various properties that are required in an epoxy resin-based bonding system, okay.

Epoxy resin is use for restoring the structural integrity because it has got an excellent bond with
concrete and hence ASTM C 881 is quite important. There are many such standards across a globe
but individually, each of them individually talks about particular aspect of either a product or its
properties or its testing and unfortunately there is no any code, National code whether EN or JIS
or anywhere, which talks about how to do the grouting. And these procedures are covered in some
of the guidelines by reputed bodies.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:45)

You have got ASTM D 8109 which is a guideline to waterproof concrete floor, concrete wall and
ceilings. It covers selection of different chemical grouts as well as how to install it. Then you have
got ACI 224, 1R-07 which talks about causes, evaluation and repair of cracks in concrete structure.
It talks about what are the causes, how to evaluate and so on. It also talks about injection systems
and key properties and what is to be used and where.

890
Then you have got an ICRI Guidelines, ICRI is an International Concrete Repair Institute
Guideline No. 330.1-2006. It is a guideline for the selection of strengthening systems for concrete
structures. In that there is a section also that covers about injection systems.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:44)

Now repair of cracks.

(Refer Slide Time: 14:49)

Now, firstly we need to understand why concrete cracks and when. Concrete and cracks, they are
considered as two sides of a coin, there is no concrete which has not cracked, which does not crack.
And when it is going to crack one has to gauge in a crystal ball because nobody can predict when
concrete is going to crack or where. So why concrete cracks and when? A million-dollar question.

891
There is no concrete without crack, concrete and cracks are considered as two sides of a coin. I am
it is impossible to design a concrete structure and guarantee that it will never crack. Cracks can
appear anytime for various different reasons. That is why it is impossible to predict when it is
going to crack or where it is going to crack. Some of the reasons that; the some of the causes for
the cracking we are going to discuss now.

Cracks occur; fundamentally for anything to crack; immaterial whether it is cracks or glass, wood
or whatever it is. Cracks can only occur when the tensile load exceeds a tensile strength. When a
load of; tensile load is applied on their body and it is exceeding tensile strength the extra energy
or force is relieved through a crack. And then cracks can occur in different stages of concrete. As
far as concrete is concerned it can occur in different stages of concrete.

May be when it has just finished. See just before finishing the concrete obviously concrete remain
a kind of semi-liquid or fluid condition, plastic state, we call it as a plastic state, and it cannot
crack. It is something like liquids, liquids cannot crack obviously. So just after finishing it start
stiffening at that stage some cracks occur, can occur I do not say they will, but they can occur, and
cracks can also occur just after final setting.

Concrete after undergoes final setting due to different causes, some types of cracks can occur, and
cracks can occur also occur within a few weeks after setting for a different set of reasons. And
crack can also occur in several years after setting and crack can also occur long time after decades
later. For each of them there are different causes different reasons that can be applicable and that
is why it is impossible to predict when or why concrete would crack. The causes of cracking could
be physical causes, chemical causes or mechanical causes.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:41)

892
We will see more details. So, for example if we know what the cause of cracking is, we will be
able to know how the cracks can be repaired. Now let us see before hardening there are some
causes. Moisture movement, moisture movement is from the concrete some about of bleed water
will come to the top and that bleed water if it dries quickly it can cause some cracks or there is
called a plastic shrinkage, this also is called plastic shrinkage.

Because some amount of bleed water comes it evaporates out, dries out it causes a shrinkage. And
this plastic shrinkage will happen mainly in the top layer first and the bottom layers of the concrete
still not shrink, so because of the differential stresses cracks can occur. Or plastic settlement, this
is very interesting. Plastic settlement is when the concrete is stiffening okay is still not set, not yet
set hard it tends to settle down.

When the settlement is happening there will be re-bars or some instructions in the concrete which
is obstructing that settlement, which means on either side of the river some settlement will happen
but where the river is there no settlement will happen. So, this kind of differential settlements
between 2-3 zones of the concrete causes crack that is called plastic settlement crack. Then you
have got concrete, cracks caused by concrete movements, and the movement can happen due to
several reasons due to thermal movement.

893
Of course, as you know heat expands solids and when it cooled it shrinks back. But here the heat
the source of heat is hydration of cement. When the hydration of cement is in the peak lot of
exothermic would have developed, concrete would have expanded a bit when it starts cooling
down due to shrinkage the shrinkage stresses will cause crack, they are called thermal cracks.
Formwork disturbance, now you have got a slab which has been supported by shuttering and
scaffolding and suppose some disturbance were to occur before the concrete has achieved its
required strength that would be cracks.

And you have got subgrade movement, sometimes there may be a very big rain or whatever, you
know the soil below may undergo some movement for whatever reasons before the concrete has
attend sufficient strength and it can crack and you have got a set of causes after hardening of the
concrete. These are all before full hardening of the concrete and there are also causes after
hardening. The physical causes, physical causes are mainly related to loss of moisture.

See; we talked about moisture loss during the plastic state when the concrete is not set. Concrete
can also loose water after setting is called, and it causes a shrinkage called drying shrinkage and
you got plastic settlement that can happen after hardening. Thermal cycles like you know in a day
peak temperature will be in the afternoon or night will be cold and so on and all that same way and
the year also there will be cycles.

This kind of thermal cycles causes lot of shrinkage. Chemical causes, it includes sulphate attack.
For example, see sulphates, magnesium sulphate, calcium sulphate or any kind of sulphate, it
attacks concrete very severely. It can cause gypsum; I mean calcium sulphate can; gypsum is
calcium sulphate first gypsum is formed and calcium sulphate will again react inside forms calcium
alumino sulphate and that is having a larger volume on that causes cracks, bulging cracks.

And you have got Alkali aggregate reaction, this is another chemical cause. There are some
aggregates which are reacting in nature, which reacts the Alkali present in the cement or concrete
or potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, calcium hydroxide they are reactive. And when it
reacts the aggregates starts bulging. The bulging of the aggregate exhales lot of pressure on the
concrete and concrete cracks.

894
And you know corrosion cracks we are all familiar with that, most of us corrosion cracks here,
here the force is given by the corrosion of steel, steel when it corrodes it expands nearly 8 to 10
times its volume original volume and this expansion exhales lot of pressure and causes a concrete
to crack. Then you have got mechanical causes, obviously it is due to overloads. There is a more
load on the slab then what it can withstand then; and the tensile zone you will see cracks. Same
way you have got impact loads, accidental impact it could be.

And you also have other reasons like accidents and natural calamity. Accidents like fire, impact
can also be accident, a vehicle come and hit a pier of bridge, it can cause crack. Other accidents
like fire accidents. Fire, and concrete is exposed to localize very high temperature and it is going
to crack. Obviously, for same way as a thermal cycle what we discussed. And fire is one thing,
and earthquake.

Now I have highlighted a few of these causes and these, the cracks cause by these causes they are
all structural cracks normally they end up structural cracks. Those that are not highlighted need
not be structural cracks, they stalled off with a non-structural crack. But nevertheless, many of
these non-structural cracks if they are not treated in time then they may become structural cracks.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:16)

895
Once you have got cracks, we need to classify that before repairing it. And to classify the cracks
already we talked there are three broad categories what is the extent of the crack. We already talked
about structural, non-structural crack, if the extent of the crack is more than 20-25% of the load
baring area, we called it as structural and we also talk about depth and width of the crack. How
wide is a crack? see cracks up to 5 millimeters wide is consider as crack.

Beyond 6 mm is considered as a fracture, it is no more treated as a crack. Now to see the crack
depth to what depth it has penetrated we check cores, we taka core or another very precise way of
checking which is UPV that is Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity measurement, but for that you need a
very experienced interpreter. And then status of the crack. Status refers whether crack is active or
stable, what do you mean by stable crack?

A crack that has formed which is neither increasing in width nor in the length is stabilized, stable
crack. Now active crack is which is either increasing in length or in the width that is active crack.
And we can check it by some test, very simple test is using a glass strip. You know the kind of
glass strip use for using a microscope to check the blood or whatever you know very thin strip. It
is struck across a crack using a glue and left for a couple of days and if the crack is active then the
glass strip will be break.

There is another equipment piece of small equipment called crack monitor which will magnify any
crack movement and it will show up. Now at the end of the day we need to find out status of the
crack, it is a very important thing because only active cracks; I am sorry, only stable cracks can be
repaired and active crack cannot be repaired. Even if you want to repair an active crack it can
continue to crack.

At the best we can patch it up temporarily if there is a leakage. Then condition of the crack.
Whether crack is wet or dry, if water is leaking through the crack then called it as a wet crack
otherwise it is called a dry crack and condition decides the type of grout that we need to use, the
choice of grout and a methodology.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:04)

896
Now let us look at how we can grout a crack. If it is a horizontal surface it is very simple, there is
no need to inject. What you see the blank part here it is a kind of a formwork may be about 1-inch
height both sides. And we just fill in the epoxy resin in between that and the; it will just flow
through the crack by gravity. There is no need to inject easy and, in most cases, it can be applied.
And there is no need to drill.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:46)

It is possible for most of the crack situations in horizontal but some of the narrow cracks we cannot
do it. And when we talk about this kind of gravity grouting or any grouting the viscosity of the
resin grout becomes very important and that grout has to be chosen because of that. Say if; now

897
here you can see an illustration of a crack, you see the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 either side, the crack size
1 to 2 is greater than 0mm.

The crack size 2 to 3 is less than 0.2mm. Crack size 3 to 4 is greater than 0.2mm. If the crack size
is below 0.2 mm only products with viscosity lower than 200 MPS. “Professor - student
conversation starts” Sorry, there is a typographical error here, it is not MPa it should be MPS.
“Professor - student conversation ends” and above 0.2mm products with more than 200 MPS are
applicable that is Mega Pascal per Second and above 0.5mm width of a crack viscosity is not so
important because any chemical grout will have sufficient viscosity to grout it. This is to indicate
what kind of material can be chosen.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:13)

Then if you have got structural crack dry cracks, we need to only restore structural integrity we
discussed that. So, restore the structural integrity we need to inject low viscosity, solvent free
epoxy resin only which conforms to ASTM C 881. Why? Because this low viscosity, viscosity is
there to penetrate the crack, epoxy resin has got good bond with concrete they are rigid material
they are not flexible, so they restore the structural integrity a great extent.

And they normally the kind of viscosity we use is between 200 to 350 centipoise and if it is a
shallow crack then single line injection is good enough, single line injection is what we mean is
we mix the epoxy resin and hardener, you will be knowing that epoxy it will have a resin and a

898
hardener both when you mix the polymerize into a solid material and both are mixed and they are
injected before the pot life of the material.

Pot life is the time during which a liter of mixed epoxy resin, its viscosity remains intact, injectable.
Then for deep cracks, where you know, imagine a dam which is you can have very deep crack
there nearly 10 meters deep, 5 meters deep then this kind of single line injection will not be
sufficient we need to have Twin-line injection because we need to extract the maximum part life
for injecting the resin until the depth of the crack.

So, we use twin-line wherein the resin and hardener both comes separately in two hoses. They get
mixed up at the point of injection. Okay, this picture shows you single line injection where you
have got a port, a port with a mixed resin system and some air pressure is applied and you have
got one line going out here this line, this is taking out the injection resin. The other one is twin-
line injection.

We can see here there are two hoses coming together and they get mixed up at the point of injection
and enters, here what we are doing is because these two mix there the port life or setting time or
gel time whatever you call it; it start from that point. So, I got sufficient time for epoxy to penetrate
in very deep crack.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:05)

899
Then you have got, or we talked about it, Wet and Dry cracks. But if it were a wet crack that is
water is leaking or there are, there was wetness there because water has leaked then what we need
to do is first we need to inject a one component foaming polyurethane to stop leakage. Directly,
see because it is a structural crack, we need to inject epoxy resin to restore its integrity. But before
injecting epoxy first we need to inject polyurethane to stop the water coming out of the crack
because water and epoxy they are enemies they do not go well together.

So there is no need to worry because if you have already, if you have done the PU injection then
why we need to do epoxy injection, the reason is this polyurethane it makes a temporary stoppage,
it will stop the water for some time and because it is foamed it will not stop it permanently, because
as a water pressure increases it can get washed away and PU it does not restore the structural
integrity, it is a soft material, it is a foam.

And we need to follow it up with epoxy injection; when the water stops then again we inject with
epoxy into a same crack because of foam is weak it gets compressed and allows epoxy to penetrate
or foam can be even punctured by the injection pressure. And we saw these pictures earlier.
(Refer Slide Time: 33:49)

Then we have got typical viscosities of epoxy resin, I mean different resin grouts. Say water is 1
Milli Pascal Second then Acrylate which is a type of chemical which is used for cracking issue is
less than 200 Milli Pascals. PU resin, there is one type which is hydrophobic which is more than

900
200 Milli Pascals. You have got PU foam, foaming resin, which is more than 400 Milli Pascals,
Epoxy is about more than 200 Milli Pascals. So, this gives you an idea what different types of resin
and what kind of viscosities are available.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:28)

Some criteria for selecting a resin grouts, which resin grouts to be selected. We already discussed
one is viscosity another is the hardening system whether it will work at the kind of temperature
where the job is being done, bond strength will it adhere to with a high enough tensile strength,
setting time whether it can be adapted to the actual job because some jobs may require a long
setting time material.

Elasticity, whether it can elongate, compress or swell. Hydrophobic, whether it can repel water.
Hydrophilic, whether it can absorb water. Tack ,will it stick to wet and dry surfaces. Chemical
resistance, sometimes you got situation, underground situation and all that where there can be
subsoil chemicals. Some criteria for selecting a resin rods or a viscosity we already discussed, then
we have to look at the hardening system that whether it will work at the kind of temperature where
the job is being done.

The bond strength whether it will adhere to the substance with the high enough tensile strength,
whether setting time, what kind of setting time is required for the job; whether it has got that kind
of setting time because some jobs require a long setting time because you need more time for

901
epoxy or PU or whatever to flow in. Then you have got elasticity whether it can elongate, compress
or swell. See when we are talking about structural repair, we do not want it to elongate or compress
or swell you see, but it is only for non-structural cracks this elasticity is required.

And whether it is hydrophobic or hydrophilic whether it can repel water the chemical grout or it
observes water. There are some resin systems where it observes water, swells and further seals the
crack. Some situation it is required. Tack, whether it will stick to wet and dry surfaces. Chemical
resistance because some subsoil chemicals would be there whether it will react with the kind of
grout what we are having and so on, so all these factors need to be considered before choosing the
grout.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:45)

I am just showing you one video just to give a feel of it and I wanted to avoid the name of the
company or the product name but you know videos are made with some names and all that, hope
you do not mind and you can see the video now. The video shows you 2-3 different types of
grouting systems in the laboratory a kind of a demo and you will also see how the result of the
resultant material after polymerization.

One of the first thing about; these are all PU resin systems. One of the first things is they have to
mixed in 1:1 but now what he is mixing is only the activator. He is activating one of the
components, now he is activating another component mixing another chemical. Now this is now

902
you have got one dark colored component A color as component B. Both will be mixed in the ratio
of 1:1. He is measuring accurately in a paper cup and it is also the color as well.

This a type of PU resin system and it is mixed and poured. Now stop clock is on and the curing
time is 10 seconds to 3 minutes. You see the consistency of the liquid. Gradually it is getting
thickened, see. Now it is becoming thicker and thicker you see. And the same thing happens when
this materials inside a crack or a fissure. Say within about the short time it was already become a
kind of a soft solid, see.

Still it is getting polymerized and it has polymerized now. Now it is rubber like material, it can
withstand lot of high-water pressure and balances this kind of material. And you see this, another
kind of material which is rubber leg which can withstand more pressure of the water. Again, the
same thing, activate one component by mixing something some chemical, some catalyst and after
studying it you activate the other component.

Now as long as these two components the white colored one and the colorless one these two
separate components do not come in contact together. These two cannot react. Now they are
measured 1:1 each of them, see and exactly same procedure what we did earlier the blue colored
material and now they are both mixing to this beaker and the clock is on. Again of course inside
the crack nobody is going to study it but very pressure of injection will make it stand.

You can see again the consistency how it is gradually becoming thicker and thicker. From droplets
it is coming kind of thread and now thread become thicker thread. This will gel; this kind of
material set within about 4 to 17 minutes. Now you see it has become almost semi-solid. This
exactly is what is going to happen in fissures and concrete cracks, and these are used only for non-
structural cracks only to stop the water flowing out.

Now after it sets now both are taken out, you see the green one is soft, the white one is not so soft,
it is a bit hard. So, this also indicates the different kind of pressure it can withstand. And they are
very, very elastic and they come back to their original position very easily. And it can bend it will

903
not tear, now it is very, very tough material, it also shows what all the kind of penetration it can
withstand without taking.

So lastly you have got one more system which is actually it is not for concrete because it is just to
give as in information. This is for silty or sandy or weak soil if we you got. How it can be
strengthened? So easy, in that small vessel you see that sand and again you mix activating a
material. See note one important thing when you are activating and studying the stirrer is kept
separate.

The stirrer used for one component is not used for the other component because it will set in
reaction. Now here water is added to dissolve that particular activating salt and it is stirred and
then mix into the other component and again 1:1. Now you see what happens, he is measuring
precisely 1:1 and this both of them will be mixed as was done earlier and you see it is so low
viscosity, it is like water or even thinner than water I do not know.

Now it is poured into the sand. Supposing you have got sandy silty soil you have to just inject it
inside it penetrates and it makes that sandy material into one single piece. It is more like a; it; see.
So that sand has become like a cake now you see. It is quite hard. So, this is the one way of
strengthening the soil, just because it was air just to give a feel. Injection is also use for non-
concrete purposes that is an objective, right, we seen this.
(Refer Slide Time: 44:11)

904
Now there is a one component Foaming Polyurethane (PU) and it reacts with water to foam
instantly. Why it is required? Supposing there is a crack through which the water is coming out we
inject it to immediately stop the water. High increase in volume of; volume seals crack. It is a
temporary stop it must be followed up with epoxy. This is just to show; sorry about the brand name
there but this is just to show how much volume will increase, foaming, how it can seal. Obviously,
it is weak, but it stops the water temporarily, so which we can later on follow it up with epoxy.
(Refer Slide Time: 45:01)

So main steps in crack injection clean the surface, spray water and allow to dry, see cracks many
times is not easy to see. So first we have to wash the surface, clean the surface and spray some
water so that when the surface dries crack, water in the crack will dry up slowly you see a line.

905
And then, if we are going use polyurethane foam first is if it is a wet crack you need to drill holes
at 45 degrees or more angle to intercept the plane of the crack and the PCD of the hole should be
equal to the thickness of the concrete member but maximum 1 meter.

It should be staggered on both sides of the crack and then in the holes fix appropriate type of
packers. Then flush clean with lot of water, pump water inside and inject using a piston pump,
hole after hole until it appears at the crack opening. When you inject the foam comes out of the
crack opening and clean up the flush with surface, fresh surface with a knife.
(Refer Slide Time: 46:13)

So, this is a crack lot of cracks were cleaned it up and expose the crack and drilling the hole at 45
degrees angle on both sides of the crack. And there are different types of packers, different types
of packers depending upon the job the depth to which we are going to inject and so on, we chose
the right packer and these packers are fixed in a crack and then through a holes it is injected and
after all the injection is over it is cleaned up with a sharp edged tool everything is cleaned up.

