Service life prediction of cracked RC pipe piles exposed to marine environments

Cracks due to shrinkage, chemical reactions and weathering process occur unavoidably during construction and application of RC pipe piles. These cracks may be the main pathways through which chloride diffuses into the concrete and also can be one of the major reasons of steel corrosion in RC pipe piles exposed to marine environments. In the present paper, an analytical method for predicting the service life of cracked RC pipe pile with considering the effect of cracks on the chloride diffusion is presented. The governing equation of chloride diffusion into RC pipe pile is described and solved analytically by using the Bessel functions. The equivalent chloride diffusion coefficient is derived based on the partition of chloride diffusion through cracked RC pipe pile. The threshold chloride content is estimated from a wide review of previous experimental studies. Comparisons of analytical results with experimental data are conducted to establish the validity of the proposed analytical method. Furthermore, an application of the analytical method is demonstrated by predicting service life of cracked RC pipe piles exposed to marine environments. The analysis results demonstrate the importance of considering the effect of cracks for accurate prediction of service life in RC pipe piles exposed to marine environments.