Assessing climate change-induced risk to concrete structures

PROJECT REF: ACES3450217

This project will assess the level of risk to concrete structures posed by climate change on a national and global scale, providing the knowledge needed to develop strategies to protect existing structures from the effects of climate change as well as inform the future design of concrete structures. The project will assess the risk of increased rates of carbonation-induced corrosion in concrete structures as a consequence of predicted climate change. It will highlight the conditions and geographical locations where risk is significant enough for corrosion damage to occur within designed service life.

The project will based around computational modelling of carbonation using available climate predictions. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software will be employed to model carbonation rates in concrete geospatially for a number of different emissions scenarios. Key variables will be the concrete material properties (primarily permeability) along with CO2 concentrations, temperature and humidity levels.