Okay, the pictures what you are seeing here they are not; all those pictures are not taken from a
polyurethane injection site, some of them are from epoxy injection. But just to give a concept how
it is done I just pick the pictures.
(Refer Slide Time: 47:09)

906
The key points while injecting common to Epoxy and PU, both epoxy and PU these are the
common things we need to look in, injection pressure. We must monitor the injection pressure
because there is a pressure gauge fixed the machine; we must monitor because it is important. Up
to 200 bar is fine; no worry about the concrete damage, because even if we inject 200 bar pressure
inside the concrete the pressure gets dissipated and it is not going to affect the concrete.

Now, then we need to start at a low pressure say at about 3 bars or 2 bars or something like that
gradually increase it, whatever is required and then safety. During injection safety is very
important, you must wear a visor with helmet with visor and goggles and hand gloves and other
personal safety items because if some splash were to occur they are all poisonous and toxic and if
water is not stopped completely during injection you need to drill some relief holes to release the
pressure and continue injection and finally inject through those release holes also.
(Refer Slide Time: 48:23)

907
Main steps in structural cracks injection using epoxy. If it is leaking, only after stopping it we can
do stopping it with PU injection we can do the epoxy injection. Clean the sides of the cracks,
before we do epoxy injection you must clean the sides of the crack using a hand grinder. It is very,
very important because we need to seal it later with epoxy sealer and if it not cleaned it will not
stick, if it does not stick due to the pressure it can come off and epoxy can hit the eye.

Seal the crack opening with epoxy paste, leaving gaps at regular intervals, this is to fix injection
ports. If thin concrete member, we can use injection port. If thicker than 200mm you need to drill
holes and inject, fix a packer and if the thicker; a member thickness is more than 500mm you need
to drill holes staggered at 45 degrees and fix packers. Do not leave gaps with epoxy paste sealing
epoxy paste when you are doing packer fixing. Inject epoxy resin for cracks on horizontal surface,
already we discussed no need to drill just gravity feed is good enough.
(Refer Slide Time: 49:47)

908
Now epoxy injection. What we have done is here is first we applied some kind of a tape across a
crack at regular intervals so that when the rest of the crack is sealed, we remove the tape and then
fix up port. Here in this picture you see lot of such nipples they are fixed into the crack and the
crack is sealed. After the crack is sealed and ports you know, these packers are fixed we need to
flush with water through the port, we need to pump water to clean up inside and then inject epoxy
through one port after the other.

And you can see sometimes you have injected one crack with epoxy there is another minor crack
which was not visible at all earlier through that epoxy will starts coming out showing that there is
one more there, one more crack.
(Refer Slide Time: 50:47)

909
Epoxy injection for a thin member. I told you first we tape it across the crack then you use that
white colored one is called an injection port. We insert a rod into the injection port and then apply
some bonding edge at the bottom of the injection port the triangular flat bottom and locate it over
the crack like this, see the, the pin, the rod which has been inserted through the port that rod is kept
on the crack pointed on the crack and this is lowered and then fixed another crack.
(Refer Slide Time: 51:28)

So, this arrangement you see, we saw this picture earlier and you can see the details written in
small text there. There is a port, there is a pressure gauge and there is a small pump, air pump.
You can also have a paddle pump. And each can develop 2 kg pressure that is good enough and
the exit host the transparent polyethylene holes is connected to so many ports which are fixed onto

910
the crack. How it functions, you see in the extreme left already injection is over and the next port
injection is going on, the resin is going in a kind of a radial direction and it starts emitting from
next port. You see a small bubble coming up that shows that.
(Refer Slide Time: 52:19)

How do you know whether the injection is done properly or not? You take a core and check, that
is the only way you can.
(Refer Slide Time: 52:30)

So, this is about PU injection systems. PU – Polyurethanes are very highly reactive resistance it
can give exact decided property you can formulate it to that whether it is a foaming property or
hard resin property or flexible property you can get it done through formulation. It can be one

911
component system which needs only water to react. And foam expansion factor and the reaction
time can be controlled with some additives like accelerator.

So, some places say there was a case wherein some 600-700 liters of water was leaking out from
a single point and tried to be stopped, we need to have a very quick expansion factor and as well
as very quick huge expansion factor. So, for 1 component we need a high-pressure pump, one
component polyurethane up to 200 bars. And then two component systems, it is grout is formed
with 1:1 volume ratio we saw earlier some video; properties can be tailored to suit.

What properties, whether; how hard the foam should be and so on and 2 component high pressure
injection machines are required. The chemistries are very simple; I will not go into too much of
chemistry except to say that, there is what is called as a classical pure polyurethane which has got
methyl di-isocyanate plus a polyol plus an accelerator; there is another modern highly versatile
system called organo-mineral polyurethanes which has got a MDI that is methyl di-isocyanate plus
silicate plus accelerator.
(Refer Slide Time: 54:22)

Now, non-structural crack injection using 1 or 2 component PU, most of the steps are same as
injecting structural cracks, that is why I do not want to repeat them here except cleaning and
marking of cracks. You need to clean and mark the cracks I mean the same thing, drilling of holes,

912
fixing of packers. But in the case of PU we do not seal the crack opening. In the case of epoxy, we
seal the crack opening, okay.

And one component PU forms soft foam; the foam strength can be enhanced using right grade of
polyurethane. You need to check with manufactures and the two components of PU react to form
soft to hard seal, different degrees of hardness and hard seal forming polyurethane is require if the
leakage pressure is high.
(Refer Slide Time: 55:19)

I am just showing you; this is an example of how you can tailor the two-component polyurethane
system to meet a particular purpose. Here what we require was rapid reaction with high foaming
factor to stop high leakage, so this was used.
(Refer Slide Time: 55:41)

913
There can also be another case wherein a dense foam is required. It is not just rapid reaction but
will also need a dense; hard and dense foam so you need something else. These two illustrations
are just to show that you can tailor two component PU to suit the actual requirement.
(Refer Slide Time: 56:04)

And these are two examples of machines. There are many different types of machines used.
(Refer Slide Time: 56:11)

914
And the point of injection; I mentioned to you this is important where the nozzle or lance we call
it as a lance for injecting. The assembly various different components you see two different
components coming, there is a pressure gauge and so on just to give a feel of it.
(Refer Slide Time: 56:31)

So you; when you are fixing a packer first you fix a packer, the packers are attached to a drilling
lance and inserted into the hole and there you see a liver that liver is tighten turned clockwise then
inside you see the rubber has bloated you can see that and that bloating of the rubber holds it into
the hold without slipping even in a pressure. Then after the all the injection is over automatically
the valve closes then we can turn it anti-clockwise you know, unscrew it and remove it. But we
have to leave the packer; we have sacrifice it.

915
(Refer Slide Time: 57:16)

This is a picture of a water cut-off injection; water is leaking through a tunnel valve and two
component system is used; you can see water is still flowing and gradually it comes to an end. I
do not want to show a video because it is a long video taking long time.
(Refer Slide Time: 57:35)

1 Component water cut-off injection, you can see in a tunnel a lot of water leaking points are there
and then one component PU is injected. Here so much water is there, a huge foaming factor as
well as rapid reaction is required and finally it is all stopped. You can see, where the water was
leaking it has all stopped.
(Refer Slide Time: 58:02)

916
So, there are quite a few example, example of injection to arrest leakage in tunnel. See this a place
called Viret Tunnel in Lausanne Metro construction and what you see here is in the concrete lining
and the roof corrode lining you see in the drill hole, it is not the stiff steel packers that is used it is
a rubber host.
(Refer Slide Time: 58:29)

And this another case wherein a tunnel walls were injected with 2 component PU to stop leaks and
a high-pressure water cleaning has done.
(Refer Slide Time: 58:43)

917
Now, the same technology can be use for leaking construction joint injection. But here please note
that we have to choose the resin very carefully where we are injecting, where we are drilling a hole
the angle of drilling a hole. It should ideally be in the middle of it, middle of the section.
(Refer Slide Time: 59:08)

I will not go through the join injection in detail because it is all similar to whatever we talked over
crack injection. But just to summarize this session, the cracks are common in concrete due to
different causes we discussed. Some of the structural cracks and some are non-structural, some are
dry, and some are leaking crack, some cracks are stable, and some are still active, so systems have
to be chosen accordingly.

918
Structural crack repair wet and dry whether it is wet or dry it must restore the structural integrity
that is the key requirement. And non-structural cracks leaking cracks it must be repaired to stop
leaks. And the type of resin system, the method and machines to be chosen carefully to suit the
job, we discussed all these. And the grouting process is a very scientifically designed process,
procedure.

It must be followed for effectiveness; I mean I have come across many people taking shortcuts and
finally; I mean they keep doing it repeatedly. So, there are some complex situations wherein expert
advice is required; this kind of lecture alone is not sufficient amount of reading, guidelines and all
that, they may not be sufficient, you need to have an expert advice. So, thank you very much for
all the patience listening.

919
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prabha Mohandoss
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology - Madras

Lecture – 31
Structural Repair of Prestressed Concrete Systems

Hi, everyone. I am Prabha Mohandoss who recently completed my Ph.D., under the guidance of
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai in IIT, Madras. Today, I am going to talk concepts on structural
repair for prestressed concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:25)

This is the outline of module on concepts of structural repair. We have seen introduction to
concepts of structural repair and strengthening of beams, columns and walls, joints. In this
lecture, we are going to look at strengthening of prestressed concrete to enhance its performance.
Deterioration of prestressed concrete systems is often difficult to identify and repair. Most of the
time these structures will not reveal its true condition until the failure becomes so evident. So in
this lecture we are going to look at different types of strengthening methods available to enhance
the performance of prestressed concrete systems.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:05)

920
So we all know prestressed concrete systems are being used predominantly across the globe,
especially in the construction of bridge. Here in the left the pie chart shows percentage of bridges
constructed using different types of systems. This was the survey conducted by German federal
highway system compressing of about 40,000 bridges. Among this we can see almost 70% of
bridges are made using prestressed concrete.

The number is significant and the right side you can see the bar chart, where it shows the
percentage of pretension concrete bridge was constructed per year over the past 5 decades. This
was reported by New Zealand Transportation Authority. You can see in the late 1960s the
construction of pretensioned concrete bridges has increased significantly almost 60 to 100
number of bridges are being constructed per year.

Again it shows the number is huge and it requires attention for such structures. Strengthening of
bridges becomes more and more important due to the existing of bridges that are facing ageing
and were constructed using old codes and we are seeing a lot of traffic volume increased over the
past decade and expecting to increase even more in the coming future. So many of these
prestressed concrete bridges are new and they expected to serve for 100+ design service life.

921
However, we are facing such prestressed concrete structures losing its structural performance
due to loading or environmental conditions. Hence it is important to know the strategies to repair
and strengthen such structures to meet its design demand.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:52)

100 numbers of pretensioned concrete beams exhibiting shear cracks due to poor; the image here
shows the prestressed concrete bridge in India which is located in one of the prime cities of
India. Experiencing shear cracks at the ends of the girders. Almost all the girders at the ends
have such shear cracks all along the length of the highway bridge. So this indicates 100 numbers
of pretensioned concrete beams along the length of the bridge experiencing such shear cracks.

This could be due to poor design that adapted while constructing or the poor construction
materials used or due to improper codal provision. When such member experiencing shear cracks
then this prestress level would be significantly reduced thus the shear capacity. So it is important
to identify the sources or the; it is important to identify the sources for the damage whether it is
due to loading condition or the aggressive environment or this is due to inadequate design or the
poor construction materials used.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:03)

922
Here is one such hazardous scenarios for prestressing steel in typical box girder bridge provided
in fib bulletin 33. So it shows how water can get into the prestressing strands due to different
parts or resources. So based on the conditions it was divided into two categories one is the failure
of external barriers where you can see the water can get in due to defective varying courses on
the service on the surface or the missing or defecting waterproof membrane here or due to the
defective damaged drainage intakes or the pipes that was placed to drain out the water.

And sometimes the wrongly placed outlets would lead to moisture ingress. And the joints at the
ends or between members or crucial for water ingress for example, leakage in the expansion
joints or the leakage in the construction joints would lead to water ingress and the inserts where
water again get in. And another important factor is that concrete cover which was supposed to
protect the tendon or the steel inside.

If that is defective, then it is easy for moisture to reach the steel surface. Then the second
category is that failure of tendon corrosion protection systems. So here again we can see the
outlets placed for placing the grouting. So if it is partially or fully open then that could lead to
moisture ingress and then the ducts where we place the tendons and the surrounding concrete or
the grout voids. These are the primary sources for moisture to reach the strand surface and
eventually to corrode the steel.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:54)

923
These are some real-life examples where we can see such scenarios. So here in this case in
anchorages between the expansion joints are covered with the poor mortar. So you can see the
region here, the mortar quality which is used to fill the joint was not good and you can see the
cracks over it, so that will lead to the path for moisture to get in and to reach the strand surface.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:26)

And here is another example, where the vertical drains which was supposed to drain out the
water surface is not placed properly and hence the water flowed over the concrete surface and
leading to damage or deterioration on the region.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:40)

924
Let us look at what are the types of damages that we can see in prestressed concrete systems. The
one most common damages is that concrete spalling when the concrete strength is not adequate
enough to take the stress or we will see the concrete spalling, when the bridges experiencing
sudden impact load, we could see the concrete spalling and here are the batches where you can
see concrete has spalled and if the concrete has spalled then it is evident that the strand will be
exposed.

And in some cases where the member is corroding we can see; we can see rusted strands also.
But the corroded prestressing strands itself has different stages where first we will have a even
surface with no pitting corrosion, so in that case the capacity of the member will be around 240
kN. Here it is mentioned in kips about 60 kips and with increasing corrosion level the pitting has
slowly formed and the surface of the strand becomes slightly uneven and the load carrying
capacity was slightly reduced.

And with further increase in corrosion level the pitting becomes severe and with further increase
in corrosion level we could see highly uneven surface on the strand. Well the capacity of the
strand has reduced significantly. So with increasing level of corrosion further, it leads to partial
or complete loss of strand area. When the member is experiencing huge load or when it is
experiencing sudden impact load then we could see strand ruptured failure and in most common

925
we will have this structural crack due to inadequate shear or flexural performance or inadequate
fatigue performance of the member.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:38)

Having seen or having assessed this damage in the prestressed concrete systems, we have three
possible scenarios to repair the capacity of the member. The first scenario is that the; to achieve
the target capacity. When I say target capacity it means the capacity; design capacity of the
member before it got damaged. So the first scenario is to meet the target capacity in that case
repair is considered successful, so after repair the capacity of the member is equivalent to the
capacity of the member or the undamaged member.

And the second scenario is that the target capacity is not achieved but still the member can be
strengthened to enhance the performance of the structure that is here in this case after
strengthening or after repair the capacity of the member is not met the design capacity of the
member before it is damaged but still we can increase the capacity of the member adequate
enough to meet its purpose.

The third case is where we have the members were severely damaged, so in that case we cannot
even enhance the performance just to meet the purpose, so in that case we need to replace the
member to meet the conditions. So here the target capacity is not achieved and the behavior of
the member cannot be improved by repairing, so in that case we have to replace the member.

926
(Refer Slide Time: 10:05)

Having all those let us see what are the typical methods to enhance the performance of
prestressed concrete systems. The first and most commonly used method is External steel post-
tensioning and a second method is post-tensioned CFRP, CFRP is Carbon Fiber Reinforced
Polymer and the third one is near surface mounted CFRP, where CFRP is placed but not
prestressed.

And the fourth method is sliced tendons, splice methods if the tendons are broken or if the
tendon is damaged then we can repair those things using splice method and another method is
steel jacketing and which is commonly used in RC or conventional reinforced concrete systems
also and if the member is severely damaged then none of these methods will work then we have
to go with complete replacement of the member.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:07)

927
So before selecting the methods there are certain selection criteria that we have to look and based
on that we can choose the repair method for enhancing the performance. And these are the
damage assessment factors that we have to consider while selecting repair methods whether we
are going to increase the capacity to meet the overloading demand or the fatigue performance
and if the tendons or the strands got captured or damaged in the existing member whether we
need to splice or combine the strands and if so how many strands have to be spliced.

And if there any prestressed loss, if there is a loss how much pre-load is required, condition of
the concrete how much it has to be restored or it has to be enhanced and speed of the repair.
Apart from these things above all, these three are the primary factors that is that we have to give
consideration, how speed that we can do the repair of the existing member that is basically the
interruption of the service while repairing that has to be as minimum as possible.

And the next category is the durability and cost. In repair philosophy it is meant that if the
structure is repaired then it has to meet its service life beyond its intended design service life. So
the repaired members should have high durability to serve its design service life.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:47)

928
So let us get into the case 1 that is external post-tensioning. Here is the case of strengthening of
48 years old parking garage using external post-tensioning. So I am not going to get into details
of this method as this was elaborately covered in the previous lectures. So here is the case so I
will just get into briefly explain the scenario here. The girder of the parking garage was
deteriorated due to aging and loading conditions.

So external prestressing strands were placed outside and it was stressed at both ends to enhance
the capacity of the; flexural capacity of the member. Once it is stress, once the stressing
applications all done this region was covered using concrete, so that the externally placed
tendons can be protected.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:37)

929
So the most common and preferred method is that flexure strengthening using CFRP that is
carbon fiber reinforced polymer strips. Because the carbon fiber reinforced polymer strips has
high stiffness and strength to enhance the flexural capacity or the required performance of the
member. This CFRP strips are highly orthotropic in nature so the stiffness and strength is in
higher magnitude in one direction than the other.

This due to its high strength and stiffness it becomes a good alternative for prestressing purpose.
However, the CFRP strips has certain challenges for gripping and prestressing. So we have
commercially available components for the effective prestressing CFRP system.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:31)

930
So these are the four components first one is the CarboStress prestress CFRP and the second one
is jacking end anchoring movable frame and live end anchors, how the anchoring is there at live;
and stress head system.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:45)

So let us look at the first component CarboStress prestress CFRP. So when CFRP comes it
comes with the; so in this region it comes with the potted anchorages that is called stress heads
which basically helps us to anchor that region using steel clamps anchors or this will be fixed to
the concrete surface. So usually this end where it is attached to the slab or the member
surrounding it, it is called fixed end or dead end.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:40)

931
Whereas the other end where the stressing will be applied is called jacking end and that end the
strips in this end is inserted or replaced in the movable steel frame. Basically the CFRP strips
comes with stress heads, so this end is clamped or anchored at their region. The capacity of the
anchorage would be around 300 kN and we can apply maximum of about 240 kN depending on
need for strengthening. Basically, the member in this region governs the required prestress level,
that is the strength of the member at that region determines how much prestress has to be applied
for strengthening purpose.
(Refer Slide Time: 16:51)

And this image shows the live and anchors once the strips are placed and anchored at the live
end. And here shows the clear image of how it was done for a bridge deck. So where you can see
a steel frame and the CFRP strips are placed inside and clamped it for stressing.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:12)

932
And these are the stress head system, which helps us to apply the required prestress and basically
for gripping and stressing. So you can see the wedges and anchorages for gripping and locking
the stress and here is the hydraulic jack, which will help us to apply the required prestressing
force. So this image right here shows the assemblage of this stress head system at the live end for
stressing application. So these are the components that help us to prestress the CFRP system for
enhancing the structural performance of the member. Next case that we are going to see is for
near surface mount CFRP system.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:59)

Let us consider a case where the bridge member experiencing sudden impact failure. So when
member expect experience such sudden impact failure it is obvious that this concrete is going to

933
get fall off so here you can see the intensity of the damage and the concrete spot. So once the
concrete has fall the stands will get exposed and in some case depending on the load if it is huge
then the strand in that region get rupture. So let us see how that is going to affect the
performance.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:32)

When we have such vehicle impact or corrosion damage so the member could significantly lose
its prestressing level. Here you can see the red mark, the right to the red mark where you can see
the ruptured strands and rusted steel. The left to the red mark you can see the bright steel. So
when the member has such strand failure or reduction in capacity it does not represent the
scenario of the whole length of the girder; it is very localized.

