This work evaluates the effect of tropical and non-tropical urban environments on concrete carbonation performance, in nine Ibero-American countries, by exposing some reinforced and unreinforced small prisms (12 in total: six reinforced and six unreinforced) to each of the 16 urban natural exposure sites of the so called DURACON Project. Multiple linear regression models were used to understand the effect of various environmental variables and concrete´s physicochemical variables on the carbonation of concrete. A comparison among the proposed models with other models in the literature was also evaluated: the square root of time (SRT) model showed high limitations for the experimental data set of the DURACON Project in all of its natural environmental exposure conditions, tropical and non-tropical. This resulted in carbonation rate (KCO2) estimates up to 50% lower than that calculated by the SRT model, and 40% lower than the empirical models if concrete is exposed to urban environments.
Millano, Valentina and Troconis, Oladis and Torres-Acosta, Andres Antonio and Castro-Borges, Pedro and Gómez, Miguel Sánchez and Montenegro, Juan Carlos and Vera, Rosa and Carvajal, Ana María and Leiva, Ericka Saborio and Martinez, Isabel and Rebolledo Ramos, Nuria and Pérez-Quiroz, José T. and Perez-Lopez, Tezozomoc and Guzmán-Torres, José Alberto and Martínez Molina, Wilfrido and López-Vásquez, Esteban and Baltazar-Zamora, Miguel A. and Facundo, Almeraya-Calderón and Salta, Manuela and Pedrón, Miguel, Duracon Ibero-American Project: Concrete Carbonation from Natural Exposure after Ten Years in Tropical and Non-Tropical Microclimates. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4580324 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4580324
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