A PERSPECTIVE ON SEAWATER/FRP REINFORCEMENT IN CONCRETE STRUCTURES

Predictions show that more than half of the world population will lack sufficient freshwater by 2025. Yet, the construction industry uses a considerable amount of freshwater to produce concrete. To save resources of fresh water, using seawater seems to be a valid potential alternative that can replace freshwater for mixing concrete. This paper presents a short review performed on existing literature related to the usage of seawater in concrete structures. As a summary of the work presented: (a) It is noticeable that the current literature, generally, reports little or no negative effect of seawater on the characteristics of plain concrete, both in the short and in the long term; (b) steel corrosion caused by the presence of chloride appears to be the sole reason for not accepting the use of seawater in concrete preparation; (c) Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) is discussed as a promising alternative to steel for seawater-concrete reinforcement, owing to their light weight, high tensile strength, and adequate corrosion resistance; and (d) A future outlook for using seawater accompanied by FRP reinforcement in concrete structures is discussed in terms of achieving sustainability goals.