In that case, we need to account the other region, where the strands are in good condition and
embedded in a good concrete. So this leads to a question; so in general in pretension concrete
systems stress will be transferred from strand to the concrete. If the strand is ruptured or
damaged in this region the stress transfer mechanism will be failed but here in this region this
strands are in good condition and embedded in concrete.

If that is the case then can the prestress force be redeveloped over the transfer length of the
strand, if so then we need to account the prestressing level available in this region to determine
the capacity of the member. So for any strengthening methods first we have to evaluate the

934
condition and the capacity of the member by doing the analysis, so in that analysis we need to
account for this redevelopment also if it is occurring.
(Refer Slide Time: 20:22)

So before getting into that let me explain about the transfer mechanism along the length of the
member. As I said earlier in pretentioned concrete systems, we have stress transfer from strand to
the concrete. So when the stress is getting transferred it get transferred from the end of the
members and it gradually increases to along the length and reaches the effective prestress. The
length required to reach the effective prestress is called transmission or transfer length.

And further under service the effective prestress will be developed to reach the ultimate stress
and the length required to reach the ultimate stress is called development length. Basically, the
length of this region alone is called Bond length, and together the length of transmission or
transfer length and the bond length is called development length which is the length required to
is the ultimate stress from zero.

So this transfer mechanism is significantly depends on the bond at interface. Hence this will be
affected if the interface is getting damaged or disturbed due to the external loading or due to
aggressive environments in case of corrosion. So for example you are assuming that the member
is experiencing corrosion or near the damage this bond interface gets affected. So in such cases

935
to transfer the effective prestress we may need a longer or the member will need a longer
transmission length.

So in that case the transmission length will get moved from this region to that region. If it is the
corrosion damage then the prestress level will also get reduced due to loss of strands. This is the
simple hypothesis for this transfer mechanism, what happens if it is affected by corrosion or any
bond damages at the interface.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:35)

So just to have an idea what is the bond mechanism in prestressed concrete systems with 7 – wire
strands, this shows the schematic of the strand surface. The bond mechanism in prestressed
concrete systems were contributed by adhesion, friction and mechanical interlock. Adhesion is
due to the lubricant presence of lubricant on the surface which plays a minor role when the
strand gets sleep then the effect of adhesion will be lost and friction and mechanical interlock
plays a huge role in transferring or for a bonding action.

So friction is mainly contributed by the Hoyer effect. I am not getting detail about this, and the
confinement of the surrounding concrete and mechanical interlock is basically due to the shape
of strand here, you can see how the cross-section of the strand in concrete. So in the gap between
the strand and concrete it forms the concrete keys. This concrete key plays a major role in
providing a confined interface.

936
So they said, if the interface gets damaged or if the strand is experiencing corrosion this cross-
section is going to get affected and that is going to affect the bond between the strand and
concrete. So it is important to know the bond strength between the strands and concrete while
performing or while evaluating the capacity of the member.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:04)

So how do we determine the bond strength of potential concrete systems? Here is the
experimental setup that we developed here in IIT-Madras to determine the bond strength for
especially pre-tensioned concrete systems. We have such long members of about 1 meter
accounting the transmission length or the transfer length from both ends of the member. So we
do a simple pullout test and to measure the bond stress slip behavior to obtain the bond stress
bond strength of the member. So here we measure the bond stress and slip behavior to determine
the bond strength of prestressed concrete systems.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:38)

937
Now let us see assessing the transfer or redevelopment length of prestressing strands on the
existing system. People have proved that we can measure the transmission length or the prestress
can be redeveloped along the length of the member in the undamaged portion of the damaged
structure. So here to determine the transmission length what we have to do is we need to select
the cut location at fractions of distance and then we can place the strain gage to the good quality
or the undamaged strand and measure the stress or strain acting on it.

Here in this case acoustic emission sensors were placed to determine the strength. So by
measuring or by monitoring the stress on acting on the surface so based on this we can easily
determine the transmission and based on the concept transmission length is the length required to
attain the effective prestress, effective prestress can be obtained by the sensors that we placed on
the existing surface.

So from the observed results we have seen that the transmission length of the existing member is
large if it is due to the sudden impact load comparing to the gradual failure. That means sudden
impact failure could result in longer transmission length or redevelopment length comparing to
the gradual failure.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:08)

938
And this is the sequence of repair how we are going to strengthen the member in case of impact
damage using CFRP strips. Basically, this is near mount surface CFRP strips. First step is that to
fix the damages of strands the exposed strands. If the strands got ruptured, then we need to do the
strand splicing; I will explain this in the following slides how to do this strands splicing and once
the strands splicing is done, we need to apply the prestress to meet the required level.

And this region has to be covered or patch work has to be done by placing the concretes. And
once that is done then the member is strengthened or confined using CFRP wrap. Here you can
see U-wrapping strengthening has been provided to improve the performance. So once that is
done protective coating on the CFRP surface has to be provided to enhance the durability of the
repair.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:29)

939
And finally, this is how the structure looks before and after repair. Before repair you can see the
concrete spall and the strand damaged everything here and now it looks like need completely
strengthened structure.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:38)

So let us look at repair and replacement of tendons. So here we have four cases, the first case is
to just replace the damaged tendons and the second case you can place a new tendons to the
existing one and splice it at intervals or a splice and retention and breaks, and the third method is
splice at break and retention altogether splicing has to be done at their intervals and all together
we can retention.

940
fourth method is complete replacement of tendons, if the tendons is severely damaged that we
cannot repair by splicing. So now it is important when we select; when we do a repair for
tendons it is very important to find out the location where we need to repair or where we need to
do the strengthening or cut work. Let us look at the repair and replacement of tendons.

So we have four cases for repairing tendons, the first one is to replace the damaged tendons and
the second one is to splice and retention at breaks, and the third one is like splice at breaks and
all together we can retention at anchorages and the final one is to complete replacement of
tendons if possible in the case where the strands are severely damaged. For replacing tendons its
foremost important to select the location of repair.

And here it; the schematic shows the profile of cable in the prestressing systems where you can
see the high points at the support region and the low points are the mid span of the member and
the preferred location would be somewhere in between where you can have enough concrete
cover for repairing if there is any need for cutting, and also it matches with contraflexure of the
member where moment is zero. Hence, it is always preferred to select the location where tendon
passes through the middle of the slab or beams for the repair work.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:57)

941
When we repair the tendons it is important to detention the stress available in the tendons. If the
strands are ruptured or cut, then there will not be any prestressing force acting on it then we can
directly go or get into the repair process.

If the strands are not completely ruptured or still there is some residual prestressing force
available in the strands then we need to detention the prestress force before splicing the strands.
What are the different ways of detensioning strands? So we have three ways, the first one is
through anchorages and the second one is by drilling into the strand and third one is burning
through strand.

Here is the case of the first one where we can use this anchors at the ends and then slowly
detention the strands. And sometimes we can use some special jacking arrangement where such
can such jack systems can be placed at the ends, so this is for a member which has an accessible
length; the both ends can be gripped by jack grippers and the middle of the regions we can cut
the strands and slowly it will release the jack; this region will take care of gradual release of
prestressing or detensioning the strand.

And the second method is like drilling into the strands where we have to drill directly into the
strand and in this case the location of concrete sorry the location of strand has to be known
before we start the process or the exact location has to be known for drilling into the concrete.
On the third method is that exposing these strands and the anchorages to the heat by allowing
heat, the prestress can be reduced; detensioning of prestressing involves high risk as we are
dealing with the huge amount of forces.

Hence in this case the strands or tendons can pop out or the concrete surrounding concrete can
blown out, so it is important to ensure people are not surrounded by that to avoid any injuries.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:41)

942
So let us get into the splicing method using couplers. So as I said earlier the first method is to
replace damaged tendons completely if possible, this is the case when the concrete is not placed
and when you identify the damage in the strand. where concrete is not placed and tendons can be
easily accessible. Suppose in this case, where you can see the concrete in place of the beam and
the tendons are embedded.

Now when you identify the damage, when the concrete has placed here in this region you can see
kink in the strand. So if that is a case splicing help us to repair the tendons. So let us see how to
splice the tendons. First, I mentioned we have to select a proper location, where we have
sufficient concrete cover to access and it should be like not in the middle or end of the member,
so where we have moment zero or the contraflexure is there.

So for proper gripping for proper gripping of coupler we are placing this PE pipe with a
sufficient diameter and length to grip the coupler which will be placed inside the PE pipe and we
have to select the length in such a way that it allows the movement while stressing. So roughly
there has to be about 1.5 times of the expected elongation and then we have this Pocket former to
be placed at the ends and we need to ensure there is no voids by providing prestressed tendon
coatings.

943
Once this is all fixed you can see here, where the part of existing strand or tendon is inside the
coupler and here is the part of new tendon that has to be spliced with the existing one. And this
shows the image of the coupler arrangement, where you can see anchorages wedges and spring
just to allow the movement and threaded rod and the coupler for connecting the old and the new
strands.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:18)

This image here shows couplers placed to join the old or the existing tendons with the new
tendons. This work is for a slab work, where the tendons are spliced using couplers and stressed
to meet its required performance.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:34)

944
Now another method for stressing the strands is that the intermediate stressing using intermediate
stressing anchors for slab repair. This is being followed or used when we cannot access the end
anchorages but still we need to stress the strands at the intermediate. So here in this region so we
have excavated the concrete over it; the size of excavation depends on the stressing equipment
that we use or the type of anchorages that we use.

Here is the case you can see Dog bone system has been; arrangement has been placed to provide
stressing tile for intermediate stressing anchors while detentioning the strands for repairing the
length of the strands will get shortened but for this intermediate stressing anchors we need to
have a stressing tail to provide stressing. Since the existing tendons will not have sufficient
length new tendons has to be spliced to increase the length such that, will provide tail for
intermediate stressing anchors.

So here is an arrangements how the whole tendon was embedded in a concrete and the dog bone
system was placed to enhance the length of the tendons for intermediate stressing anchors. So
once this is done; right image shows how the strands were stressed at the intermediate using
hydraulic jack. So by doing so we can restore the prestress level in the member.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:16)

And here is the summary. So far we have seen the scenarios and damages observed in
prestressed concrete systems and the repair methods to enhance the performance of prestressed

945
concrete systems using external post-tensioning and CFRP wrapping in that using post-
tensioning CFRP wrapping and near surface mount CFRP wrappings and splicing of tendons.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:36)

And these are the references for further reading.

(Refer Slide Time: 37:39)

946
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Mr. Dhruvesh Shah
Vector Corrosion Technologies - Vadodara
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology – Madras

Lecture – 32
Case Studies on Structural Repairs Right Methodologies and Systematic Approach

Good day to you. In today’s lecture we will learn right methodologies and systematic
approach for repairs, rehabilitation and strengthening of RCC structures. We will learn this
with the help of various case studies of different types of structures.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:48)

The course content comprises of:

 Basics of repairs and strengthening.
 Approach to systematic repair and strengthening methodology.
 Case studies for various types of structures and strengthening techniques.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:09)

947
So coming to the basics of repairs and strengthening. In your previous lectures, you have
learned in detail about basics of repairs and strengthening. I will just go through it briefly.
What are the typical issues in RCC structures? One of the main issues with RCC
structure is corrosion of rebar. Any RCC structure cannot be constructed without
reinforcement and reinforcement are prone to corrosion. Because of corrosion it induces
cracks in RCC elements. If these cracks are not attended in time it leads to advance stage of
corrosion defects, which we commonly term as spalling.

Another major issue is leakage or seepages. They are adding to the corrosion of rebar.
Also they are making the structure not rehabilitable. If there is an ample amount of leakage,
you cannot use the property beneath the slab or backside of the wall or if there is a server
room or there is a control room in the industry, the leakage will create a problem, or if in a
chemical plant, if there is a leakage it will create lot of issues, so this is one of the next major
issue.

Another is deflection of structural members, or you can say failure of elements in

form of shear, flexural, compression, deflections which may lead to various problems like
crushing of concrete, hogging, sagging of the slab and all sorts. You would’ve learned this in
detail in your earlier lectures.

What are the factors that lead to this problem? Broadly they have been classified into
4 different types.

948
 1. Factors which are built- in problems - built- in problem means design fault,
workmanship fault during construction, wrong selection of type of material, wrong
specification of material or water proofing system failure, wrong specification of
water proofing. If there is a problem with the water proofing, it will lead to leakages,
further it might lead to cracks and this being a cyclic circle, it will lead to corrosion,
again leakage, again more cracks, if the right material is not selected. What do you
mean by right material? If you are not selecting sulfate-resistant cement for an
underground structure in a coastal area then your elements that are below the ground
are not resistant the sulfate attacks. You will have problem if you are not selecting a
material considering durability and performance of the element. You may use slag
cement in an adverse environmental condition, it is going to be helpful. Wrong
selection for material of protective coating, wrong specification, and all these factors
are built- in problem.
2. External causes - environmental effect, it can affect your structure, if it is in coastal
environment. We had come across that within a span of 3 to 5 years of construction,
because of environmental effect, there are major issues. Another external cause may
be carbonation - in densely trafficable area, chloride attack, sulfate attack, chemical
plant environment.
3. Man- made causes - Yes, we also do various problems to our structures. We do faulty
design, we change the use of the structure, people make addition and alteration in the
structure without considering overall capacity of the structure or what the problem
could be. If in a commercial complex to have a large hall, people cut the column if it
is coming in between their interior planning. There are examples wherein the building
has collapsed because of that. C hange in use. If building has been designed for
residential purpose and because of some reason if there is a change in use to a
commercial building or a hospital, then your loading changes and your building
strength requirement changes and you need strengthening.
4. There can be natural calamities - earthquake, cyclone, floods. All these create a huge
damage, huge impact on our structures. We need to carry out repairs and
rehabilitation and strengthening for various structures because of any of these 4
problems.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:43)

949
How to do a systematic approach for repairs and strengthening of such structures which need
treatment? Very first thing comes is visual inspection. It has to be on the basis of visual
inspection. We need to observe the structure properly, carefully see the pattern of the cracks,
alignments, signs of leakages, colour of the concrete, corrosion marks, how particularly such
defects are on one face, another face, bottom of the building, settlement of the building.
Everything has to be noted and mapped on the drawing and interpretation has to be carried
out to know the reason of the failure or to know the reason why you need repair or
strengthening.

After you carry out visual inspection the second most important point is to carry out
NDT and partial NDT results. I am sure you are well aware of various types of non-
destructive and partially destructive tests. But it is very important to select the location of test
and what type of test should be carried out. If based on your visual inspection, it is required to
carry out corrosion survey because you found that visually, apparently, it is a problem
because of corrosion of rebar, then you need to carry out chemical analysis of the concrete,
half-cell potential, corrosion resistivity of the concrete, to find out how fast there is a
movement of ions. If it is more resistant, then the corrosion rate will be slow. You can also
measure the corrosion rate. But if you found that there is no corrosion and there is only a
deflection or a crack, then you do not need corrosion survey. So selection of type of test is
very important. Also location of test, you should get the test at good condition, bad condition
and in-between. Try to get 3 type of locations so that you can compare the test results for that
building, apart from comparing it to the latest codes.

950
 Once you have done the visual inspection and carried out test, one should know why
you need repairs and rehabilitation or strengthening of the structure, what is the requirement?
You can ask to the owner or user.

Expected life of repair - This is very important to determine how much my repair or
strengthening will last. You cannot afford to spend handsome amount of money on repair
today which will last for 25 years or you can spend 25% or 40% of same amount and you
may go for repair next time after 10 years or 15 years. Or sometimes it is so important that
you need to select the repair methodology such a way that your repair and strengthening
scheme should last the age of the structure. So that is one more important point.

Then selection and evaluation of repair material. What material should be used for
proposed repair and strengthening? You should evaluate the material. Material means starting
from rust removal material, corrosion protection for rebar, bonding agents, strengthening
material, polymer modified mortar material, micro-concrete or it may be steel plate, steel,
cathodic protection material, protective coating, water proofing. You cannot use epoxy grout
for injection grouting for a leaking cracks, vis-à-vis, you cannot use a polyurethane grout for
structural crack repairing. Similarly, you should not use polymer modified mortar for a large
area and very high thickness. It is always good to go for micro-concrete.

So once you have selected the material, it comes to the budget also. Based on your
approach from visual inspection to selection of material and the system, if the owner, user or
client does not have money for life of 25 years, then you may need to rethink and to carry out
entire exercise depending upon the budget.

Limitation and constraint to work - You need to design or approach to a system such a
way, that the work can be carried out in spite of constraints or limitation. You cannot have a
bridge or a traffic stop for very long period in a city where you do not have an easily
available alternate route. Or you cannot carry out some repair of a build ing, may be
university, during the exam time. So in vacation you have a limited time of 2 months or 1.5
months, so time is the constraint. Similarly, in industry, plant working condition, shutdown is
the constraint, accessibility to the location is the constraint, working condition is the
constraint, and so all constraint has to be taken care of. So based on type of causes, type of

951
problem, systematic approach evaluation, right repair methodology has to be derived. We
will see practically how this systematic approach has been implemented at site.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:22)

Also what is the repair scheme requirement? It should be a holistic job specifications, that is,
you need to frame your specification in such a way that it complies with your all the system
of repairs and strengthening. You can have a carbon fibre strengthening, but then you need a
final finish with a protective coating or you may need further beam strengthening by using
steel plate. You need to check whether these both will comply or not.

You must identify the cause. If you see a crack, you should not just repair it with
injection grouting or making it V-groove and filling it with some epoxy putty or mortar. Find
out why that crack has occurred and prepare a scheme which will eliminate the cause of the
crack. So this is second important point.

Third is compatible material. The material which you are going to use for repair
should be compatible with the parent material. If it is not compatible, it will be a big failure
of specification stage.

Corrosion control mechanism wherever possible - if you have identified the cause and if it is
corrosion, if you do proper preparation, do proper repair, but if you do not incorporate
corrosion control measure, you will have similar problem in near future. So try to incorporate
corrosion control. That is the best way of elimination of problem of corrosion. You can use

952
sacrificial anodes or you can use cathodic protection by means of ICCP and various other
means.

Protective Coating - Type of coating, thickness of coating, application methodology,

that all has to be derived based on the site condition. You cannot have a non-aliphatic epoxy
coating on outside of the surface or you cannot have a simple anti-carbonation coating for a
chemical resistance element. So a protective coating has to be selected properly.

