DURAPGULF, A LOCAL SERVICE LIFE MODEL FOR THE DURABILITY OF CONCRETE STRUCTURES IN THE SOUTH OF IRAN

Reinforced concrete structures are widely constructed in the south of Iran for the infrastructures of ports and oil exploration. Unfortunately, the deterioration of concrete structures in this marine area, which is mainly due to the chloride-induced corrosion of rebars in concrete, imposes hundreds of million dollars of repair cost every year. During the last decades, extensive studies have been conducted to evaluate the effect of different parameters on chloride diffusion into concrete, corrosion initiation, and its propagation. In order to predict the time required for various steps of the corrosion phenomena, many numerical models have been developed. In this paper, the development of DuraPGulf (a service life design model), which can predict the corrosion initiation of reinforced concrete (RC) structures in the south of Iran, is described and also the application of this model for service life design of RC structures is demonstrated in a hypothetical example and verified with other experimental results in this region.