Evaluation of the Different Test Methods of the Concrete Durability for the Persian Gulf Environment

Environmental conditions of the Persian Gulf in terms of the durability of the reinforced concrete structures are highly aggressive and corrosive. Hence, in the Persian Gulf and Oman sea areas, based on the national code of practice, concrete durability is controlled by water absorption, water permeability and rapid chloride ion penetration tests. In this research, the above three mentioned tests plus total water absorption test, electrical resistivity, and capillary sorption tests were performed on 216 samples from six concrete mixtures with different water to binder ratios and pozzolan content (fly ash and silica fume). Based on the experimental results, the total water absorption and the water permeability tests were the most and the less accurate tests respectively. Results also showed that the capillary sorption test can be used as a suitable method to evaluate the concrete durability in the marine areas. In this study also a relationship between the specific limits of these tests for different environmental conditions was proposed.