Finally Post NDT. A systematic approach of repairs is complete with a Post NDT. It
is like carrying out an X-ray after your fracture got healed which ensures that ‘yes, my
structure is good now’, if you carry out NDT post repair.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:29)

So with these based, we will go one by one, these 5 case studies - 2 for bridge, 1 for
residential building, 1 for commercial building and 1 for industrial plant.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:56)

953
Let us start with first case study - it is a bridge structure.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:05)

You can see this bridge; it is few kilometers long, it is located in Louisiana state of United
States of America in New Orleans. This bridge is 103 years old and the problem occurred
when there was a hurricane named Katrina a few years back. Because of aging, because of
corrosion and hurricane when they checked the bridge, they found there were a lot of cracks,
spalling in the beam of bridge, there were corrosion in the piles.

And they were not sure that it can withstand another hurricane, although it had, it has
withstand the Katrina hurricane, but it was always a question. So a detailed study has been
carried out in terms of visual inspection, various tests have been carried out and it was
confirmed that there is an ongoing corrosion. So, electrochemical repair and strengthening

954
was the requirement. Being an important bridge over a very wide river, so budget was not the
constraint.

But there were limitations, like adverse working condition. It is a 100-year old design,
it is not complying to the latest code. You can always replace a partial deck of the bridge
span by span. This is a common practice is USA and Canada, that is North America, but to
replace the pile, it is not that easy. So they wanted to carry out pile protection, like protecting
the pile against corrosion and strengthening for further 50 years or more than that.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:41)

This was the condition of the beam. You can see cracks and spalling. The holding bars, these
are the bars which are holding the main reinforcement. You cannot see the holding bars, they
had fully corroded here. There was corrosion in the pile rebar.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:14)

955
So a solution has been derived. All the beams need to be properly prepared by removing all
the loose concrete or the concrete which is not in good condition. The good quality concrete
although may be contaminated is not removed. All the steel reinforcement were grit blasted
using copper slag. You see the quality of surface preparation. This is a n old steel
reinforcement just grit blasted, it looks like, say half type cleaning of the rebar. New rebar
has been planted and sacrificial anodes, this white anode (refer to Figure in slide), are being
tied to the rebar based on the design of steel density of the bridge considering the life of 25
years for the anodes. So, the damaged surface of concrete was prepared, steel was cleaned
and protected, and an electrochemical protection using sacrificial anodes has been installed.
Such a long bridge, so much spans, a very deep river, it is difficult to do shuttering.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:15)

956
So a GI shutter has been decided to carry out reinstatement of damaged portion of the beam
using micro-concrete. These GI shutters were held in place with horizontal supports, what
you can see in the photograph. Holed U-shape shutter were anchor bolt and they had been
supported horizontally. That way you do not need a bottom support in the water. There were
ports at the bottom to pump the micro-concrete.

And this micro-concrete has been pumped by keeping the pump on the shore or on the
boat. So once it is filled, shutters are removed. It is good that all spans were of same size. So
these galvanized iron shutters can be used for multiple spans.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:50)

One interesting thing is that, no stirrups or shear reinforcement were found in the beams.
Amazing that the beams without shear reinforcement, stirrups, are standing for 103 years,
withstanding hurricane. But latest code does not permit this. So structural analysis has been
carried out and shear reinforcement were provided using carbon fiber wrapping in U-shape as
per equivalent amount of steel reinforcement required for shear. That amount of carbon has
been installed in the form of wrap on 3 sides. Structural analysis has been carried out based
on prevailing codes and design calculation for CFRP has been carried out based on ACI
440.2R 2017.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:35)

957
So you have repaired and strengthened your beam to match the need of enhanced life,
longevity, easiness to construct, right material specification, now question comes for the
piles. So a new system has been installed for the protection of piles from corrosion and
strengthening. All the piles, there are more than 6,000 piles, has been protected in the tidal
zone, which is most prone to corrosion, because this river meets sea very nearby.

A zinc plate wrapped in a cloth specially designed by competent authorities

(competent company), were installed on all the sides of pile and a connection was
established. You can see the column broken for establishing the connection, between the zinc
and the rebar and the length of anodes were such that because of the cloth by capillary, by
wick action this brackish water will keep zinc corroding, so that steel are protected from
corrosion.

After temporarily tying the anodes to the pile, a special PVC modular formwork
which comes in strips and it can take any size, any shape, has been erected and the annular
space between the pier and the stay- in-place formwork is filled with micro-concrete, along
with additional reinforcement provided as per the structural design.

So you have a strengthening requirement, you have a corrosion protection

requirement, a long-term requirement, easy to work in adverse conditions. Everything has
been sufficed by providing a PVC modular jacket with micro concrete with sacrificial zinc
anodes activated by wick action for all the piles. This way it was ensured that the piles and
the beams of the bridge last for more than 50 years.

958
(Refer Slide Time: 36:14)

We will go to second case study. The problem was man- made. A very interesting case study.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:31)

This case study is for a missing pile (missing pier) of a bridge. This bridge is connecting an
intake of a power plant which is well inside the sea to the way-ahead power plant which
supplies water. Now one of the piles, you can see the pile number 20, was broken or damaged
as it was hit by a ship. So this span is not safe, this is pile P-19, this is P-21 and Pier-20 is
missing.

Coming to the constraints, if there is no deck slab, you can have an adjoining pile, you
can design it, but there was a pile broken portion inside, you cannot grow the pile, you cannot
have an adjoining location pile. Practically how to construct that? That was a limitation. Here

959
a non-destructive test or visual inspection is not that important. Important is design for
strengthening, how to provide support for the missing P-20 with durability and performance.
Conditions are very adverse; you are in the middle of the sea and how to transfer the load to
the newly planned truss.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:01)

I will explain in detail. With the help of IIT Madras, a scheme has been derived, wherein a
new truss has to be fabricated, a new bracket has to be constructed, the truss is to be placed
on these 2 brackets. Another stub piece of micro-concrete to be installed with base plate and
then this whole truss has to be loaded jacked such a way that the load being transferred to
these 2 pile. Also analysis has been done that these 2 piles are capable of taking the 50% load
from the missing pile.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:07)

960
So these 2 brackets has to be constructed on P-19 and P-21 to support for this P-20. So proper
access has been made, a hole has been drilled in the liners, 32 mm hole, depth as per
requirement of calculation; rebar grouting of the main rebar has been done. Sacrificial anode,
again, an electrochemical repair for protection of this reinforcement from corrosion is done
because of environmental effect, location of the structure.

It will induce lot of corrosion. So the steel has been installed using rebar grouting,
sacrificial anode has been installed, a zinc-rich coating has been done on the rebar, shuttering
has been provided and micro-concrete has been poured in the shuttering to form a bracket.
These brackets again have been coated with a high performance, anti-carbonation, anti-
chloride- ion diffusion, acrylic aliphatic coating. This is how 2 new brackets have been made.
On these 2 new brackets a truss will be placed.
(Refer Slide Time: 42:12)

Now this truss has been fabricated offshore. The maximum available pipe thickness was 17.5
mm for a diameter of 350 mm of pipes. Although that was not sufficient, but initially a
tubular truss has been fabricated, as you can see in the photograph. This truss has to be taken
and placed on these 2 brackets. That was a big problem.

But thanks to the contracting team, they had carried this truss by launching and using
winch, from the existing support of the bridge, by mean of a wire rope and the whole of this
truss has been launched from shore, right up to the bracket and placed on 2 brackets. After
placing, as I told you that the specification of available pipe was not sufficient, so entire truss
has been strengthened further, by using carbon fiber strengthening.

961
 A proper care has been taken that there is no direct contact between the carbon fiber
and the MS pipe which might induce further dissimilar metal corrosion. So there is an
adhesive or surface is prepared in such a way that there would not be any direct contact
between the carbon wrap and metal. There will be insulating coating in the form of epoxy
which will not allow electrons or ions to move, travel from carbon to iron, no direct contact.

After carrying out carbon fiber strengthening, a further protective coating has been
applied on carbon fibre system. So your brackets are in position, truss has been put in
position, protected properly, then jacked to take the load of the pile, so it is properly
transferring load exactly on P-20 not on P-19 and 21 as if it was doing when there was no
pile, and proper deflection, loading check has been carried out at location.

And most important while launching this girder, there was a cyclone. It is our luck that
contracting team does not have any major loss in form of loss to truss or any other thing. So a
design issue, material availability issue, adverse working conditions and new concept. This is
how a missing pile has been replaced and been strengthened.
(Refer Slide Time: 46:38)

We will have another example of commercial building, man- made cause again, additional
load.
(Refer Slide Time: 46:53)

962
This is an ongoing building which is meant for commercial use, when they had constructed
up to 7th floor and 8th floor was under construction, the 8th floor was sold to a company who
is in business of IT sector. They were supposed to have a large server placed on 8th floor slab
and this additional load, this live load, was not considered in the original design. So
considering the new load, whole structural analysis has been carried out.

And it was found that 4th, 5th and 6th floor columns, few of the columns of these 3
floors were not adequate and they were found to be deficient for moments. Axially, for
compression and for shear, they were safe. As I told, the 8th floor was not constructed. So
based on new requirement, the slab and beam of that floor, design has been altered and there
was no requirement of strengthening for that floor.

So only requirement was for few of the columns on 3 floors. But the constraint - lower 3
floors were already constructed. The floor above it were also constructed. And architect and
interior design and use of the lower floors does not permit to have a jacketing or increase in
size of the column. Also if you want to increase the size of only 3 intermediate floor, you
need to carry out jacketing right up to the basement, which again a limitation, space-wise,
hindrance-wise, cost-wise. So we had designed a CFRP system as an alternate without
increasing the size of the columns.
(Refer Slide Time: 50:06)

963
So CFRP laminates, plates of 100 mm wide and 1.4 millimeter thick were installed on the
face of the column. The construction area of the laminate that is 100 * 1.4 * numbers of
laminates, were derived on the basis of area of steel required for the deficient moment. Once
the numbers have been derived, a proper care has been taken for junction development, that is
to transfer the load from column capital to the column.

For the columns which were supposed to be strengthened, a proper surface

preparation has been done to even out the face of the column. Also the edges were rounded,
because there is a partial confinement also for enhanced moments, to take care of shear and
compression and to avoid delamination of the laminates. So rounding is very important, the
radius of rounding should be based on the design. If in your design you have taken ‘R’ as 25
mm, there should be minimum rounding of radius with 25 millimeter. If it is taken 50 mm,
you should have a rounding of 50 millimeter. Surface should be even out; all the protruding
thing should be grounded. Now to avoid delamination, fibre anchors made from carbon fibre
were installed at the top and the bottom of the column. You can see a hole which has been
drilled for 10 mm diameter and 100 mm depth.

Stem of the anchor been inserted inside and grouted using epoxy, and fan portion were
inserted in slots. That is one anchor; there are 6 anchors. So there will be 6 plates, like this.
Once the anchors are installed and cured, plates are installed on the surface prepared and the
adhesive between the plate and the anchor will avoid de lamination, debonding.

964
So you have surface prepared, you have anchor installed and laminate installed. Then you
need junction development. So you need to prepare surface on the capital, up to the size of
junction development and on the wall, and also preparation for the bands. I will explain
further why and how the bands and junction development has been carried out.
(Refer Slide Time: 54:26)

Whatever amount of carbon is provided on a one face of the column, by means of laminate,
say 140 * 6, that much amount of carbon has to be provided for junction development in the
form of L-shape. So 500 mm by thickness of 430 GSM CFRP will suffice one laminate. So
this is 3 layers, this is 3 layers so you have a proper amount of carbon transferring load from
slab to the laminates. Anchor has to be made installed here, anchor has to be installed here,
here and here, to avoid debonding.

Further this type of CFRP wrap bands, all around the columns, has to be installed.
This will help in enhancing the shear capacity, because of the enhanced moment carrying
capacity due to laminates also and also it will not allow this laminates to bulge out, to
debond. Also it will help in some increase of compressive strength by way of confinement.
All these bands will be carrying an anchor at the lap. This is how the completed CFRP
columns look like. It is having laminates, bands, anchors before the laminate, anchors on the
band, L-junction developed equivalent to laminate carbon area and anchored properly.
Finally, this will be covered with a plaster to have a fire rating of 2 hours as per requirement
of client.

965
 So your strengthening is safe. This whole CFRP strengthening was possible because
this element column was complying with the requirement of ACI 440.2R. That column
should be capable of DL + 0.75 LL without wrapping. So you cannot simply go for CFRP for
all the members.
(Refer Slide Time: 57:50)

We will have one more case study for punching shear failure.
(Refer Slide Time: 58:01)

It is a residential apartment, wherein because of design failure, there was a typical punching
shear failure cone. It failed in punching shear law, it has a ground floor and the first floor
were continuous, there were 3 towers like, ground floor, 1st floor and 3 towers - 2 floors, 2
floors and 4 floors (drawn in slide). When they were constructing the fourth floor, there was a
blast and these cracks were developed.

966
A proper analysis has been carried out, redesigned, and it was found that there was a steel
deficiency and it was a detailing blunder. Constraint was you cannot demolish entire floors;
you have to do it with confidentiality. Cost has to be considered because this is a real estate
project, time limit and how install it - the deficiency, in terms of steel.
(Refer Slide Time: 59:45)

So it was decided to incorporate the column capital, where there were not. The surface was
roughened within 6 mm amplitude and a design shear anchors were installed. The 6 mm
amplitude and the numbers of shear are such, that they will transfer the shear load to the main
slab, it is based on design. It is not 3 numbers per square meter. We see friction coefficient
and everything else has been considered.

And then what shear force it is going to transfer has been designed. The portion which
was distressed, crushed has been removed after proper supports. The outer part was also
roughened, new reinforcement has been tied, proper side shuttering has been done, closed
from the bottom and the micro-concrete was pumped from the top and this is how the column
capital looks after completion. So additional capital was incorporated.
(Refer Slide Time: 1:01:13)

967
Now the second requirement was to suffice the positive and the negative moment
reinforcement deficiency. So this type of 25 millimeter by 2.4 millimeter thick carbon
laminates were used by nearly surface mounted system as per ACI 440, like, at the location
you need to cut the slots and insert this in the slot with the use of adhesive. This is the
completed one (photo). These holes are for pouring the micro-concrete beneath the slab.

But this is good for negative reinforcement part on the top of the slab. The area where
the concrete was broken, there also at the top, steel has been inserted, how you have inserted
the steel? From the bottom, in positive moment deficient area, a groove of 1.5 times the rebar
diameter, a 12 mm rebar has been inserted into the slab from bottom. The hole slot has been
made and the steel has been inserted by using a special adhesive.

The distance between each slot, the size of the slot has been designed as per ACI 440 NSM
bar insertion parameters. Also this entire area has been coated with a special coating which is
equivalent to 25 millimeter of cover. So you will get a proper cover for entire area also. So a
punching shear failure slab, a design deficiency has been derived, a column capital has been
incorporated. A negative moment reinforcement deficiency has been sufficed by slot and
insert carbon fiber laminates. A positive deficiency of moment has been sufficed by insert of
steel rebar from the bottom and derived.

(Refer Slide Time: 1:03:58)

968
Now we will go for the last presentation, which is of an industrial plant for repair and
strengthening of a tunnel.
(Refer Slide Time: 1:04:09)

In one of the fertilizer plant which is located near the seashore, there is a tunnel which is
carrying in potash from their bug storage to the further process. And the tunnel starts at
ground level, below the ground level, 5 meter is the height of the tunnel. So at the starting it
is –5 meter below the ground level and it slopes towards –11 meter. And the sea water,
ground water level is –2 meter.

The tunnel wall thickness is 1 meter at the bottom and 600 mm at the top. There was
lot of leakage, cracks and spalling which was found during ro utine inspections. They had
carried out a large number of various types of repair, but the root cause was not determined

969
and not eliminated. So we carry out proper survey, we carry out NDT, the strength was okay,
contamination in the concrete was there, leakage was found severe, expansion joints were
failed, and the constraint was working condition, confined space, lot of smell because of
potash. You cannot work, you cannot stay there for a long period. It is nearby sea, so during
high tide there will be more leakage, continuous leakage and plant is in working condition.
You cannot stop, conveyor belts are moving.
(Refer Slide Time: 1:06:11)

A holistic approach has been decided. Whatever the original wall damage spalled has
occurred, has been reinstated using polymer modified mortar, after proper treatment of
reinforcement and surface preparation. Injection grouting has been carried out to stop the
leakage from the wall and entire wall of the tunnel has been reinstated, strengthened by
providing additional reinforcement with shear anchor and guniting, 60 mm thick guniting for
M40 grade. After carrying out guniting, expansion joint has been re-profiled applied with
hypalon strip.

(Refer Slide Time: 1:07:09)

970
But to decrease the pressure of water, weep holes have been introduced. It has been drilled
through the wall for 1.2 meter inside, and all the water pressure in high tides were been
released on the wall. So the whole area becomes dry and water comes from weep holes only.
And then, to protect it from chemical of potash, epoxy lining has been carried out.

You cannot see the photograph properly because the working condition is very, very severe.
You cannot have a good photograph, but this whole entire is epoxy lining. So this way you
can have a protection from chemical, you have a way to release the pressure of water and
repair and strengthening has been done. Thank you.

971
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology – Madras

Lecture – 33
Cathodic Protection in Concrete Structures-Laboratory and Field Studies

Hi, welcome to this lecture on cathodic protection in concrete structures. Today we will be
discussing about laboratory and field studies in which we were involved.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:25)

So we will talk about first some of the experiences and overview of the present scenario of
cathodic protection industry in India and also we will cover some aspects of worldwide
scenario. Then we will talk about couple of 10-year long studies because most of the time we
recommend to adopt cathodic protection people ask for long-term data. So I thought this is
very important as a repair technologist you should know that these systems really work and
we are trying to promote this.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:04)

972
Now even though we covered cathodic protection in one of the earlier lecture, I thought of
giving a little bit briefing on that before we get into the case studies and worldwide scenario.
So, any cathodic protection system, and to be precise the sacrificial anode cathodic protection
system (SACP) not the impressed current system (ICCP). So, in the SACP system, you have
a sacrificial anode core metal like a disc, which you can see on the top left image, which is
covered by an active cementitious matrix. I may also call this ‘encapsulating mortar’ in the
coming part of the lecture. And then these are actually connected to a tie wire and the tie wire
is used to connect the anode metal to the rebar. Now some of the pictures are also shown on
the screen which indicates how it is actually practised at site.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:13)

Now the global scenario of cathodic protection in infrastructure sector. If you look at the bar
chart at the bottom, you will see that the data going all the way from 1987 until about 2010.

973
You can see that there is a significant increase in the number of CP systems installed, you can
see some variations, but that may not be the reality, it might be just the lack of data available
or data collected.

And, so, there is an increase in the use of cathodic protection systems both in US,
Europe and also in Netherlands. The pie-chart on the right side is actually showing the
distribution among different type of structures, which have cathodic protection system. So
you can see that buildings and bridges are almost similar, but one should notice that, in the
bridges, the impact of this cathodic protection on the long life, on the economy,etc., is much
more in case of bridges as compared to buildings. So this data, both this bar-chart and the pie-
chart are showing the data from one field survey conducted in Netherlands.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:45)

And then the usage of CP in concrete structures, if you look at North America, rest of the
world, North America about 40 million US dollars, rest of the world is double that, which is
about 80 million US dollars. Whereas in India, the number shows very clearly that there is a
lot more room to improve or to penetrate into the market. Lot of structures we have serious
corrosion and repair related issues.

