Impact of climate change on the life cycle of r.c. structures

The life cycle of civil engineering structures is likely to be increasingly affected in the coming decades by climate change impacts, not only in terms of magnitude and the frequency of extreme events, but also considering the effects on the rate of material degradation processes. Focusing the attention on r.c. structures, climate change may alter the surrounding environment, especially in the longer term, causing an acceleration of the carbonation of concrete and steel reinforcement corrosion that will affect not only the durability, but also the safety and serviceability of the constructions. A procedure to assess the time-dependent reliability of r.c. structures is presented starting from the existing deterioration models for carbonation-induced corrosion and considering the influence of expected variation in CO2 concentrations, temperature and relative humidity. The proposed methodology is discussed illustrating the results in terms of changes in probability of corrosion initiation and damage for a case study of a r.c. structure in Italy, considering different pathways of greenhouse gasses emission scenarios.