Preventive measures to protect reinforced concrete structures

Leonardo Todisco (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid)


There are many preventive measures that can be taken to increase the protection of the reinforced concrete structures. These measures can be associated to:

  1. The design, construction and use stages
  2. The reinforcing steel
  3. The concrete
The design, construction and use stages

The role of the structural designer is important to correctly define:

  • proper constructive details (raindrops, drainage system, expansion joints, etc.);
  • a proper cover for the reinforcement;
  • a suitable concrete quality, considering the environmental aggressiveness;
  • a proper conservation plan.
The reinforcing steel

There are two preventive measures related to reinforcing steel:

  • to replace ordinary carbon steel with other kinds of steel as stainless steel (generally very corrosion resistant);
  • to apply a treatment on the surface of the ordinary carbon steel. There are many different techniques as galvanization (applying a protective zinc coating to steel), epoxy coating and cathodic protection (by making the reinforcement acting as a cathode of an electrochemical cell).
The reinforcing steel

There are two main preventive measures to increase concrete durability:

  • to improve intrinsic properties, for example reducing the diffusion coefficient or adding corrosion inhibitor into the concrete admixture (an example of this product is the Sika CNI)
  • to apply a treatment on concrete surface (as corrosion inhibitor providing an impregnation coating for hardened concrete, an example of this product is the Sika Ferrograd -903+) or reactive water repellent impregnation.

Definitely, there are many preventive measures that can be adopted during the design stage to extend the life-span of concrete structures. The role of structural designer is key to proper consider these measures since the conceptual design stage.

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