I think it will be better if we adopt these technologies also, this cathodic protection
also, to extend the life of the repair itself, because there is a fear in some sector of the
industry that, if the cathodic protection systems are in place, then the other repair materials or
repair systems will lose some of the market. I want to make it very clear that is not the
intention. It is that, if we use cathodic protection along with the other repair systems, this

974
cathodic protection will arrest the corrosion from happening and which will help the
remaining systems like chemicals or coatings or fiber wrapping, etc., which we adopt, all
those will be able to function to the full capacity or those systems will also tend to last longer.

So that is how we have to look at cathodic protection, not as a competitor for the other
repairs, industries or products, but as a system which augments them, their performance, or a
system which helps the other systems to perform well. How? Because cathodic protection
stops further corrosion from happening, which then helps in enhancing the performance of
the other systems. So the last slide of this, this lecture, I will explain one example where a
fibre wrapping system without cathodic protection, how it failed, and if a cathodic protection
was in place, how it would have helped.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:03)

So let us see more on other prevailing concerns regarding cathodic protection in India.
Mainly it is the lack of knowledge among many of the stakeholders, lack of knowledge about
the CP and its usage in the concrete structure. People know very well that it is widely used in
other metallic industry like any pipelines, etc., but in concrete structures there are still some
hesitation in adopting this technology considering the poor practices at site, etc. But those are
the things which we have to overcome to avoid the huge maintenance and repair cost, or
rather, repeated maintenance and repair cost. So CP is very promising technology in my
opinion.

Now initial cost is high, it is a myth, not necessarily high. I will show some data in
this lecture showing that actually it does not really, increase the repair cost much, rather it

975
will reduce the life-cycle repair cost. Now other problem is CP experts are not locally or
widely available. And complexity in repair, then burden of maintenance, all these are general
challenges.

Now what are the engineering problems? Now, one is design without considering the
long-term performance. Many of the sites we have seen that neither the client nor the
suppliers of cathodic protection or manufacturers, they are not having enough data to show
that the systems will perform for long-term and neither are there any tests to ensure such
long-term performance. It is very important, otherwise what might happen is, if we install
systems which are not really of good quality and which cannot really last long, then after few
years they will tend to fail, and then that will create a negative perception on the cathodic
protection technology itself, which is the big danger.

So in fact at IIT Madras we have the developed a test method which we are calling as
GAP test, which can be used to assess the long-term performance of cathodic protection
system or galvanic anodes in about 3 to 4 months’ time period, which is a very good indicator
and which can be adopted before we install such systems. Especially to ensure that repair will
actually last for long time.

Now, lack of field experience, then acidification due to high anode current density
and high resistivity of the repair materials and sometimes we also put other chemicals around
the steel reinforcement, like some kind of coatings, epoxy coatings, etc., which will have high
resistance and that will adversely affect the performance of the cathodic protection system.

So those kind of engineering problems do exist. However there is enough technology

or good products are also available in the market which can be used to ensure the lo ngevity of
the repair.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:45)

976
Now let us go through the first case study which is a lab study. We have some data on this.
So these specimens were cast by Dr. George Sergi, who is a pioneering figure in cathodic
protection technology, and he is from Vector Corrosion Technologies and he cast 4 slab
specimens which you can see on the screen at the bottom right, and in Mumbai and these are
about 12 years old right now.

And you can how the slab specimen looks like. It is about 1 m x 1 m slab and about
250 mm thick. 3 types of anodes are installed or embedded in these slabs. One with 4000
mm2 (Anode A1) and another with 8000 mm2 (Anode A2) and then 16,000 mm2 (Anode A3);
these are A1, A2, A3 type anodes as it is mentioned on the screen.

Now few years ago we got into this project, and then we started, continuing the
monitoring of these specimens and these specimens are now stored in IIT Bombay laboratory,
Dr. Prakash Nanthagopalan’s lab and we take measurements regularly.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:16)

977
I will show you some of the data and then this is how we have taken the data. We take the
potential using a simple multimeter and also corrosion rate using Gecor instrument which
uses a guard-ring technology. So on the right side you can see an image which shows how the
corrosion rate is being measured, you can see black wires, red wires, etc., going around the
slab specimen. That is basically showing the connections to the embedded anodes and the
reinforcement.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:49)

So what is depolarized potential? When we assess the sacrificial anode systems, one
parameter which we measure is the depolarized potential. Basically what it is, is you
disconnect the anode from the rebar, (during the exposure time it is connected and protecting
the steel, but for the measurement purpose, we disconnect it temporarily) and after about one
day (24 hours), we take the corrosion potential and corrosion current measurement, so that

978
that anode does not influence the measurement. We call that potential as depolarized
potential, especially done about 24 hours after disconnecting the anode from the rebars.

So, in depolarized potential of rebars, you can see here, the top 3 curves (in graph in
slide) are showing much more positive data or positive potential than this curve, which is slab
4, and slab 4 is the one without any cathodic protection system. Slabs 1, 2, and 3 have a
cathodic protection system. So it is very clearly indicating that slab 4 is having much more
negative potential and it is showing cracks on concrete and also started spalling after about 10
or 11 years, it started spalling. Now it is more of a spalled specimen. So you can very clearly
see that the use of cathodic protection and it will really keep the potential at more positive
range which indicates, more positive means less corrosion. So in these specimens it shows
less corrosion as compared to the graph at the bottom.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:59)

Now, let us see how the corrosion rates are, these are steel corrosion rate. So in cathodic
protection when we talk about corrosion rate, it is mainly the steel corrosion rate, we also talk
about corrosion current, which is mainly for the current drawn from the anode. So these 2
things are different and should be given adequate care which you are talking about, whether
you are talking about the corrosion of the anode which is usually the zinc or the cor rosion of
the steel to be protected.

So here, steel corrosion rate, again on slab 4, you can see very high corrosion rate and
the Slab 4 is the one without the cathodic protection and Slabs 1, 2, 3 have cathodic
protection installed and this is at the end of the 12 years. 12 years of exposure is a significant

979
long time and this graph itself is a proof that they really work in keeping the corrosion rate
very low.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:06)

Now here you have visual observation. On the left side is the representative image of Slabs 1,
2, and 3. You can see one of the slab images is shown with cathodic protection. No cracks at
all, that means very low corrosion rate, very positive half-cell potential and at the same time
no crack, which is demonstration, very clearly telling that it does not really corrode and it
helps the steel from corroding.

Whereas on the right side you can see the slab without the cathodic protection, that is
Slab 4, as mentioned in the previous slides, and heavy corrosion on that, along the
reinforcement line. So you can see on the right side the zoomed- in image which shows very
wide crack along the reinforcement, and also about to spall and delamination is also very
clear as you see in the picture on the bottom side, the red curve on that, indicates basically the
crack locations.
(Refer Slide Time: 16:06)

980
So there is also one more current which we talk about, that it is the corrosion current or the
current given by the anodes. So A1, A2, A3 are the anodes, 3 anodes which were used and all
the anodes are still being very active in providing the current demand. So here one thing you
have to remember is that, someone might think that the curve is slopping down. So what is
happening, why it is going down? So you have to think that in sacrificial anode galvanic
protection systems, the anodes provide the current which is being demanded by the steel. So
it is a dynamic system. So what we have to think is, as the time passes, the steel gets
passivated and then the demand for current is also going to be less. When the demand is less,
then anode will provide only that much current.

So point to be noted is whether the anode is providing current or not. So let us not
look at the magnitude of that current, but whether it is above 0 or not, whether it is able to
provide the current which is demanded by the steel or not. That is the idea here. And as you
see on the screen, all the 3 anode systems are still able to provide the current as demanded by
the already passivated steel. So it is still working even after 12 years.

(Refer Slide Time: 17:51)

981
So then we also did some autopsy, we took one anode out of the slab and then just to see
what is the condition of the anode. I want to show that, you can see some white patches here,
which is basically the zinc corrosion products oozing out of the anode or through the
encapsulating mortar and here you can see the point 1, 2, 3 which are the locations where
further studies were done. I am not showing those results here, but just to show you how in-
depth we have studied. You can see this point here (marked in slide) is the anode which is
exposed, you can see that. So that is the exposed anode.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:47)

Now we took that anode out, and then broke or autopsied that further to see what is the
condition of the tie wire. What we found is there was a lot of zinc corrosion product around
the tie wires also, which can eventually disconnect or eventually affect the electrical

982
connection between the tie wire and the zinc anode. Even now you can see some, but this
anode is still functioning.

But you have to remember this is after 12 years, it is still functioning, but after some
point of time, if you have an anode which will have these severe problems like corrosion
around the tie wire, then it may not really function for very long period of time. So the idea
here is the tie wire should be well separated. This is an old anode system. Now most of the
anode which come into the market, they have die-cast tie wires or in other words the tie wires
are cast in molten zinc metal.

So there is no possibility of moisture to get into the space around the tie wire and it is
die-cast, and that really helps and one must make sure that whatever anode you are trying to
get from the market, it must be die-cast, otherwise this will have this kind of problem, in
relatively short period of time, so, depending on the condition. So, this is one thing to ensure
that, there are multiple things associated with the quality of the anode.

One is the tie wire should be die-cast, you can ask for it when you order the anodes,
the tie wire should be die-cast. And the other thing is the encapsulating mortar should be
porous enough, so that the zinc corrosion products, which is white in color as you see on the
picture, the encapsulating mortar should have enough void space to accommodate all the zinc
corrosion products which are coming out. And at the same time, the mortar should be able to
provide that high pH environment for the bare surface of the zinc, so that the zinc can
continue to corrode. If the pH changes and decreases, then the zinc will stop, it will start
passivating. In other words, zinc will stop corroding and once zinc stops corroding then the
system won’t work.

So it is not just zinc metal placed in a mortar, because why I am saying this is, there
are many products out there in the market which are just having zinc metal with some kind of
alkaline medium and a cementitious mortar around and that may not really work for long
term. You have to really ensure that the mortar is porous enough to accommodate the zinc
corrosion; and at the same time the mortar can provide sufficiently high pH (13 plus around),
to enable the new surfaces of the zinc metal to corrode. So this performance is very, very
important. Unless these are all ensured, the anode system will not work for very long period
of time. So one must be very careful in checking how this is going to work. So now the

983
question is can we really wait for very long time to really check all this? May not be possible
because you do not have that much time.
(Refer Slide Time: 22:45)

So there is a short term test method which we developed at IIT Madras. We are going to call
it Galvanic Anode Performance test. You must have already seen a video on this in other
lecture of the same course. Now we are calling it GAP test. So this test, as you see on the
picture, it is a mortar cube or a specimen with an embedded anode, not necessarily cube
depending on the shape of the anode, so that the cover is maintained at the same level.
And then you have a nickel-chromium mesh (Nichrome mesh) at the bottom here,
which is the mesh that you see and square mesh which kind of touches the surface of the cube
and then we apply current to it. I will show the electrical circuit in the next slide and then
when you apply the current, what it is doing is, it is mimicking what happens in a real
cathodic protection system. Here the nickel chromium mesh is kind of, it is representing the
steel reinforcement in a real structure.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:00)

984
So this is how the specimen, the cross-section looks like. You have a sacrificial anode at the
center, this is the sacrificial anode. And then you have inside this rectangle here, that is the
encapsulating mortar (labeled as Activated mortar), and then you have another mortar here in
the peripheral region (OPC mortar). Then, you apply the current and then measure the current
using a simple multimeter.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:32)

And then what you do is, you monitor this current driven from the anode. So after some time,
you will notice that the anode is not able to provide any more current. The red curves on the
screen indicate, after about 80-90 days, it just drops down. The current output from the anode
is almost negligible, very low. So that indicates the failure of that anode.

985
 Whereas the blue curve on the top, is able to provide the output current even for up to
around 300 days, that is almost a year, at least 10 months. That means very clearly the blue
anode in this system is much better than the red anode and the blue anode will be able to
provide much more life for the repair than the red anode.

So this is a new test which we have developed. And it is a very promising test method
to compare the long-term performance of the anode in short time. So we can say, if you want
a life of about 20 years, how many months this should survive, something like that, we can
look at, and that will clearly give an indicator whether a particular anode is good or bad.

And an anode can fail either by the corrosion of the tie wire or the disconnection
between the tie wire and the zinc metal, because of the corrosion of the zinc around the tie
wire, or corrosion of the tie wire itself, or the zinc is not getting enough high pH environment
in the long run, as it corrodes it is not able to penetrate into the encapsulating mortar or the
mortar is not able to provide sufficiently high pH, because of those reasons the zinc will get
passivated and that means it will stop corroding and that means the anode does not work
anymore.

So any of these things can happen and the red curve here shows an example of
something like that which happened at about 3 months time period and then in 3-4 months of
testing, you will know that whether this anode is functioning or not. Now you may say that 3
to 4 months of testing is too long, but in my opinion wherever you are applying this cathodic
protection systems, it is very important, as you are doing something for very long period of
service life.

It is really worth investing some time on doing this test for few months before you
install something and then later on find that doesn’t really work after 2 to 3 years. So it is
very important to do this test or a similar test to assess the long-term performance of the
anodes.

We are not installing these anodes for performing just 4, 5 years. We are expecting
them to perform for 15, 20 years. So 3, 4 months of additional waiting is not really a big deal
when you are trying to invest huge amount of money on service life which is expected to be
20 plus years.

986
(Refer Slide Time: 28:05)

Another case study is a salt processing factory building in Thoothukudi or Tuticorin. You can
see the picture on the left side, it is in a corroded conditions. This is before the repair, and
after the repair the structure was strengthened.
(Refer Slide Time: 28:24)

And you can see a lot of cracking on the vertical columns and then, what they did is, they
stopped the corrosion at that moment by installing cathodic protection systems and additional
reinforcement were also provided, but the fact that they have stopped the ongoing corrosion
is the most important factor to be noticed here. Cathodic protection means you stop the
corrosion. And then whatever the residual steel available, you see if it is sufficient. If not you
add additional steel, but whatever be the case, there is no more corrosion going to happen to
the steel. So that is the beauty of it.

987
 So in this project, they found very high chloride concentration because it is a salt-
processing factory and also a coastal region and then continuous exposure to chloride
environment. Conventional methods were failing and will fail, due to hidden corrosion
activity. So if you are just doing a patch work, it is not really going to last longer, because the
corrosion will still continue to happen. So you have to arrest the corrosion from happening or
stop the corrosion from happening and then best way to achieve that is to provide galvanic
anodes and connect them to the steel and also some monitoring boxes were installed because
this was done about 10 years ago and so people wanted to get data, how it works.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:51)

So this is some of the data which we collected from Dr. Rajendran and you can see that the
potentials are relatively in good range. And these are not the half-cell potential, very
important, these are the depolarized potential, means the potential measured after the cathodic
protection system was switched off and then waited for a day and then taken the
measurement. So we call it depolarized potential.

Okay, you can see the data after 6 months, 12 months, 18, 24, 48. Even after 48
months, that is about 4 years, the data is still showing good protection. It is a much more
positive than -350 critical range. So it is showing good protection.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:48)

988
Now there is a myth that the cathodic protection system is going to cost more. But what in
reality is, you can see on this chart for this particular project, we got the repair-cost data. For
their entire repair work of this 4-storey building, you can see at the bottom, different type of
project activities, scaffolding, grouting, surface preparation, additional reinforcement, CP
(cathodic protection or anodes), epoxy adhesive, formwork, micro concreting and protective
coating.

So these are all the different types of products and systems used for this repair work
and you see that the cathodic protection cost only about 4% of the total repair cost, which is
much less. So there is myth that cathodic protection means a lot of money, it is not really
correct. And, in this project they have used micro concrete which accounted for almost 30%
of the project cost and protective coating which is about 20%.

So 50% of the project cost is coming from micro concreting and protective coatings.
So that is where you may have to work on, maybe you can even think of, do we really need to
go for micro concrete, which is really expensive, because of the high cementitious content,
etc., and other chemicals which are there in the micro concrete. So you can rethink whether,
can we go for other types of concrete plus this other protection systems, so that we can reduce
the overall repair cost also.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:29)

989
Another case study is about, this is about 20-year old finger jetty structure at Chennai port
and after about 8 years of construction, they found severe corrosion. So, in the red box here,
is the type of structure that, those columns over there or piers over there are going to be
discussed about.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:54)

So this is the close-up view of those piers. On the left side you can see heavily corroded. This
picture is taken about 8 years after the original construction. You can see very severe
corrosion over here, the pier cap, you can see very severe corrosion and chloride
concentration was found to be greater than 0.6 % of Cl- by weight of cement. Significant
mass loss, heavy corrosion and then what they did is they replaced, some of the
reinforcement and point anodes were also installed all these sacrificial anodes and monitoring
boxes. You can see the picture on the right side, which shows a monitoring box which is

990
connected to the anode inside, that is a repaired pier cap. You can see that repair region and
this picture on the right side was taken a just a few months ago.

It is still in very good condition; that is 12 years after the installation of the anodes.
Picture on the left side was taken 8 years after the original construction and picture on the
right side was taken 20 years after construction, which is 12 years of service of the anodes.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:26)

Now this is how the additional, the jacketing work was done. You can see the photograph on
the left side, which shows the additional reinforcement which is anchored into the existing
column and that square region was filled and their structure looks like one on the right side.
So 1 anode per m2 of the concrete surface was the typical application rate or, the spacing of
the anode or something like that. Now that also indicates we need more rational design
procedures rather than just going with a number like this.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:04)

991
But still, this was a project done 12 years ago. So, at that time probably it was very difficult
to even get the authorities to agree for this kind of work. So anyway, so let us have this data
right now, and some pictures here show how the monitoring was done. So we recently visited
the site and then took some measurements and also some photographs. So photographs very
clearly indicate on the right side, you can see the photographs, which says no corrosion, no
major cracking. I am not saying no corrosion, but no major cracking, even after 12 years of
service. So that is very good and picture on the bottom right also it clearly shows no severe
corrosion damage after 12 years of service.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:52)

Now this is the data how it looked. Depolarized potential, you can see even though it is
getting more and more negative, but, the plot is only for about 4 years and we could not
collect the data after that, but what you have on the screen, that photograph is taken after 12

992
years of service and then it shows no corrosion-induced crack. That means it is really serving
very well.

Imagine the picture which was after 8 years, so that is this (in previous slides). This
picture on the left side, this was after 8 years of service without any sacrificial anodes and
this picture (in current slide) is the one with sacrificial anode and after 12 years of service. So
very drastic, you can very clearly see how the anodes are protecting the steel from corrosion,
very promising.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:49)

Now output current densities, this is some of the current densities which we got, from the site
and you can see very, very low, and it is still able to provide current. That is the point, the
anodes are still actively providing the current as it is required by the steel in the piers. So the
point is, these are dynamic systems, so if the steel is demanding more current the anode will
give more current, if steel is demanding less current, the anode will give less current.

So these also depend on the humidity conditions on the particular pillars, etc. So you
can see, I put this West side, East side, etc., so depending on the day, what time of the day
you are taking the measurement, and what is the humidity condition in the pillar, at that time
or near the anode location, that will govern the demand, current demand and then if the anode
is able to provide that is good.

