There is an urgent need for fast, reliable, non-destructive test methods to measure permeability and resistivity of concrete in the field, in order to assess the performance of concrete structures and confirm the benefits of the use of new materials. The application of high performance concrete for rehabilitation of corrosion-damaged highway structures and for new bridge construction has increased in Ontario over the past few years. High performance concrete, containing supplementary cementing materials such as silica fume, typically has lower permeability and higher electrical resistivity than conventional concrete. Since 1993, the R&D staff of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) has been evaluating various non-destructive in-situ techniques to measure the permeability and resistivity of concrete. This paper describes two methods used by MTO to measure the permeability of concrete: surface water absorption and air permeability techniques; and presents the methods used to measure the concrete electrical resistivity, chloride movement in the concrete, and corrosion activity of the embedded steel. Many of the tests were performed on both the conventional and high performance concrete. Some of these techniques can be potentially used as quality assurance tools for assessing the quality, performance and durability of concrete in the field.

Date Published: 31 March 1998
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 3400, Structural Materials Technology III: An NDT Conference, (31 March 1998); doi: 10.1117/12.300099

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3400:
Structural Materials Technology III: An NDT Conference
Ronald D. Medlock; David C. Laffrey, Editor(s)