Incorporating Vehicle Spray of Deicing Salts in the Estimation of Corrosion Initiation Time of Highway Bridges

Reinforced-concrete bridges located in cold regions are typically exposed to a large amount of deicing salts during winter, which causes corrosion-related deterioration of those bridges. Vehicle spray is one of the major mechanisms of transporting deicing salts from the road surface to the exterior surface of a bridge. However, it is seldom considered in current corrosion analyses. This article proposes a method to incorporate the vehicle spray mechanism in the estimation of time to corrosion initiation in bridge piers. An empirical model considering the vehicle type, vehicle speed, traffic volume and distance to roadside is used to determine the surface chloride concentration, which in turn is used in the Fick’s second law of diffusion to estimate the corrosion initiation time. The effects of temperature and relative humidity are also considered in this estimation. The proposed method is demonstrated using an example bridge. The effects of vehicle speed, traffic volume, the number of heavy duty vehicles and distance of the bridge substructure to roadside on corrosion initiation time were investigated.

• Record URL:
  https://annualmeeting.mytrb.org/OnlineProgram/Details/15446
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AKT40 Standing Committee on Structures Maintenance.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Wang, Hanmin
  • 0000-0001-5834-1930
  • Ranade, Ravi
  • Okumus, Pinar
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 100th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2021-1-5 to 2021-1-29
• Date: 2021

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 12p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Atmospheric diffusion; Bridge piers; Chloride content; Corrosion; Deicing chemicals; Highway bridges; Reinforced concrete bridges; Traffic characteristics; Vehicles
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01763439
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: TRBAM-21-01533
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 4 2021 10:54AM