Experimental Evaluation of the Scale of Fluctuation for Spatial Variability Modeling of Chloride-Induced Reinforced Concrete Corrosion

AbstractThis paper provides experimentally determined estimates of the scale of fluctuation of the principal variables employed in modeling chloride-induced corrosion for reinforced concrete; i.e., the surface chloride content (Cs) and apparent diffusion coefficient (Dapp). The estimation of the scale of fluctuation, θ, is based on the analysis of experimental data recorded on a bridge in South East Ireland prior to its extensive rehabilitation in 2007. In determining the scale of fluctuation the paper considers two commonly used methods; i.e., the maximum likelihood method and the autocorrelation curve-fitting method. The reliability of both methods is discussed. Introduction of the kriging statistical interpolation method is demonstrated to improve the reliability of the estimates of the scale of fluctuation. The results obtained from the analysis are compared with values in the literature proffered by other researchers.