Effect of Young’s modulus on the degradation of repair mortars chloride migration resistance under coupled loading conditions

Abstract

The chloride migration coefficient is the most important material parameter for the service life prediction of reinforced concrete structures in exposure to chloride. For a comprehensive and precise prediction of the service life, however, further effects such as load-induced microcracks must be taken into account. Currently coupled effects like chloride exposure in connection with the formation of load-induced microcracks cannot be predicted adequately. In the past years, research was done to develop test set-ups for coupled loading conditions. Mostly the performance of concrete was tested and described. This paper focusses on the performance of loaded repair mortar samples under chloride attack. For concrete samples, a load-related increase of the chloride migration coefficient is widely known. It is pointed out, that repair mortars behave differently. Especially in dependency on the materials Young’s modulus. Furthermore, details of the used test set-up and the resulting fracture pattern are discussed. The results indicate that also the size and amount of aggregates may affect the performance of a cementitious mortar under coupled loading conditions.