Microsoft Word - 02Revised.doc


CHEMICAL ENGINEERINGTRANSACTIONS 
 

VOL. 55, 2016 

A publication of 

 
The Italian Association 

of Chemical Engineering 
Online at www.aidic.it/cet 

Guest Editors:Tichun Wang, Hongyang Zhang, Lei Tian
Copyright © 2016, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l., 
ISBN978-88-95608-46-4; ISSN 2283-9216 

Experimental Research for Influence Factors on Infusibility of 
Concrete Chloride Ion under Erosion Environment 

Mengxiong Tanga, Xiaobin Chenb, Zhuo Yanga* 
a 
Guangzhou Institute of Building Science Co., Ltd., Guangzhou 510440, China; 

b 
School of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410075, China,  

yangzhuo1207@126.com,  

In view of the characteristics of erosion environment of underground concrete structure in Guangdong, this 
paper researched the chloride ion transmission characteristics in concrete under different conditions of water 
cement ratio, mineral admixtures, and ion concentration and soaking, then analysed the impact on chloride ion 
transmission speed and comprehensive revealed chloride ion infusibility in concrete in these conditions. 
Through the analysis of experimental results, the complex mixtures of fly ash and silicon ash is beneficial to 
the durability of urban underground structure. Especially when the proportion of silicon ash is 5% and fly ash is 
30%~40%, which is the most favourable to the improvement of the durability of concrete. 

1. Introduction 
Serious hazard caused by chloride erosion will result in huge economic losses (He et al, 2004). In 1990s the 
United States concrete infrastructure project cost was 6 trillion dollars, and annual maintenance cost was 
about 300 billion dollars, of which the railway annual maintenance cost by steel corrosion was about 20 billion 
dollars; By 1980 in United Kingdom, 500 thousand bridge decks need repairing due to steel corrosion; 75% of 
reinforced concrete bridges was corroded by chloride ion in England and Wales, and maintenance and repair 
costs were the 200% of the original; In Japan, about 21.4% of the reinforced concrete structure damage was 
caused by steel corrosion (Edgar M and Edgar V 2016; Jin et al, 2014). According to the statistics in 1998, 
734 railway tunnels were corroded to crack in China, which account for 13.2% of the total number (Pilvar et al, 
2015). Chengdu-Kunming Railway was seriously corroded according to the census in 1978 and some 
corrosion depth reached more than 30mm, so it should be paid attention that durability of tunnel structure 
caused by chloride corrosion (De Lemos Araújo et al., 2015; Wu et al, 2014). 
According to the engineering survey of durability of typical underground structure, it has been found that the 
durability damage of underground structure in Guangzhou is so seriously that partial structure could not meet 
the requirement of normal utilization (Sim and Park, 2011). The durability damage of underground structure in 
this area is mainly represented by carbonation of concrete and corrosion of chloride ion and sulfation. 
Durability damage of underground structure in Guangzhou is accelerated by the factors of closed underground 
environment, high temperature and relative humidity, wetland dry cycling of underground structure and others. 
In the study of the influence factors of the durability of urban underground structure in Guangzhou (Kato et al, 
2005). It is necessary to carry out the indoor simulation experiment on the degradation characteristics under 
the action of chloride ions of urban underground environment, due to the research achievement of corrosion to 
concrete construction of CO2 in atmosphere is more but the chloride ion is less (Chen and Chiou, 2007). 

2. Experimental design of chloride corrosion 
2.1 Material and ratio 
The experimental material extracted by the typical underground engineering material parameters in 
Guangzhou on the basis of investigation adopts similar law to ratio in order to maximize the degree of 
similarity (Onyejekwe and Reddy, 2000). The composition of the cement was analyzed by chemical analysis 
before experiment and main chemical components and physical properties of experimental cement (PO42.5) 
ordinary silicate cement are shown in table 1 and 2. 

