Carbonation of Bridge Deterioration in High Rainfall Tropical Region

Abstract

The deterioration of reinforced concrete (RC) bridges is a common occurrence around the world, especially for older bridges. The causes of the deterioration can be unclear. There is currently a lack of study involving in situ tests of RC bridges exposed to the environment for a long time. One of the reasons for this is that researchers prefer accelerated deterioration tests in laboratories to save time and to control the parameters involved. In response to that, this paper presents a study on two old bridges located in the tropical country of Malaysia. Visual inspection was performed, while the microstructure and chemical compositions of concrete samples were determined using a scanning electron microscope, x-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. The tests confirm that only concrete carbonation was the source of deterioration for the RC bridges.

Keywords:

• carbonation
• concrete
• Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy
• scanning electron microscopy
• thermogravimetric analysis
• x-ray diffraction

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental Data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10168664.2023.2178994.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Universiti Putra Malaysia grant no. 9686300 and assisted by Mr Mohd Basri Che Bakar as part of the grant. The study was also supported by the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, UTM Encouragement Research grant, cost center number Q.J130000.3822.31J38. We would like to thank the Public Works Department of Malaysia (Larut Matang and Selama district) for allowing this study to be conducted.