So the message from this slide is that the anodes are able to deliver the current which
is asked by the steel. You can see, even up to 0.42 µA/cm2 in the P-5, (bottom- left), that is

993
the highest current on the screen, and so the anode is able to deliver that much current even
after 12 years of installation. So still the anodes are active. So the lesson learned is we can
expect much more years of service with these anodes and the pier is going to be protected
even for longer period of time.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:27)

Okay, so picture on the left side, severe corrosion by 8 years in service without the anode.
And picture on the right side shows minimal cracks - even after 12 years of CP installation.
So the one on the left side is without any anodes, just 8 years, and the one on the right side is
with anode, even after 12 years there is no significant corrosion. So people ask for data, so
that is why we are providing this, there are sufficient data available proving that these
systems really work. So let us practice this more and more and generate more and more data
and then protect our structures also at the same time.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:07)

994
So cost factor, here again micro concrete is the largest cost and you have the anode cost just
2.35% of the project cost. So this anode cost is nothing, it is just that we need to have the will
power and guts to actually start practising cathodic protection system. So it is not really
affecting the capital investment of the repair, but definitely it is protecting the structure for
much long period of time. That means the lifecycle cost is going to be much less, because we
will not have to repair often.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:58)

Another case study on a 5-year old building in one of the major cities in India and this
building has about 500 units, apartment complex and severe corrosion is being observed, as I
am talking it is happening. There are different columns, elevator shaft, basement, structural
elements in the basement, living room, bed room, any point in the building you will see
corrosion is happening and when we visited people were saying that, if you do not see

995
corrosion on this location, you wait for 2 months you will see it there. So that much is the
severity of this problem.

Why? Because, unfortunately the building was made with chloride-rich water or
ground water which had sufficient chloride and the sand which was also available was rich in
chloride. So these are the possible reasons because of which the chloride conditions were
very severe in this building. So we tested the chloride concentration of the conc rete and it
was found very, very high.

And steel was also of poor quality, not like very good steel was used. And cathodic
protection was the only viable option; about 3.5 lakh anodes are being installed. So imagine
the amount of money which is being invested on to this through cathodic protection so that
the building can be preserved or safe. So this is something very and someone would not
invest this much money if there is no promises or if it is not guaranteed.

So definitely it is a promising technology we have to start using them wherever there

are problems. So again let me also say this is not a replacement for other repair technologies.
This is a technology which is helping the other repair technologies to serve better or augment.

(Refer Slide Time: 42:10)

So these are some of the photographs showing columns and then other structures, and then on
the bottom right you can see that is about a staircase where the anodes are installed. You can

996
also see a control or monitoring box on the bottom right, you can see that. So these were the
example anodes installed to check the performance of the anodes.
(Refer Slide Time: 42:34)

So one more important thing I want to tell is, when we check the performance, this is how the
anode performance is checked. You can see 5 anodes were installed and reference electrodes,
which is the green mark over there which is kept very close to and embedded into the
concrete, which is very important, so that you get a uniform data.

And at the same time, the humidity of the test region should be maintained very high,
because you are testing the anode, right? So if you keep the humidity in that region very dry,
what will happen is, there is no demand for corrosion, so anode will not provide the current.
So what you have to do is, this area where the test region, we call it test region, those regions
should be kept relatively wet before we take the electrical measurements. And then, when we
take the electrical measurements, we have to see whether the anodes are able to supply the
necessary current or not. And this should be done after the installation, so that we can check
whether the system is working or not. We are not checking whether the individual product or
an anode is working or not. We are checking here whether the system is working or not;
system when I mean, after the installation.

So for this, keeping very wet condition is important. The test region should be really
wet. Let us say for example, you can spray the water or keep that region wet for almost one
day, so that the resistivity of the concrete in that region becomes very low. When the
resistivity is very low, then there is a possibility of the steel in that region to corrode. So

997
when the steel tends to corrode, that means there is a high demand for the anodic current.
And then, the anode will come into action, they will provide that current. Then if they are
providing the current, we can say that the anodes are active and they are functioning at least
at the time of testing. Again, it does not give any long-term performance indicator. This test
provides only the on-site instantaneous performance. For the long-term performance, you
have to go for GAP test, which I explained in few slides earlier and also in the other lecture.

Now if you do this on-site instantaneous performance test with dry concrete, then the
steel does not tend to corrode. So there is no demand given to the anode, and so the anode
will not provide the current. And then if your current is very low, you cannot say that anode
is bad. So what you have to check is, you have to keep it wet and then try to corrode the
system. And at that moment, the anode should come into the play, and they should prevent
that corrosion by giving the current. One more time I will tell, this does not give the long-
term performance indicator, this shows only that the anode, immediately after the installation
you can do this test to check whether the workmanship was good or not. Connectivity
between the bars, between the anode and the rebar, etc., were good or not, all that you can
check with this. But for long-term performance you really still have to go for GAP test. When
I say long-term, it means anything beyond 2 or 3 years of time, if you want to know whether
the anodes are going to perform more than that time period, it is better to go for GAP test.
(Refer Slide Time: 46:30)

Now this is the potential, some data which we collected, and then here, why I put that is,
instant-on potential is there, something which we call, means the moment the anode system is
connected, you take a measurement. And then, generally there is a criterion that if there is a

998
100 millivolt (mV) shift in the potential, then the anode is good. This is a typical criterion
which is practised in many places, but again this is not a necessary condition, in my opinion.
(Refer Slide Time: 47:11)

Because, here you can see, in these systems, there is a possibility that, even though the shift
in the potential is less than 100 mV, as you see on the bar chart on the left side, the corrosion
current for the same system is still very low. So at the end what we need is low corrosion of
steel. So the blue graphs indicate that all these systems are actually providing good corrosion
resistance or actually reducing the rate of corrosion of steel, even though the potential shift is
not 100 mV.

So the message here is, this 100 mV criteria, if some anode systems which you get
from the market, if they are not meeting the 100 mV criteria, it does not mean that they are
bad. What you have to see is, whether those anodes are actually able to reduce the corrosion
rate of the steel rebar. If the corrosion rate is less, then it is fine. So that is the message.
(Refer Slide Time: 48:19)

999
Now life-cycle cost, this is again a conceptual cash- flow diagram. You can see that on the
horizontal axis, we have age of the structure, on the vertical axis we have predicted cost of
repair. Now if we go with the red curve, that is conventional repair, that is patch work after
the patch work after the patch work, without really having a system to protect the steel from
corroding, that is cathodic protection, then your cost goes, significantly high. Very steep, and
you can see very immediate step curves on CR1, CR2, CR3, like that. The cost is going to be
significantly high, so the life-cycle cost of the structure is going to be very, very high.

Now if you go for cathodic protection, which is the instillation of anodes, after the
corrosion is identified, that is when we call cathodic protection. Anodes are installed after the
corrosion is identified, which is the blue curve on the screen, you can see CP1, CP2, CP3,
CP4, these are the cathodic protection installation time. Let us say we are designing some
installation for 20 years of life. So at CP1, you find that the structure is corroding and then
you install a cathodic protection system. Then again after 15 years of life, if you find that
system has exhausted completely, and then you go for CP2, that is the second installation of
cathodic protection, like that you can go on. Still the overall cost is going to be much less,
which is about 400 units on the graph, which is much less than the CR option, that is the
conventional repair option. Cathodic protection is blue, conventional repair is red.

Now, a more beneficial system is cathodic prevention system, which is the green
curve which you see. That is, you install the sacrificial anodes before even the corrosion, that
means, during the construction itself, you install the galvanic anodes and we are going to call
it cathodic prevention system – Cprev. That is the green curve on the screen. Very clearly you

1000
can see that it has much longer life. And, you can significantly increase the service life with
minimal cost. So if you are targeting a 100-year service life, all the investment is just required
in the very beginning. Again this is a conceptual graph, just to show the difference between
the 3 options. So it is up to the designer or whoever is paying money to decide on which type
of system is required for the desired service life.
(Refer Slide Time: 51:25)

Now this is some more case studies, data from real experiences. Here I am showing a canteen
building in Mumbai, multiple jetty structures; in all these structures, there is about 70% cost
saving when you go for cathodic protection system. So that is very, very significant. And this
is just one repair cost. So that will save significantly also on the life-cycle cost. So there is
70% saving. We really have to push this technology deep into our repair industry. It is very,
very essential.
(Refer Slide Time: 52:05)

1001
And one more thing I want to say, this is a demonstration of how an installation of cathodic
protection could have saved this fibre wrapping. So this structure on the bottom- left image, it
is not a clear image. But, you can see it is a cooling tower in a power plant and you have this
funnels at the top; huge structure, very thin element, but very large in diameter. These are the
cooling tower structures, in most power plants you will see this, and you can see a red square
mark over there, which indicate the corroded region where the fiber wrapping was failed.

So you can also see on the top- left image, there is a wrapping; 3 rings, kind of,
laminates you can see. They are installed, because this structure was experiencing lot of
cracking due to corrosion because there is a lot of chloride-rich environment here, because
this structure is right next to the sea shore. So it uses the sea water and then that water after
the power generation, is cooled using this, so that is why we call it cooling tower. So this
particular concrete structure is exposed to very rich chloride conditions and this structure
corrodes very fast.

Then about 3 years ago, somebody recommended putting this fiber wrapping to
contain that forces of corrosion, etc., but it did not work, because the stress is coming from
the corrosion of the steel inside. So unless you stop that corrosion from happening, the stress
is going to keep on increasing, and then keep on exerting that pressure on to the surrounding
concrete. So just providing a belt (fibre wrap) around the structure is not going to help. You
also have to stop the expansive stresses which are coming.

1002
 So you have to stop the corrosion from happening first, then provide the fiber
wrapping, then it will help. So here is an example where you can very clearly see the brown
rust oozing out of the fiber wrapping, and it has cracked the fiber wraps. So on the picture on
the right side you can see, the brown color rust oozing out through that crack, it is a large
crack, a few millimeters wide.

And the texture you see is the fiber wrap (fibre laminates). Only in 3 years this is
happening. So they invested a lot of money or rather spent a lot of money because there is no
return of investment here. So they spent a lot of money on wrapping this structure with fibers
and then they found that they are not really helping because the corrosion was still happening.

So 2 things - One is, when you go for repair, you have to really think about durability
aspects and the structural aspects. So in this case, the corrosion of the reinforcement inside
should be stopped. That is the repair to ensure durability. And at the same time, for the
structural strengthening the fibre wrapping is applied. So, these 2 systems should work
together, if you are providing only one system it may not work very well.

So, stopping or arresting the corrosion is very important when we go for repair works.
And that has to be done in an electrochemical manner. So that is cathodic protection,
electrochemical chloride extraction or electrochemical re-alkalisation, these techniques are
kind of becoming more and more important to ensure that this repair is going to be long
lasting.

Otherwise, you will tend to go back again to the same point and keep repairing. And this
particular structure on the picture is going to be demolished now, because of this poor repair
practice. Poor repair practice means just providing fibre wrapping without any method to
arrest the corrosion. So if this FRP wrapping was done along with the cathodic protection of
the steel, then this structure would have lasted much longer. So that is the message. So let us
plan both cathodic protection and other repair systems. So do not look at cathodic protection
as a competitor for other repair systems, but as a system which helps the other systems to
work effectively.

(Refer Slide Time: 57:05)

1003
Just to summarize, we looked at different case studies, even 12- year old laboratory and field
data were shown on photographs demonstrating that galvanic protection systems really work
for even 12 plus years.

And then we have also demonstrated how the Galvanic Anode Performance - GAP
test, can be used to assess the long-term performance of the anodes in very short term. And it
is really worth doing that test, if you really are thinking about long-term performance, you
need to do this test and it is highly recommended and then also shown some field studies in
India. And quality assessment in the field - ASTM C876 is not directly applicable to these
structures, but what we have to measure is depolarized potential and we also saw that 100
mV criteria is not a necessary condition. What we need to ensure is the corrosion rate of the
steel, as long as it is less than 1 mA/m2 , then we can consider it as a passive condition.

And then properly implemented SACP systems have been effectively protecting
structure for about 12 years. We have now sufficient field data to start distributing to
everybody and then let us start using cathodic protection system as a system which augments
the other systems to perform very well. So do not look at cathodic protection as a competitor
to other repair practices, but as a system which helps the other systems to work effectively.
And, very sure that this application of cathodic protection is going to significantly reduce the
life-cycle cost by reducing the number of repairs. We also looked cost factors. So I think with
that I will close, and these are the references which we used, to make this presentation and
thank you.

1004
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
Prof. Sripriya Rengaraju
Prof. Radhakrishna G. Pillai
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology – Madras

Lecture - 34
Residual Service Life Estimation of Reinforced Concrete Structures

Hello everyone. Welcome to the lecture on maintenance and repair of concrete structures. I am
Sripriya. I have recently completed my Ph. D. Today, I am going to discuss about the residual
service life estimation of reinforced concrete structures.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:27)

What we see here is the brief outline of the presentation. First, I will be discussing the principles
of service life design, various models available and how to do the residual service life estimation,
what are the approaches that need to be taken in case of chloride induced corrosion and carbonation
induced corrosion.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:49)

1005
Can you identify this bridge? See carefully.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:00)

This is the famous Morandi viaduct bridge in Italy. It is an iconic structure, named after a structural
designer. It is a cable stayed bridge with two cables on each side of the pylon. If you go in to the
structural details, it is approximately about 200 meter span and the cables are encapsulated by
prestressed concrete; instead of usual metally oven cables. This is an innovative design and it has
obtained many applauds for its light weight and new type of design.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:44)

1006
But what happened to this structure after 40 years of constructions? You can see here the deck has
fallen down. The bridge collapsed.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:56)

Then the condition of bridge was assessed. Here you can see at the top, top of the pylon, a lot of
corrosion happened, which led to the reduction in the structural capacity. The corrosion of the
cables and lack of maintenance were identified as the major cause of collapse. This is not only the
case in other countries.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:22)

1007
We have similar kind of bridge collapses in India too. These are recent bridge collapses that
happened in 2018 and 2019. The Andheri pedestrian bridge collapse, Siliguri bridge collapse in
West Bengal, Junagadh bridge collapse in Gujarat, Kolkata bridge collapse, all these bridge
collapses claiming lot of lives and huge economic loss. So why such kind of failures occur? It is
high time to introspect such kind of failures and learn from these failures.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:53)

What will we learn from these failures? Adequate knowledge about the interaction of materials
and environment is lacking during the design phase leading to the poor choice of materials. Even
in the case of Morandi bridge, you can see that the designer has chosen prestressed concrete to

1008
avoid premature corrosion, but the interaction of the concrete the environment was not considered
sufficiently.

This led to the poor choice of material and led to final collapse of the structure. Second is the codal
provision for durability designs are not implemented at site properly. For example, if some cover
has to be given according to the code, the minimum cover is only provided. In case of structural
loads, we are giving sufficient factor safety and then consider that for design, but in case of
materials, if you are giving the factor of safety for durability based design, then these kind of cover
and low water cement ratio are not implemented at site due to poor site practices.

The third and foremost important thing is periodic preventive maintenance. This is not in place in
many of the structures. Lack of expertise in data collection and interpretation is also prevalent. If
you go to any kind of field, the data interpretation is very difficult, because of the lack of expertise
and there is no record for repair and failure histories. So, to avoid such kind of premature
deterioration, durability-based design and periodic maintenance should be adopted. To understand
more, what is meant by durability-based design, we will dig deeper.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:44)

Designing the structures giving importance to environmental loads in addition to structural loads
is called durability-based design. So now the question arises, what is mean by environmental
loads? For example, if you have earthquake and wind, then these are called environmental loads

1009
and they are adequately taken care by codal provisions with the probability of occurrence, once in
50 years or once in 100 years, but if we take chloride spray, carbonation, etc., which are daily
changes.

And freeze and thaw-like seasonal variation, these environment loads are not considered
adequately and these are also subjected to huge variation, because of change in climate conditions,
example global warming. So, what happens when such loads are not considered? If these loads are
not considered, then the material start deteriorating prematurely. If this continue to happen, then
the structures do not serve its intended, leading to huge economic loss. So, the durability-based
design enhances the service life of structures. Now we will see what is meant by service life?
(Refer Slide Time: 05:59)

Service life is the time during which the structure is able to meet the requirements of the user safely
without any repair or any intervention. For example, this is the age of structure and this is the
damage level (see the graph). This is the structural element considered. So from the construction
to the initiation of corrosion, this is called corrosion initiation phase and once the corrosion starts,
this is called propagation phase.

Chlorides or carbonation from outer surface enter through the cover concrete and reaches the
surface of steel and leading to the initiation of corrosion. So, in case of corrosion, there are only
two major types that are being considered. One is chloride-induced corrosion and another one is

1010
carbonation induced corrosion. So, chlorides or carbonation enter from the cover concrete and
reaches the steel and we are talking about the cover concrete of 2 inches.

So, if you have to design a structure for 100 years, then you have consider the ingress of chloride
or carbonation for the 2-inch cover with 100 years, so that is the challenge that exist in the service
life. So to enhance the service life, understanding the durability characteristics of the materials is
essential.
(Refer Slide Time: 07:30)

So the first and foremost principle of durability based design is all materials deteriorate with time.
Every material deteriorates at a unique rate. For example, if you take concrete. Concrete reacts
with environmental exposure in a different way than that of steel. So, each material deteriorates at
a unique rate and the deterioration rate also depends on the environmental exposure condition,
material protective systems.

For example, if you want to prevent carbonation from happening in concrete, you can have an anti-
carbonation coating and if you use supplementary cementitious based concrete, then there will be
a greater resistance towards the ingress of deleterious agents than the normal concrete. So all these
impact the service life. So these systems can be considered for designing the new structure. But
we have lot of existing structures, so how to ensure the longevity of the such existing structures.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:41)

1011
For that, we have to calculate the residual service life. The residual service life is the remaining
time from now to the corrosion initiation. For example, if this is the age of structure that is being
considered and this is the initiation time that is being estimated, then the remaining life, which is
the corrosion-free life can be estimated from the initiation by subtracting the initiation years from
the age of structure. So why this is important? Because this will help us to schedule the preventive
maintenance.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:25)

Now we will move on to chloride induced corrosion. So, if you have to model the ingress of
chlorides in this cover depth, then we can use Fick’s second law of diffusion to simulate the
chloride ingress. You can see here that this is OPC and this is SCM based concrete. So once you

1012
have to SCM based concrete for the same depth the chloride amount differs hugely. So this is
because of the resistance that is being developed.

Also you have note that with the SCM based concretes, concrete hydrates in a slower rate leading
to a value called M, that is the ageing factor. So for all the SCM based concretes, there will be a
greater M than that of the control mix. That is the OPC concrete. So these parameters should be
considered in this equation before estimating the service life.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:32)

So many models are available, which uses Fick’s second law of diffusion and here you can see
that there are plenty of models available, square root of time, Life 365, Duracrete, Clinconc,
Chlodiff, etc. But obtaining realistic input parameters is the major challenge.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:58)

1013
So these are the different parameters that has to be considered in case of chloride-induced
corrosion. There are three major parameters. One is related to materials. Second one is related to
design and third is related to environment exposure condition. In case of material parameters that
is apparent diffusion coefficient that is rate at which the chloride is ingressing, critical chloride
threshold value is amount of chlorides that are required at the steel interface to initiate corrosion.