                               
 
 

 

 
   

                                                  
DOI: 10.3303/CET1655008

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Please cite this article as: Tang M.X., Chen X.B., Yang Z., 2016, Experimental research for influence factors on infusibility of concrete chloride 
ion under erosion environment, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 55, 43-48  DOI:10.3303/CET1655008   

43



The main chemical components and physical properties of the experimental fly ash (I) are shown in table 3 
and 4. 

Table 1: Chemical Components of Experimental Cement 

Chemical Composition and Mass Percentage Content /% 

P.O 42.5 
SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 CaO MgO SO3 loss on ignition 
24.3 4.8 3.8 55.3 4.2 2.2 2.4 

Table 2: Physical Properties and Strength Indexes of Experimental Cement 

Index 
Density 
g/cm3 

Fineness Setting time(h) Strength (MPa) 

80μresidue on 
sieve/% 

Blaine specific 
surface area 

/m2/kg 

Initial setting 
time 

Final setting 
time 

Compressive 
strength 

Bending 
strength 

3d 28d 3d 28d 

Test 
value 

3.10 3.6 380 2.75 3.83 22.0 49.4 4.85 9.78

Table 3 Chemical Components of Fly Ash % 

Sample SiO2 Fe2O3 Al2O3 CaO MgO SO3 K2O Na2O 

Ⅰ 51.8 5.0 26.4 4.1 1.0 0.45 1.3 1.0 

Table 4 Physical Properties of Fly Ash  

Index 
Fineness (45μm residue 
 on Sieve) % 

Moisture content 
% 

Loss on ignition 
% 

Density 
g/cm3 

Specific surface area 
/m2/kg 

FAI 4.0 0.20 3.5 2.30 540 

 

 

Figure 1: Schematic of soaking treatment of mortar sample 

 

Figure 2: Schematic of spraying and soaking treatment of concrete sample 

2.2 Experimental process 
The ambient humidity conditions of urban underground structure were simulated by the method of spraying 
and soaking which respectively simulate wet and dry cycling condition and groundwater immersion condition 

44



shown in figure 1 and 2 (Vera et al, 2004). The samples for comparison were put in standard environment 
where the relative humidity was (50 ± 5) % and the temperature was (20 ± 3) (Yodsudjai and Otsuki, 2004). 
Respectively corroded 60, 90, 120 and 150 d, the samples were taken out to test the structure characteristics 
of Cl- content, the change of compressive strength, 6 h Coulomb electric flux and so on (Ghanem et al, 2008). 

3. Results and discussion 
3.1 Influence of water cement ratio 
Experimental data analysis indicates that the influence of water cement ratio to the diffusion of chloride ion is 
obvious (Tae et al., 2006). The relationship curve obtained from test between chloride ion and water cement 
ratio is shown in Figure 3. With the increase of the depth of the concrete surface, the content of chloride ion 
decreases. 

0 5 1 0 1 5 2 0 2 5
0 .0

0 .1

0 .2

0 .3

0 .4

0 .5

0 .6

0 .7

0 .8

0 .9

T
he

 c
on

te
n

t o
f 

ch
lo

ri
de

 i
on

 (
%

)

T he distanc e fr om  the  sur fa ce  ( m m )

 A 1 , w /c=0 .3 5
 A 2 , w /c=0 .5 3
 A 3 , w /c=0 .6 5

0 5 10 15 20 25
0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

 

 

T
he

 c
on

te
nt

 o
f 

ch
lo

ri
de

 i
on

 (
%

)

The distance from the surface (mm)

Equation: y = 0.83*exp(-x/4.19) + 0.08 
R^2 =  0.99951

A2, w/c=0.35

 
 (a) w/c=0.35 

Figure 3: Profile curves of chlorine ion content under the influence of water cement ratio 

0 5 10 15 20 25

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

T
he

 c
on

te
nt

 o
f 

ch
lo

ri
de

 io
n 

(%
)

Th e dista nce f rom the  surf ace (mm)

