Performance of polymer-concrete composites exposed to severe environment

![CDATA[This paper presents a comprehensive experimental and theoretical investigation on the performance of polymer modified concrete (PMC) and fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) exposed to aggressive environmental conditions. Chloride-induced corrosion of steel in concrete is the main cause of premature deterioration of off-shore or on-shore reinforced concrete (RC) structures exposed to marine environment. For service life evaluation and prediction, the time of crack initiation in concrete cover can be considered as the most important criteria. Thus, the corrosion- induced crack initiation time and maximum anodic current intensity generated by corrosion process of embedded steel reinforcement in concrete were investigated in this paper. The specimens made of different categories of the concrete subjected to high concentrated Sodium Chloride solution and continuous cycles of wetting and drying for 24 months. Later, the accelerated electrochemical test was conducted to measure the time to concrete cover cracking and also anodic current intensity. Results proved that due to remarkable increase in time to cracking, the polymer-concrete composites increased the durability and service life of RC structures significantly. envi]]