This depends on the combination of steel and binder and the corrosion rate if we are considering
the propagation phase also. In case of design parameter, we will majorly consider the cover depth.
In case of environmental exposure condition, the surface chloride and the build-up rate are
important.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:56)

1014
Once you have these parameters, you can estimate the residual service life. Here, I have taken a 6-
year-old bridge. I have taken the girder. So this is the background information of the girder. It has
the M60 concrete with 27% class F fly ash and 0.42 water binder ratio.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:19)

If you take the core of the concrete, we can layer the core and take the chloride concentration by
doing the chloride analysis. Once you get these points, you can fit a curve and with this, you can
get the Dcl. This Dcl will be the Dcl at the age of structure. In this case, we have taken 6-year-old
bridge, so this is Dcl at 6 years, but all the service life estimation considers Dcl at age of 28 days.
So we have some equations and we can back calculate Dcl 28 from Dcl 6 years.

1015
Similarly, with this speed, you can also do calculation for M, that is the aging coefficient. So, the
first top most layer you can consider for surface chloride concentration and then the exposure
condition for the chloride build-up rate.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:20)

So the next parameter we need know is chloride threshold. This can be determined by hr-ACT
method. Here you can see this lollipop specimen. This is the rebar that has been used with the
mortar specimen, which is similar to the composition at that of the binder in the concrete. So you
can do a repeated Rp measurement with this three electrode system and then with the corrosion
initiation criteria, you can find the chloride threshold for different types of concrete.

You can see that the different type of concrete has different values for chloride threshold, even
though the steel is same. You can get the further details of this experiment in the previous lecture.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:07)

1016
So now you have all the parameters required for service life estimation. Now you need a tool. So,
this is Life-365 tool, which is easily available in internet and easily downloadable. This is user
interface of Life-365.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:27)

Now we can take case studies with a consideration that a bridge is along the seashore with SCM
based concrete, 15% of silica fume and 15% fly ash and then we can consider a conventional steel
cover depth 50 mm and water cement ratio 0.4 and 0.6.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:47)

1017
This is first tab. This is the project tab. Here you can do all the design parameters. You can choose
the type of the structure whether it is a slab and wall. Slab or wall means, it is one dimensional
exposure. You can also choose column, which will be a two-dimensional exposure, then you can
also choose different types of concrete that is being fed. If you have three different choices, you
can feed all the information about the concrete in this.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:21)

Second is the exposure tab. So, this Life-365 is based mainly for chloride-induced corrosion. So,
you can directly choose the location of the structure, from that it will automatically calculate the
surface chloride concentration and chloride build up rate, etc. or if you have a structure that is
already in place, from that you can set the values here. Similarly, the temperature history also you

1018
can either fit the temperature, based on the exposure condition or it will take automatically from
the location chosen.
(Refer Slide Time: 16:01)

The third is the material characteristics. Here you can input what is type of the steel, what is the
Dcl at 28 days, M, hydration years; it is usually taken as 25 and then chloride threshold, which we
found by hr-ACT and propagation years. Life-365 by default takes 6 years as propagation years.
So if you want to calculate corrosion-free life, then you can make this as 0 and if you have to
calculate M, there is formula given in Life-365 manual. That is also easily downloadable from
internet. So, from that formula, you calculate the M value and then when you click calculate service
life, it will estimate the service life.
(Refer Slide Time: 16:51)

1019
And give us a cumulative density function. From here, you can see there for 50% probability, it
has given for different types of concrete the initiation years.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:03)

If you see closely, the control concrete has given only 4.8 years and other type of concretes has
given at least 2-3 times increase. So this emphasizes the idea of using SCM based concrete in sites
and also lower water binder ratio. From this you can calculate the residual service life by
subtracting the initiation years and the age of structure.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:36)

1020
But Life-365 has some limitations like the calculation of M is very much dependent on the
composition and it restricts the usage of M to only 0.6. So nowadays, we have lot of materials,
new materials, which are having slower hydration. So maybe you have to relook at the calculation
of M, so that cannot be accommodated in Life-365, also the standard deviation by default is taken
as 25%, but in case of field structures, the variation will be huge.

So, to accommodate these kinds of small variations, we have developed a program called SL-Chlor
to estimate the service life. So this is also based on Fick’s second law of diffusion. Here we have
taken an example of bridge pier with 70 mm cover depth. So, we have taken 4 different types of
concrete and we have estimated the service life. So here you can see for C-1 and C-4, even though
it is of same grade, it is showing that the age is increased by four times.

So, this again and again emphasizes that the type of concrete and water cement ratio that has been
used in the concrete plays a major role. So, the diffusion coefficient and the ageing coefficient,
which indirectly plays a role for type of concrete and water binder ratio that place in a major role
in enhancing the service life than chloride threshold. So, if you are deciding authority and if you
are not of materials background, how will you choose the materials? For that, you need to have
user friendly tool, which is readily available like a design chart.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:47)

1021
We developed similar kind of thing called nomogram to estimate the service life. Here you can see
the first quadrant, it is composed of probability of failure. Here the probability of failure means
the corrosion initiation. So, this is called probability of corrosion initiation and then the cover
depth. So, if you say what is the probability of corrosion initiation? If you have a tender document,
which specifies the service life as 100 years, the probability of corrosion to occur in 100 years is
20%.

That means it is 0.2. So, if you have, in this example, I have taken as 0.2 and the cover depth as
40. So, this will be specified in the code for exposure condition minimum cover depth will be
given. So, I have taken that cover depth and then if you have a choice of material. For example,
you can take OPC concrete. So, the OPC concrete is given and then you have another that choice
of material. For example, 50% slag and fly ash or OPC with corrosion inhibiter that is 2.

So you can have 3 choices that is OPC C-1 and then OPC with inhibiter that is C-2 and then slag
that is C3. For these 3 different types of materials, you can make a concrete and find the respective
diffusion coefficient. So that will be given as D1, D2 and D3. So, once you hit D1, D2, D3, you
can go to the left and find out the service life. So, you can choose the materials based on the optimal
cost and the service life it is rendering.

1022
So, you have ability to choose the materials based on its performance. You can use nomogram in
a reversal way also. If you want to have 100 years of service life, then you can from here you can
have a diffusion coefficient. So you have D1, D2, D3 and then from that you can know what are
the different types of materials used. So you know the C-1, C-2, C-3 and from that you have to go
left to understand, what is the type of cover depth you want.

Then, from that you will understand the probability of failure. So, these kinds of nomograms are
also developed for different exposure conditions. For example, the one I explained is for 800 meter
away from sea. Similar nomograms were constructed for structures, which are exposed in the
splash zone, spray zone and then 1500 meter away from the sea. So synergistic effect of various
parameters must be considered while selecting materials and these nomograms help us to do that
effectively.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:03)

Now we will come to carbonation. In case of carbonation also, there are different parameters that
need to be considered. Here, I have categorized in to 3 parameters that is material parameters,
design parameters and environmental exposure parameter. In the material parameters, we have
apparent carbonation coefficient critical pH value and corrosion rate in case of propagation phase
and design parameter that is cover depth and environmental exposure condition that is carbon
dioxide concentration.

1023
So, if you take a core from the existing structure and spray phenolphthalein indicator, because of
phenolphthalein, the concrete will change its colour. So if it is carbonated, that is if the pH is less
than 9, then it will turn as colourless. This carbonation is being researched throughout by various
researchers, especially for SCM based concrete.

Because the carbon dioxide concentration is varying from place to place. For example, if CO2
concentration in Madras will be different from Delhi and if you compare these two, the carbonation
rate will be different. Similarly, if you compare India with Singapore, the carbonation rate will be
different. So, we have to model such kind of variation in the climatic conditions and generate
similar nomograms. So in IIT Madras, we are researching this and we can expect similar
nomograms soon.
(Refer Slide Time: 24:57)

So, to summarize, the durability-based design giving importance to environmental loads is

necessary for enhanced service life. The choice of material should be done after careful
consideration of its interaction with environment. Periodic testing of chloride and carbonation
profiles and updating the estimates of residual service life are necessary to prevent and detect a
corrosion, especially in case of strands, which has happened in Morandi duct.

1024
And expertise and data collection and interpretation of field structures should be developed and
we should encourage the young researches to go to this research carrier. Record of repair and
failure history should be done for future reference.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:48)

In short, a balance between steel and concrete should be achieved. That is quality of both steel and
concrete should be given appropriate care for enhancing the service life.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:03)

Thank you.

1025
 Maintenance and Repair of Concrete Structures
David Trejo, Ph.D., P.E., FACI
School of Civil and Construction Engineering
Oregon State University

Lecture – 35
Service-Life Estimation-2

Good morning, good afternoon or good evening wherever you are at and whatever time you
are watching this. Welcome to the MOOC class at IIT, Madras. My name is David Trejo. I
am here to present on corrosion on service-life of reinforced concrete structures. I really want
to focus on the influence of input variables. In my last lecture I spoke about the basics of
corrosion, I talked about the physical system, I talked about thermodynamics, I talked about
the kinetics of the system and then I actually wrapped up with little bit on service-life and I
talked about the importance of service-life and how would affects our society today if we
construct structures or they short lived or they deteriorate quickly that there is a significant
problem with that.

And so one of the things that I want to focus on today is, I am going to pick up the service-
life, I am going to reintroduce it briefly then I am going to talk about the input variables that
we need to predict the service-life. And one of my arguments is that we have been very good
with modeling and computational power that we have now to model the service-life, but what
we have not done is the input parameters or the input variables that we need to predict that. I
will talk about this, I will talk about the influence, and I also talk about the need to a
standardized some of the testing.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:58)

1026
What I am going to do is I am going give a brief review of a service-life of reinforce concrete
structures, I am going to talk about influencing variables, about four influencing variables is
another one that it is just a field measure, it’s the the concrete cover and I want to address
that. I want to talk about the chloride surface concentration, I am going to talk about the
critical chloride threshold, I am going to talk a little bit about the admixed chloride content
that is interesting because it seems it just a laboratory test and we should be able to do fairly
easy, but there is quite a bit of controversy on that, so I will talk about some of those
controversies and what we have to do. I will talk about the apparent diffusion coefficient and
this is really just talking about the need we have not actually started addressing this, there are
several tests out there, but those test are not representative of field conditions and so we need
to make changes to that and then I will go ahead and summarize.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:50)

1027
So my objective for the presentation is really to show that input variables for predicting the
service-life of reinforced concrete structures can significantly influence the prediction and I
will show some data. The second thing is that significant research is needed in the
standardized testing to better asses these input variables. So these two big takeaways that I
want to talk about today.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:16)

Let us go ahead and look at the brief review of service-life. I showed this slide yesterday,
how do we go about predicting the service-life and what do we need to do and why. Well, the
reason that we need to predict the service-life is because we spent lot of money on these
structures to design and construct them and we put them in aggressive environment and these
aggressive environment are can be ocean, if there is freezing it can be salt application in
roadways, but we are putting our structures in much more severe environments and so
because of that we need to look at the service life.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:57)

1028
I will do a brief overview again, why do we expose it to chlorides, chlorides are transported
into the structure and into the concrete and it takes some duration to get there. So what we do
is we model the transfer of chlorides into the concrete and the key point is how long does it
take and I did little cartoon here is that we have chloride and surface for the concrete, you
could see there to the right, I think it is going to show here to the right. These ions in the
electrolyte and the surface of the concrete they are typically transported into the concrete.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:52)

How do we look at the service-life. The service-life is really a function of the damage the
structure experiences. If we look at the damage as a function of time, what we can do is when
you construct something like in the picture, we have no damage at the beginning and then
with time it increases and there is maximum allowable damage and we call that the end of our
service-life.

1029
And so what is critical for us is, we are looking at especially chloride induced corrosion, that
at some point in the structural life corrosion starts, it initiates and what we do is we want to
determine that time, from where we put in service to when that corrosion initiates. There has
not been a whole bunch on propagation phase, the phase after it starts initiating, but there is a
more starting now and we should get a better handle on this. Right now the time after
corrosion initiates we typically give it to 6 to 10 years and then we take it out of service or we
do a major repair. So that is what service-life is and time required to start the corrosion
process is really what we are interested in here.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:01)

I talked in my last lecture a little bit about the process, we talk about advection and diffusion
and permeation and then migration of chlorides. We have all these different mechanisms, but
what we do is we simplify it and we make use of the apparent diffusion coefficient.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:18)

1030
Using that we actually solve for that, we come up with an equation for looking at the chloride
transport at the time and then what we do is we make some assumptions on the chloride
concentration at the surface of the steel and what we do is we come up with a time and we
call this service-life that is it. That ‘t’ right there is that time to corrosion initiation and there
is four key variables that I want to talk about. And I am going to show here is that those are
the variables the apparent diffusion coefficient, the critical chloride threshold, the admixed
chloride content (Ci) and the surface chloride concentration. Now why do we care about this?
Well we have the equation and we have input variables, is that it is important to understand
how significant those can affect the output and the output in this case being the time, the time
to corrosion or service-life, the major part of the service-life.
(Refer Slide Time: 07:23)

1031
So let us go ahead and see how they influence and then the plot might appear, but if you look
at some of the variables what you can do is and this is just the sensitivity plot what I did is I
made an assumption, I predicted the service-life for one condition and then what I did is I
looked at if I change one variable at a time how much would it change the output or how
much would it change the service-life.

And you can see here is that for the critical chloride threshold this is the red line here, you
can see that as I change the critical chloride threshold, let us say I am going from a
conventional steel to maybe a corrosion resistance steel is that I increase that, you can see
that there is a significant improvement in my service-life or my time to corrosion. You can
also see, if I increase my cover depth, there is a significant increase.

So really what we want to look at this is that the slope of the line, it is a critical part, the
steeper the line the more sensitive this equation is to that variables. And I also show the
apparent diffusion coefficient, it is that the black line here, as the apparent diffusion
coefficient increases our present change in time to corrosion significantly decrease. So it is
allowing the chlorides to be transported to the concrete much more easily.

So you could see, the point that I am making here is that it is very sensitive to the input
variables and you can see here that if I increase the critical chloride threshold by a factor of 6,
I actually increase the time to corrosion by a factor of 5, it is not linear, but that is what we
get out of this. So we are looking at the sensitivity of our variables.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:18)

1032
It is interesting to know that we think that we have been looking at service-life for a long time
predicting service-life, but if you look at the number of publications, we have our focus on
service-life is that in 1980 there was none, in the 1990 there was very, very few, in 2000, less
than 20 years ago there was only about 60 publications in service-life. And so what I am
trying to show here is that although we seemed to think that this we have been doing service-
life for a long time, it is a relatively young time for this and the first meeting on service-life
was in Washington DC at the NIST and they were looking at modeling the service-life and
that happened in 1998. So we are looking at about 22 years, 25 years and really the point is
that we still have a long ways to go and so it is okay to not know everything and let us keep
working on in making it better.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:19)

Let us look at the surface chloride concentration. On a surface chloride concentration what
happens is, we exposed the concrete to a chloride based solution whether it be the ocean or it
be the deicing or anti-icing salts so that there is chlorides build up on a surface and that is
going to be input parameters into the model. As you can see down here there is a Cs so that is
important. Understand first what do we assume and second is that how can we make it better.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:52)

1033
So what do we assume now? We assume that it is constant, we know it is not constant in fact
lot of the models assumes it is constant, but there is actually a lot of the publication show that
the people have come up with different assumptions. One of the challenges with that is we do
not expose every concrete structure in the same way and so we have to look at some
variability.

So all these different several factors include the chloride exposure time, the chloride exposure
conditions, the concrete constituent’s materials, and proportions, those all influencers Cs
value. But many researchers have proposed other things all these are different models and I
guess you can see that. Some have said that it is constant, like I said earlier there is that some
have said is the increase is linearly. We know that is probably valid for a while, but it is not
surely not that valid after sometime because that will go up to infinity, some said it
asymptotically approaches some value and then of course they do the bilinear, those are all
common models in the literature. But really is that the right thing and it really represents field
conditions and does not really simulate the real physics that what is going on.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:09)

1034
And so look at some of the literature and you can see the different models here there is a wide
range of models, but what is best? We can use all these different models, but if it does not
represent the actual field performance, it is not realistic and it is not adding any value. I guess
it would make significant advances in developing these models, but we made very little
advances in coming up with representative input parameters for these models.

So you can see there is a wide range here. One of the things that I am going to do is I am
going to talk about this function Shakouri, developed recently and I think it has some
parameters that can be changed, that are more representative of the field conditions and I will
talk about that a little bit.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:57)

1035
If you look at the literature is that you can see there is wide range of assumptions and on
these different surface chloride concentrations, you can see there is a wide range of
distributions, you can see there is a wide range of units, there is a wide range of mean values
and coefficient of variation. There is different ways that they assume, different ways that they
determine these values, some of them they assume and some of them they measure.

But when you do this it actually increases the variability of the model output and so you can
see there we have a wide range down and I am not saying those are incorrect what I am
saying is that at the time that is what they did, they are now in the literature and if you go and
use those values you can actually get a wide range of output.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:42)

So what we do is this made some assumptions and all the input parameters just made them
deterministic or they accepting the one what we did is we varied Cs here. And if you look at
this what we did is, we did time to corrosion here and we look at the number of simulation
and the only thing that we varied was a surface concentration. And you can see that we there
are models it looks like there is some concentration of data between about 25 or maybe 20
and 40 years, but you can get anywhere from 5 to 300 years. And that is a point it is that if we
do not have any standardized testing, we are going to get all wide range of service-life or time
to corrosion values which provide limited values from this great wok that has been going on
and so we have to come up with the standardized test method.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:32)

1036
And so I said I was going to focus on the work by Shakouri and here the third one is here, but
the nice about Shakouri he let you change the variable. You can see there different surface
chloride concentrations and from the different authors, but I am going to focus on the work
by Shakouri.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:00)

One of the nice things about this you can see the equation that he put up here to predict the
surface chloride concentration that is a function of time and it is a function of 2 other
constants that he develops and those constants are depended on different things. So the
particular one that we are looking at here, we assume that a is 0.77 and we assume c is 6 and
we change b that we can see is that the slope of this surface loading decreases.

1037
Now why is that important? Well it is important because even if you are in a very high
concentration you are going to have a very high loading rate and the surface concentration is
going to increase at a fairly quick rate. However, let us see that you do not have a severe
condition and Its builds up is a lot slower where you can adjust this by adjusting this B
values.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:56)

Also I thought, another unique thing that he did is that he changed put a parameter in there
where if there is a delay in exposing your structures to chlorides is that you can actually
account for this too. And what he did is he put in a C value and you can see that the larger the
C value the larger the delay in exposure. So when would this occur let us say that you had a
reinforced concrete structure or you put epoxy or epoxy coding on the surface. Eventually
that wears off the chloride starts getting into it and you can see there is the increasing in
chloride surface concentration, but it increases at a later day. So I think that was a very
unique way of coming up with something that realistic in the field. So that some of the works
that has been done on surface chloride concentration, he was validated some of this work and
that is going to come out soon. But I think this is an interesting and probably a model which
is more representative of actual field conditions. So I think there has not been a lot out there,
there has been lot of assumptions we are doing some validation now and I think at some point
soon we get to looking at the what is the real chloride surface concentration, but we are not
there yet.