R^2=  0.99724
Equation: y = 0.91*exp(-x/5.67) + 0.19 

Soak 120d
A2，w/c=0.53

0 5 1 0 1 5 2 0 2 5
0 .3

0 .4

0 .5

0 .6

0 .7

0 .8

0 .9

T
he

 c
on

te
nt

 o
f 

ch
lo

ri
de

 io
n 

(%
)

T h e d i s ta n ce  f ro m  t h e  s u r fa ce  (m m )

Soak      120d
A1     w/c=0.65

Eq ua ti on : y =  1.3 6* ex p( -x/ 2.3 4)  +  0 .38  
R^ 2 =   0.9 90 79

 
 (b) w/c=0.53    (c) w/c=0.65 

Figure 4: Fitting curves of chlorine ion content under the influence of water cement ratio 

From figure 1, we can see that immersed in 3.5% NaCl solution ion the content of chloride ion of samples with 
different water cement ratio, are changed with the increase of concrete depth. With the decrease of water 
cement ratio, the chlorine ion content at different depths was decreased. When the water cement ratio 
decreased from 0.65 to 0.53, the content of chloride ion in the distance from the concrete surface 0 ~ 10 mm 
did not have obviously decreased, but above 10 mm decreased obviously. For example, when water cement 
ratio is 0.35, the chloride ion content in the depth of 12.5mm is 0.12%.When water cement ratio is 0.53, the 
chloride ion content in the depth of 12.5mm is 0.31%.When water cement ratio is 0.65, the chloride ion content 
in the depth of 12.5mm is 0.42%. When water cement ratio was below 0.35, the content of chloride ion had 
obvious decrease. It is indicated that in order to increase the durability of concrete structure, we should use 
the concrete with relatively low water cement ratio in the underground structure, and water cement ratio 
influence factors analysis showed that urban underground structure durability design of water cement ratio of 
concrete mixture is less than 0.5. 
According to the test data, the content of chloride ion in the concrete samples is fitted with the change of the 
depth, and the fitting curve is shown in Figure 4. 
Figure 4 showed that the chlorine ion content increased with the depth which showed an attenuation 
relationship of natural logarithm. The experimental results showed that the water cement ratio of concrete has 
a great influence on the attenuation coefficient. The coefficient of independent variable x of the attenuation 

45



function in a certain extent reflects the attenuation law and influence factors, and in the curve with low water 
cement ratio, x is smaller, however, in the curve with high water cement ratio, x is bigger. 

3.2 Influence of mineral admixture 
In order to analyze the influence of common mineral admixtures on the chloride ion diffusion, the chloride ion 
diffusion tests are carried out using the different admixtures but same water ratio. 
According to test data, the concrete samples with 0.35 water cement ratio have been one-dimensional soaked 
for 120d, then their contents of chloride ion in different depth were measured, as shown in figure 5. 

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

T
he

 c
on

te
nt

 o
f c

hl
or

id
e 

io
n 

(%
)

The distance from the surface (mm)

， A1 w/c=0.35
， ， A4 w/c=0.35 FA=20%
， A5 w/c=0.35,  FA=30%
， ， A10 w/c=0.35 FA15%+SF5%

 

Figure 5: Profile curve of chlorine ion content under the influence of admixture 

Figure 5 showed that under the same water cement ratio conditions, active mineral admixture can reduce 
diffusibility of chloride ion, especially in the 0~12mm depth, concentration of chloride ion obviously decreased. 
Among them, concentration of chloride ion of the samples with 20% or 30% fly ash and with 15% fly ash and 5% 
silicon ash is significantly less than the average ratio of concrete sample at different positions, especially the 
effect of the admixture of fly ash and silicon ash on reducing the concentration of chloride ion in surface layer 
(0 ~ 12mm) of concrete is obvious. The experimental results show that in urban underground structure, the 
use of active mineral admixture is a good measure to increase the durability of concrete structure, especially 
double mixed of the fly ash and silicon ash. 

