Reliability of existing concrete structures during fire: an analysis of

concrete slabs subjected to chloride induced corrosion

R. Van Coile, R. Caspeele & L. Taerwe
Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

ABSTRACT: Fire is one of the most severe loading conditions for concrete buildings and infrastructures.
While the fire performance of new structures is well known, few studies focus on the possible reduction of re-
liability due to deterioration mechanisms as chloride-induced corrosion. However, the combined effect of a
reduction of the reinforcement cross section and a possible loss of concrete cover may significantly affect the
fire resistance. As economic restraints necessitate extending the lifetime of existing structures, assessing the
reliability during fire of concrete elements that have been exposed to corrosion is of particular importance. In
this paper the basic models describing both structural fire performance and chloride-induced corrosion are
combined in an integrated probabilistic calculation tool. The effect of corrosion on the structural reliability
during fire and the evolution of the structural fire resistance with aging of the structure are investigated.

1 INTRODUCTION A number of numerical models for predicting the

The reliability of new reinforced concrete (RC)
structures during fire has been studied extensively to
enable the application of performance based design
codes and to develop optimum designs which take
into account the probability of fire exposure.
Despite many applications for new structures, in-
vestigations into the performance of existing struc-
tures during fire are lacking. Nevertheless, existing
structures are of specific interest as deterioration
mechanisms may have reduced the load-bearing ca-
pacity. Furthermore, the strength parameters them-
selves are often associated with additional uncertain-
ties and economic considerations may necessitate
extending the lifetime beyond the initially anticipat-
ed maximum age. Consequently, studies investigat-
ing the reliability of existing structures are im-
portant.
2 RELIABILITY DURING FIRE
2.1 Reliability of concrete slabs during fire
The effect of fire on reinforced concrete elements is
generally modeled by temperature dependent me-
chanical properties for both concrete and reinforcing
steel and by taking into account the thermal expan-
sion at elevated temperatures. This expansion is of-
ten hindered, resulting in external restraining forces
and internal stresses.
response during fire have been developed. Kodur &
Dwaikat (2008) proposed a simplified calculation
tool for determining the fire resistance of RC beams,
based on the assumption that plane sections remain
plane, and Caldas et al. (2010) used similar consid-
erations to calculate interaction diagrams. Other ex-
amples are the models proposed by Meda et al.
(2002) and Sidibé et al. (2000).
A similar calculation tool was developed by Van
Coile et al. (2012a,b) describing the bending capaci-
ty of concrete slabs exposed to the ISO 834 fire
curve, and taking into account the uncertainties with
respect to basic variables as e.g. the concrete com-
pressive strength at standard temperature fc(20°C),
the concrete cover c, and the reinforcement yield
stress reduction factor at elevated temperatures
kfy(θ). The evolution of the reliability index during
fire exposure is calculated taking into account the
stochastic distributions of Table 1 and assuming
MEd(20°C) = MRd(20°C) in accordance with EN
1992-1-1 (CEN, 2004). More details on the calcula-
tion procedure and basic assumptions are given in
(Van Coile et al., 2012b).
Results indicate that the reliability during fire is
highly sensitive to the nominal concrete cover (Fig-
ure 1). This can be attributed to the concrete cover
insulating the reinforcement bars from the fire. In
case the concrete cover has detached, the reinforce-
ment is directly exposed to the fire and a significant
reduction of reliability is witnessed. This detachment
of the outer layer is generally known as spalling.
Table 1. Probabilistic models for basic variables in-
volved in the bending moment capacity calculations.
Property Distr µ CoV
design value of bending DET 50.4 kNm -
moment capacity MRd
load ratio χ = MQk/(MGk+MQk) DET 0.5 -
20°C concrete compressive LN 42.9 MPa 0.15
strength fc(20°C)
20°C reinforcement yield stress LN 581.4 mm² 0.07
fy(20°C)
20°C reinforcement modulus LN 200 GPa 0.15
of elasticity Es(20°C)
θ°C concrete compressive Beta θ dependent θ
strength reduction factor kfc(θ) [µ±3σ] conform EN dependent
1992-1-2
θ°C steel yield stress reduction Beta θ dependent θ
factor kfy(θ) [µ±3σ] conform EN dependent Figure 2. βfi,t as a function of the ISO 834 duration, for different
1992-1-2 concrete cover standard deviations (cnom = 35 mm).
concrete cover c Beta 35 mm 0.14
[µ±3σ]
At standard temperatures of 20°C, i.e. at 0
slab thickness h N 200 mm 0.025
bottom reinforcement area As N 1.02As,nom 0.02
minutes of exposure, the variation of the concrete
model uncertainty of the LN 1.1 0.1 cover has only a small influence on the reliability.
resistance effect KR However, during fire a larger concrete cover stand-
model uncertainty of the load LN 1 0.1 ard deviation relates to a lower reliability index. This
effect is a consequence of the reinforcement being closer to
the exposed surface in some slabs slabs, resulting in
an accelerated heating of the steel. Consequently,
these slabs exhibit a faster decrease of the bending
moment capacity.