So let us look at the next variable, critical chloride threshold. I should say quite a work going
on this area, but we have not been successful in coming up with what is a real value and this

1038
topic I could talk for hours and hours and probably days and days and so we will have to little
brief here because we have limited time, but it is a very interesting topic and the one that
surely needed, it is a significant variable. Remember earlier I showed, if you change the
critical chloride threshold of the steel by factor of 6 you increase your service-life by factor of
a 5 or your time to corrosion by factor of 5. So if we went from a, let us say 1 kg cubic meter
a critical chloride threshold for conventional steel and we want to 1, still they have 6 which is
not that high, 6 kilogram per cubic meter. We could not increase our service-life by a factor
of 5, in that example earlier.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:27)

Let us look at the literature Angst did, did a similar paper on 2009, he looked at the critical
chloride threshold values and what he found is that the values of range from 0.04 to 8.3%, I
mean that is about 200 times of magnitude and so why we are getting this and what is
happening with this stuff. One of the things is we have seen is that there are several issues,
surely how you test your chlorides, really how you test the critical chloride threshold, I will
talk about these now.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:02)

1039
One of the things that we look at is that what test we used to test the chlorides, one could be
free chloride which they call when I have free in here in parentheses or I am sorry in quotes
intentionally is because free is it could be water soluble, it could be pore extraction, it is
really very clear on lot of this what this was. And when we talk about total and we know that
acid soluble test it is not total but it is close to total. But you can see there just a range, just
from the critical chloride or just from testing of the chlorides. So that is something that we
need to think about, should we be testing using the acid soluble test or should we be doing
water soluble test. And if you are not familiar with those tests, they are different test and you
can see that they will get a wide range of values from the different test. But I think one of the
things that we need to do is we need to start standardizing the test and not using both and we
will talk about that a little bit later.

Now if we look at the chloride hydroxide ratios, we have not only variability from the
chloride test method, but if you look chloride hydroxide ratios now we have even the more
variability and so what is right? If we are looking the critical chloride threshold, what is
correct and what best represents the actual field conditions? We do not know, we need to test
it.
(Refer Slide Time: 20:22)

1040
I am going to show you some of the stuff it is in literature. It is a wide range of stuff from the
literature, you can see here that is Shakouri and myself actually did look at it. And you can
see that there is a wide range of distributions or different types of distribution to use different
units and you can see here, they have used some testing to predict this, but some of them just
assumed it.

I think one of the challenge is that we have to assume some things early on, once it gets in the
literature it can continually being used and if it is used predict the service-life with something
that has been assumed, you have to be very careful with that. So I guess the point is that there
is a wide range of looking at this variable, it has been a wide range of assumptions and we do
not know how they apply to the actual conditions in the field.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:20)

1041
If we look at the test and I am going to focus on little bit here from here on now is that there
is a wide range of test to actually estimate a critical chloride threshold. You can see, I listed 7
here, that were in the literature and so we have a different test method, so we are probably
going to get different critical chloride threshold values. And Angst when he did his work he
recommended that was a critical part, that was a critical thing in evaluating the critical
chloride threshold and so we cannot have 7 test if we want to actually get something that is
representative of the field.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:53)

You can see by looking at different test methods, you can summarize in a table here and what
was the objective of the original test, even though the original objective may have been
different and was not to get the critical chloride threshold, all these are commonly used to get
that and so what measured and how do we measure and how we determine what the critical
chloride threshold, you can see that they use corrosion potential macro-cell, they use anodic
polarization, they use OCP or micro-cell current here again, linear polarization, they used a
wide range of different test which will also influence the variability. What criteria do we use
to say that now it’s put it from a passive state to an active state. You can see that there is
some early work that they have had no criteria, they started cracking maybe pulled that out.
There has been some stuff and there has been spike in current, I am not sure spike is the best
technical term, but that is what they used and they have a wide range of things.

But what is most important here is that you can see that some of these test period is a 100
week that is too long we can get down to 1 to 9 weeks. There is a wide range of different test
procedures and test times, if we want something, if we want to test to the economical and the

1042
value adding to the industry, is that we have to develop a test that can be performed in a
reasonable amount of time. If I am introducing a new product to the market and new
reinforcing bar I cannot wait 5 years to have that evaluate, just not economically feasible, we
have to do something in a reasonable time. So that is kind of review of the different test
methods, you know the current test procedure is, very significantly they had to develop a
realistic measure of CT and service-life and we need to standardize the test and that is my
point here.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:46)

So, Angst made some recommendations on, if we did develop a test, what we should do,
there has been some additional publications, but I think this was interesting, he said that if
you develop a test it has to be ribbed and in as-received condition. He also said that chloride
has to be introduced by a capillary suction or diffusion, I am not sure we could do both, but I
do not think we have to do both, one or the other and that is important. The point he is
making is that do not admixed chloride in your mix and really we have to use detected by use
electrochemical methods. Those are the 3 critical parts that he recommended and we have to
also realize that there should be some variability in this, there is still concrete interface it will
vary that surely they will vary with the different test, but just different steel products will
vary a little bit and different cementitious material will vary a little bit. And so we should see
some distribution in our values, but some distribution does not mean orders a magnitude
distribution. I think we need to really have a standard test that can be representatives of what
is really in the field.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:03)

1043
And so what is important if we are going to develop a test, I think needs to be repeatable, I
think it needs to be simple, I think it needs to be economical, it need to be timely, and it need
to be accurate. I am going to focus on this timely thing now because I think that is a critical
factor of course they all are, well we have looked at some of this, but time is critical.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:23)

So we did is we developed a test procedure to predict or quantify the critical chloride

threshold and you can see here, here is our anode here, it is a relatively small sample, 150
millimeters or something and then we actually have that connected to a cathode here and that
of course what we want to do we want to have some driving force. What we have done is we
have raise a cathode above the anode, we have a solution here.

1044
We have it only up to the center horizontal bar and we only have the solution in our cathode
up to half a bar because we want oxygen to get into our cathode, then we have those
connected with both the salt bridge and the wire. You can see here is that here is our anode a
little bit more descriptive of it and what we have done is we have intentionally designed it so
that we can have a dog bone. But this area in the middle, what we do is we expose this of
course chloride is transported in, they will get to the steel in this area first and so once we get
activation, we have some criteria for this corrosion activation, we can easily break that off
and do the testing, it is very simple. I mean this is one way the criterias make it simple.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:42)

So what we would like to see from this test is, we have some test time and this is not real data
this is just kind of simulated data, but we thought about, before we actually developed this
test what we want to see. We want to see some passive state at sometime and then at some
point when there is sufficient quantity of chloride at their interface, we get significant
increases in whatever variable we are measuring and we can clearly see and whether there is
an active state. That was one of our objectives to do this and we did, I am not going to show
the data, we have lots of data on this and so it is very distinct, but we can see that increase in
what we are looking at OCP, open circuit potential.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:39)

1045
If we look at this region here, we crack this region off, we expose it for some time and
typically the test can be done in about 4 to 5 weeks, we cure and then we actually expose 4 to
5 weeks not more than that and you can see the region of mortar testing, it is from here to
here. It easily breaks off the sample, that area right there that supposed to be mortar, you can
see that this we have this there.

Now what we do is we actually, when we measure this we actually get some C test and this is
this value here. We get an average value because we check out the whole cover what we have
to do is we have to correlate that with a critical chloride threshold which is less of that. We
have done that testing, I am not going to show now, it is very repeatable, I mean it seems to
run about 60% to 70% of the average value. So our secret is about 60% to 70% of our C test.
(Refer Slide Time: 28:38)

1046
Okay so we did a partial factorial design, you can see our variables, we change the water
cement ratio, our sand to cement ratio, and our chloride exposure solution. We looked at
different exposure cycles, it was continuously wet. We looked at one day wet and one day
dry, we looked at 3 days wet and 4 days dry and we want to see what would be most efficient
and timely and would gave the least variability. And then we actually are exposed solution in
our anode because we have a small cover what we did is we looked at different pH of our
exposure solution and that was 7 and 12.5%.
(Refer Slide Time: 29:18)

Here is our full experimental program, I do not think we want to get into all of this, but all
those variables were assessed, in fact pH was done by comparing set number 2 and 3 and
effective exposure type we compared 3, 4 and 5 and then we separately could compare at 13,
14 and 15, then to see effect of water cement ratio we compared set number 6, set number 11
and set number 12, effect of sand and cement ratio is important because it effects the
workability of the mortar and the reproducibility of the measurements, we looked at set
number 3, 10 and 11 and then of course chloride exposure 7, 8, 9 and that was the
concentration of the chloride exposure. Without getting into all that we did a comprehensive
study, we actually had about 6 different testing organizations to evaluate this, I mean some
round-robin testing.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:18)

1047
What we did is we came up with some value, some distribution and what we did is this is
some preliminary data, we are still getting this is just from one lab, but it is very interesting
that we have this range we actually have done some, this was some of the preliminary stuff
we have done some more testing and we tied up the test and we do this, this is even getting
narrow right now.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:41)

So what we would recommend, we have recommend that the test we perform with a 0.42
water cement ratio and s sand/cement ratio of 1.375, exposure solution of 2%, the pH of the
exposure solution for the anode should be 12.5 and we recommended a continuous exposure
and we did that for several reasons because first of all it is easier to handle and it is more
economical, there is many places where testing is very expensive and so what we did is we
decided to do a continuous exposure. We think that we should have results from this very

1048
soon, but this is a standard test that we can use for assessing the critical chloride threshold
and this is important for reasonably predicting the service-life or time to corrosion and
service-life. It is a start.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:31)

Let me summarize here, literature contains a wide range of values of critical chloride
threshold. Using these critical threshold value results in a wide range of time the corrosion
and service-life predictions. And it is almost provides no value and so we need to standardize,
the lack of standardization is the result and we need to standardize. I have showed some
preliminary results and hopefully though we will keep going. So now let us look at, should be
a very simple thing, we have chlorides and almost all of our constituent.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:11)

1049
We have Portland cement, we have fine aggregates, we have SCMs, fly ash, slag we have
coarse aggregates, we have chemical admixtures and we pour water in our mix and so
typically all of those have some chlorides in it and not all the time, but there is almost always
find trace chlorides in our concrete.

The question is, if there is too much in there, it could actually initiate corrosion when put the
structure in service. The corrosion can start right away, of course we want to keep the
corrosion threshold, we want to keep it under some allowable content. These are all referred
to as admixed chlorides, the salt and this material are referred to as admixed chlorides and
that is very different from transport of chlorides. Admixed chlorides are with the constituent
material when the material are mixed fresh, the fresh date. Why do we care about this? If we
look at our initial cost and we look at the allowable chloride limit here is that if we actually
let allowable chloride limit go high our construction cost will be lower because we do not
have to transport any new materials in.

Let us assume that you buy beach and let us assume that you have a great source of sand of
course it has very high chlorides and just to be wise, do not use beach sand with chlorides in
it, but let us say that you did and let us say it was allowable, you would not have to be
transport more sand in, it would be much more economical construction cost. However, there
is a cost for that and that cost is the overall cost. Because now if you exceed some level
where the chlorides now initiates corrosion early on of course you get corrosion and you get a
structure that would not last that long. So we have to find some reasonable time and you can
see that would results from, if you actually have too much chlorides in your concrete when
you makes it fresh. So we have find what is the reasonable limit. What is it, I mean there is
lot of specification to say you cannot have this much, but is this reasonable? I do not know, I
do have opinion but I am not sure I know, but let us keep going.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:21)

1050
ACI is a leader in looking at these durability issues, but if you look at lot of their stuff there is
a wide range of allowable chlorides, how much chloride should you allow in your concrete.
We can see here that it varies quite a bit. There was pre 1986 we thought with time we had
get a little better, we have not got much better and you could see that there is a still a
significant variability, in which document you use and how much chloride you can allow into
your concrete. And so it also little bit based on the exposure condition and so we have this
current and I guess the question which limit is correct which should we follow the one on the
left or should we follow the one on the right. I do not know and really I guess a bigger
question it does not really matter, does it matter? I think that I will make a point here that it
does matter.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:16)

1051
I am also going to show you some data here in the US we have 50 states and what we did is
we looked at allowable chloride limit in those 50 states highway agencies and you can see
here that they have a wide range of variability is over a 1,000 times difference what they
allow in the concrete. So if I am in one state, I am step over that state line between two state,
my concrete maybe good, but if I step over the other straight line, it may not any good
because they have different allowable limits and so the question is again is which is correct
and does it really matter.
(Refer Slide Time: 35:50)

I am going to make a point here, it does matter. So these girders here were produced and what
they did is they changed the water source and after several months they realized that the
water source had a high chloride concentration. So they did some testing and what they did is
they found out that one test was passing and one test was not passing and so you think about
okay, no big deal.

But the fact of the matter is, if you do not pass this, these girders have to go and be thrown
away. There is a significant investment, there is a significant cost and this is in the millions of
dollar and maybe tens of millions of dollars. So you have to think about that how do we
measure this, what is the right way to measure it and not only how do we measure it, but what
is the correct allowable limit and so we need to do some standardization in this. We have to
come up what is a reasonable allowable limit and really how do we test for it. So it does
matter.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:58)

1052
Let us look at if we change our allowable admixed chloride and here we just varied it from 0
to 0.1% by weight of concrete, you can see that this particular one is down here and the time
to corrosion equation and if we vary it and you can see it is a pretty tight, ranging from about
55 to 80 years, but that is still a significant difference. 0 to 0.1% by the weight of concrete
that is the range we assumed.

If we actually assume different testing and different condition, it could vary even more, but
what this really assumes is that the chloride test result is representative of the chloride
concentration over the life of the structure. Now that seems known unbinding and the test
procedures can be correlated, as I say the test procedures can be correlated, I am talking about
the acid soluble test and the water soluble test.
(Refer Slide Time: 37:56)

1053
So if we look at one test, the water soluble test is ASTM C1218 and the acid soluble test is
ASTM C1152. You can see your acid soluble test here and what we did is we actually looked
at 100 or maybe 200 plus samples and we evaluated with a wide range of composition and we
evaluated the acid soluble test and it is a percent of total chloride and you can see that the
acid soluble test continually go from 80% to 100%. But really it has a mean of 93%, pretty
good, almost the total chlorides be this. If we look at the water soluble test, you can see here
that there is a huge range and so it goes from about I think 11% or 7% to up to about 75% or
somewhere. Now one of the things that standards assume is this water soluble test is 75% to
80% of the acid soluble test. Now you can see here if we took these values here and you
divide it by the acid soluble test that would range significantly and that is not correct. So ACI
assumes that the ratio of water to acid soluble test is 75% to 80% so that the ratio of water to
acid soluble test is anything but that, it ranges from about 11% to 83% with the mean value of
45 and so this is very depended on the cementitious system. So the assumption is incorrect
and it needs to be changed and we are working on that now.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:44)

Why is that happen? Well it is really a function of binding is that if we we look at ordinary
Portland cement, if you look at as a function of percent of admixed chloride as a function of
bind chloride, you can see that the percentages decreases, so as a chloride content, admixed
chloride increases that your binding decreases. And if you look at slag, you can see that there
is a significant effect of the cementitious material type and so we have to now consider these
things when we are doing this. And the question is what should we do? water soluble or acid
soluble to determine this and there has been done some more work. It seem to be the case that

1054
maybe water soluble maybe be the most applicable, there is some cases where it is not
conservative as it is should be, but in large majority of cases it is.

So I guess the point is that the binding capacity is a critical parameter and really what we
need to do is we need to come up with one standard test because it does affect the service-
life.
(Refer Slide Time: 40:52)

So admixed chloride, there is no consensus on amount of chloride that can be introduced to a

new concrete and there is no consensus on which test should be used to measure it. Chloride
binding varies with the different cementitious systems and these all will affect the time of
corrosion service-life prediction. So although we are making some headway, there is still
some mass confusion. We are working on it now, we are hoping to maybe standardize the
testing forward and make some progress.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:25)

1055
Let us go into apparent diffusion coefficient Da. Actually, what we do now is to assess the
apparent diffusion coefficient is we cast the sample and then we subjected into chlorides and
we pull it out and we actually asses it using standardized test required, it could be water
soluble or acid soluble. The common field practice is to actually go out to the field and take a
core and grind it in the lab and do the same thing and we typically use potentiometric titration
to determine the chloride concentration.
(Refer Slide Time: 42:08)

Then what we do is, we determine Da, we actually use the best fit curve, we grind it at
different depths, we do the analysis, we look at the chloride concentration as a function of
depth here and then we can do a best fit curve and we can get our apparent diffusion
coefficient. And you could see that there is an influence of cementitious material type, having
fly ash reduces your apparent diffusion coefficient.

1056
(Refer Slide Time: 42:35)

But if we go and we look at literature and what should be the diffusion coefficient, there is a
wide range of assumptions, the distribution, the unit, the mean, the coefficient of variation
whether it was assumed or was tested or refer somebody else and again I am not being critical
of this, what I am saying is that we have to do this, but it is time now to start doing
standardized testing to come up with hard data, so we can predict this information.

So the point is there is a significant difference and it can be a significant difference because
of course some of the factors that we used to make our concrete changes, but right now some
of the predictions they is just too much variability and so the values reported in the literature
vary by several orders of magnitude, there is several distribution of coefficient of variations.
In several cases statistical distributions are assumed and with very little justification. And so
we have to be careful for using this inner service-life prediction and so the question is how
much can we use for actually do a service-life of overall structures and again not being
critical, just saying we have to be more careful between what we do in the lab and we do in
the field.
(Refer Slide Time: 43:50)

1057
So if we do it again, if we actually vary our apparent diffusion coefficient and we look at
again time to corrosion, we do simulated it and we can see here we just took values from the
literature and we used to make those assumptions and we assume all the other variables to be
deterministic and we can see here that our range is less than one year to 300 years. The point
I am trying to make here is that these input variables are significant and they make a
significant effect on time to corrosion in your service-life.
(Refer Slide Time: 44:22)

So I guess there are standard laboratory test methods are available ASTM 1556 to determine
Da, however this is not representative of what we see in the field structure that is actually
diffusion based test but that may not be what we have seen in the field so we have to be little
careful and so I think what we need is we need some way to correlate our laboratory test with
our field structures and that will make this test better.

1058
So I am going to summarize here, we have to be careful is that there is lot of stuff in the
literature that can be used. You can put it into your service-life prediction model, but it is
probably not going to be a representative of what you are going to see in the field. So actual
service-life or actual time to corrosion from what you see in the field and predicted time to
corrosion or service life could be very, very different and so we have to be cautious using
your input variables and I believe that we need to standardize these input variables.
(Refer Slide Time: 45:29)

So let us look at the summary, we have made significant advances in predicting service-life
and their computational power is increased dramatically, we have the model to predict the
service-life of reinforced concrete structures. However, the models for predicting the service-
life require input variables and on the exposure environment and on the material
characteristics and there has been limited standardization for assessing these input variables.
And because of that I think that we can see a wide variation in our predictive time to
corrosion. So right now we can get what we want, but it is not going to be representative of
what we have seen in the field and so I think that we need to standardize and standardization
is essential.
(Refer Slide Time: 46:21)

1059
So well I have for today. Thank you for your time and I guess you can answer any question,
but if you did you are always welcome to send them write to [email protected].
Thank you.

1060
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