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

T
he

 c
on

te
nt

 o
f c

hl
or

id
e 

io
n 

(%
)

The distance from the surface (mm) 

 

Equation: y = 1.36*exp(-x/2.25) + 0.06
R^2 =  0.99972

B1,  (20%) Fly ash
Soak        60d

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

T
he

 c
on

te
nt

 o
f c

hl
or

id
e 

io
n 

(%
)

The distance from the surface (mm)

，B2 30% (Fly ash)
Soak   60d 

Equation: y = 3.31*exp(-x/1.24) + 0.09
R^2 =  0.99992

 
(a)       (b) 

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

T
he

 c
on

te
nt

 o
f c

hl
or

id
e 

io
n 

(%
)

The distance from the surface (mm)

D1,15% (Fly ash)
+5% (Silica fume)

Equation: y = 1.23*exp(-x/2.39) + 0.06
R^2 =  0.99999

 
(c) 

Figure 6: Profile curves of chlorine ion content under the influence of admixture 

46



Under the influence of the admixture, chlorine ion content is fitted with change of the depth, as shown in figure 
6. From figure 4 we can see, the chlorine ion content(y) with the distance from the surface (x) is also showing 
an attenuation relationship of natural logarithm. The attenuation coefficient of mineral admixture is greatly 
improved, which indicates that the mineral admixtures can effectively slow the diffusion of chloride ions. The 
attenuation coefficient of different samples is different, and the attenuation coefficient of fly ash and silica ash 
is the biggest, and the effect of slow chloride ion diffusion is the most obvious. 

4. Conclusions 
The conclusions can be drawn as follows: 
(1) The experimental results showed that the decrease of water cement ratio can improve the permeability 
resistance of concrete against chlorine ion, because the water cement ratio is lower, the free water content in 
concrete and the porosity of concrete is decreased, and the density of concrete is improved. When the water 
cement ratio is reduced to 0.53, the permeability resistance of concrete against chlorine ion is improved. To 
improve the durability of urban underground concrete structure, concrete mix ratio requires low water cement 
ratio, and the proposed water cement ratio of less than 0.5 of the concrete. 
(2) The experimental results showed that in urban underground structure, the use of active mineral admixture 
is a good measure to increase the durability of concrete structure, especially double mixed of the fly ash and 
silicon ash. The proper use of fly ash is beneficial to improve the durability of concrete. The incorporation of fly 
ash can improve the permeability resistance of concrete against chloride ion. On the one hand, due to the 
dense filling effect of fly ash and the effect of volcanic ash, the porosity of concrete is reduced, and the pore 
characteristics of concrete are also improved. On the other hand, secondary hydration reaction of calcium 
hydroxide crystals created by hydration reaction of fly ash and cement generates more hydration products 
which lead to the densification by pore refinement of cement paste. The complex admixture of fly ash and 
silicon ash is one of the effective ways to prepare the high resistance permeable of concrete against chlorine 
ion. Due to the different particle size of fly ash and silicon ash, “super-composite effect” was caused by the 
use of composite which lead to the complementary advantages of performance. In the durability design of 
urban underground structure, the content of silicon ash is determined to be 5%, and fly ash is 30%~40%. 
(3)The experimental results showed that in urban underground structure, the influence of concentration of 
groundwater corrosion ion on the durability and service life is great; especially the alternation of dry-wet cycle 
accelerates the diffusion of corrosion ion, which is represented as dry-wet cycle caused by the change of 
underground water level, particularly detrimental to the durability of urban underground structures. 

Acknowledgments  

The authors acknowledge the financial support from Guangzhou Architecture and Technology Department 
(Grant No. 07y00091) and Guangdong Production, Education and Research Department (Grant No. 
2010B090400490) 

Reference  

Burdette E., Ankabrandt R., Nidiffer R., Buchanan B., 2014, Comparison of two methods to assess the 
resistance of concrete to chloride ion penetration, Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, 26, 4, 698-704. 

Chen C.H., Chiou I.J., 2007, Distribution of chloride ion in mswi bottom ash and de-chlorination performance, 
Journal of Hazardous Materials, 148, 1-2, 346-52. 

Das B.B., Singh D.N., Pandey S.P., 2012, Rapid chloride ion permeability of opc- and ppc-based carbonated 
concrete, Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, 24, 5, 606-611. 

