PERFORMANCE-BASED DURABILITY DESIGN OF REINFORCED CONCRETE STRUCTURES WITH STAINLESS STEEL BARS

Stainless steel reinforcement can be a suitable option for the achievement of the durability target for reinforced concrete structures exposed to aggressive chloride bearing environments. To quantitatively assess the benefits of using stainless steel bars, performance-based design models can be applied. However, although these models could, in principle, be used for the design with stainless steel bars, at the moment they do not provide any specific indication for the design with this type of bars particularly the critical chloride threshold values. This paper reports results of an experimental work aimed at evaluating the statistical distribution of the critical chloride threshold in concrete of low nickel duplex stainless steel (type 1.4362) reinforcement. Results of the potentiostatic polarisation tests showed that the statistical distribution of the chloride threshold may be fitted by a Beta probability distribution function that can be used as input parameter in performance-based models for structures exposed in atmospheric condition and to temperate marine environments.