De Lemos Araújo, A.A.,  De Barros Neto, E.L.,  Chiavone-Filho, O.,  Foletto, E.L., 2015, Influence of sodium 
chloride on the cloud point of polyethoxylate surfactants and estimation of Flory-Huggins model 
parameters. Revista de la Facultad de Ingeniería, 30, 2, 155-162 

Edgar M., Edgar V., 2016, State evaluation of steel bridges of the Colombian National roadway network, 
Revista de la Facultad de Ingeniería, 31, 5, 462-489. Doi:10.21311/002.31.2.24 

Ghanem H., Phelan S., Senadheera S., Pruski K., 2008, Chloride ion transport in bridge deck concrete under 
different curing durations, Journal of Bridge Engineering, 13, 3, 218-225. 

He S., Gong J., Zhao G., 2004, Diffusibility of chloride ion in concrete subjected to freeze-thaw cycles, Hydro-
Science and Engineering, 4, 32-36. 

Islam M.S., Kishi T., 2013, Proposal of analysis methods based on stagnation of chloride ion in concrete, 
Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology, 11, 12, 374-382. 

Jin L.Z., Pei H.E., Yue L.S., 2014, Analysis of resistibility of reactive powder concrete to chloride ion 
penetration with matlab simulation, Journal of Lanzhou University of Technology. 

47



Kato E., Kato Y., Uomoto T., 2005, Development of simulation model of chloride ion transportation in cracked 
concrete, Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology, 3, 3, 85-94. 

Khan M.I., 2010, Comparison of diffusion and chloride ion penetration of high-performance concrete, Ksce 
Journal of Civil Engineering, 16, 5, 2171-2177. 

Khan M.I., 2012, Comparison of chloride ion penetration and diffusion of high-performance concrete, Ksce 
Journal of Civil Engineering, 16, 16, 779-784. 

Kohri M., Ueda T., Mizuguchi H., 2010, Application of a near-infrared spectroscopic technique to estimate the 
chloride ion content in mortar deteriorated by chloride attack and carbonation, Journal of Advanced 
Concrete Technology, 8, 1, 15-25. 

Onyejekwe O.O., Reddy N., 2000, Numerical approach to the study of chloride ion penetration into concrete, 
Magazine of Concrete Research, 52, 4, 243-250. 

Peng G.F., Feng N.Q., Song Q.M., 2014, Influence of chloride-ion adsorption agent on chloride ions in 
concrete and mortar, Materials, 7, 4 3415-3426 

Pilvar A., Ramezanianpour A.A., Rajaie H., 2015, New method development for evaluation concrete chloride 
ion permeability, Construction & Building Materials, 93, 790-797. 

Shim H. S., 2002, Corner effect on chloride ion diffusion in rectangular concrete media, Ksce Journal of Civil 
Engineering, 6(1), 19-24. 

Sim J., Park C., 2011, Compressive strength and resistance to chloride ion penetration and carbonation of 
recycled aggregate concrete with varying amount of fly ash and fine recycled aggregate, Waste 
Management, 31(11), 2352-60. 

Tae S.H., Lee H.S., Noguchi T., Ujiro T., Shin S.W., 2006, Corrosion resistance of cr-bearing rebar in concrete 
with chloride ion content, Isij International, 46, 7, 1075-1080 

Vera G., Hidalgo A., Climent M.A., Andrade C., Alonso C., 2004, Chloride‐ion activities in simplified synthetic 
concrete pore solutions: the effect of the accompanying ions, Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 83, 
3, 640-644. 

Wu F.F., Shi K.B., Dong S.K., Wang G.W., 2014, Based on maturity of concrete chloride ion diffusion model 
and life prediction, Key Engineering Materials, 599, 7-10. 

Yodsudjai W., Otsuki N., 2004, New test methods for measuring strength and chloride ion diffusion coefficient 
of minute regions in concrete, Aci Materials Journal, 101, 2, 146-153. 

48