3 DETERIORATION DUE TO CHLORIDE-

INDUCED CORROSION
3.1 Damage due to corrosion
Corrosion of the steel reinforcement is a common
deterioration mechanism which can significantly re-
duce the load bearing capacity of RC slabs by (Ro-
driguez et al., 1997):

− Reduction of the reinforcement section

Figure 1. βfi,t as a function of the ISO 834 duration, for different
nominal concrete covers (σc = 5 mm).
2.2 Influence of the concrete cover variability
As the reliability index is highly dependent on the
nominal concrete cover, the variation of the cover is
expected to have a large influence as well. Figure 2
confirms this hypothesis by comparing results for
three different standard deviations of the concrete
cover σc.
As existing structures often exhibit an increased
uncertainty with respect to the positioning of the re-
inforcement, a standard deviation for the concrete
cover larger than 5 mm may be appropriate in some
cases.
− Reduction of the mechanical properties
− Bond deterioration between the reinforcement
and the surrounding concrete
− Cracking and spalling of the concrete due to the
expansive action of the corrosion products
Val et al. (2000) state that general corrosion (as
opposed to localized pitting corrosion) has approxi-
mately no influence on the ultimate bending limit
state reliability of a RC slab bridge at standard tem-
peratures. However, according to Figure 1 corrosion-
induced spalling which directly exposes the rein-
forcement to the fire can have a significant impact.
These numerical results agree with the experi-
mental observations by Porcari et al. (2012): the per-
formance of corroded RC beams during fire is highly
dependent on whether the cover remains intact. Fur-
thermore, corroded RC beams were found to be
more prone to fire-induced spalling. A simplified
procedure for incorporating fire-induced spalling in
the resistance model was presented in (Van Coile et
al., 2013a).
The occurrence of corrosion damage is, however,
largely uncertain and is governed by subsequent
stages with different stochastic parameters. The first
phase refers to the time to corrosion initiation, while
the second phase is the time from initiation to hori-
zontal concrete cracking. The third phase is the time-
period between cracking and the detachment of the
concrete cover. In the fourth and final stage, the rein-
forcement is directly exposed to the environment and
accelerated corrosion occurs. In the following sec-
tions, the mathematical models used for describing
the different phase are presented.
3.2 Time to corrosion initiation
Initially, the reinforcing steel is protected by the high
alkalinity of the concrete and no corrosion occurs
(Val & Melchers, 1997). However, for the case of
chloride-induced corrosion, the diffusion of chlo-
rides from deicing salts or seawater into the concrete
pores results in the depassivation of concrete and the
initiation of corrosion. This depassivation is mod-
eled by Stewart & Rosowsky (1998) and Lounis &
Daigle (2013) to occur when the chloride content at
the reinforcement reaches a critical threshold value
Ccr.
The chloride content within the concrete is calcu-
lated as:
  x 
C ( x, t ) = C0  1 − erf  
  2 tD  
where x = depth from the exposed surface [cm], t =
exposure time [s], C0 = surface chloride content
[kg/m³], D = chloride diffusion coefficient [cm²/s],
erf = the error function.
Both D and Ccr are uncertain variables with sto-
chastic distribution given in Table 2, in accordance
with (Stewart & Rosowsky, 1998).
Table 2. Additional probabilistic models for the cor-
rosion and cracking calculations.
Property Distr µ CoV
20°C concrete tensile LN dependent 0.3
strength fct(20°C) on fc(20°C)
surface chloride content C0 DET 2.95 kg/m³ -
critical corrosion threshold U 0.9 kg/m³ 0.2
value Ccr [0.6;1.2]
diffusion coefficient D LN 2 10-8 cm²/s 0.75
thickness porous zone around LN 12.5 µm 0.2
reinforcement bar d0
model uncertainty Kicor LN 1 0.2
time from horizontal cracking LN 15 0.2
to spalling Tspall
Figure 3 visualizes the distribution of the time to
corrosion initiation for the characteristics of Tables 1
and 2. A severe surface chloride content of 2.95
kg/m³ is used. According to Vu & Stewart (2000)
this is a common value for structures exposed to de-
icing salts and is an appropriate value for structures
in the immediate vicinity of the sea.
Figure 3. Cumulative density function of the time to corrosion
initiation, for different nominal concrete covers c.
As visualized in Figure 3, the concrete cover strong-
ly influences the time to corrosion initiation. Since
the cover is a defining parameter as well with respect
to the reliability during fire, the relationship between
both aspects will be investigated further in this pa-
per.
(1)
3.3 Corrosion propagation and rebar diameter loss
Once corrosion is initiated, the corrosion rate is de-
termined by equations 2 and 3, as proposed by Stew-
art & Suo (2009) and Vu & Stewart (2000):
27 (1 − W / C )
−1.64
icor ( 0 ) = K icor (2)
0.1c
icor ( t p ) = icor ( 0 ) 0.85t −p0.29 (3)
where icor(0) = corrosion rate at the start of the prop-
agation [µA/cm²], Kicor = model uncertainty, W/C =
water cement ratio [-], icor(tp) = corrosion rate at tp
years since the start of the propagation [µA/cm²].
Equation 3 models the reduction of the corrosion
rate due to rust products obstructing the diffusion of
iron ions away from the steel surface (Vu & Stewart,
2000). It should be noted that equation 3 applies
when no spalling has occurred. If the concrete cover
detaches, the rebars are directly exposed to the envi-
ronment and a constant corrosion rate of 0.0119 is
assumed in accordance with (Papadopoulos et al.,
2011).
 The corrosion rates can be associated with a loss tion of the reliability during fire, βfi,t, as a function of
of reinforcement diameter, based on (Stewart & the age of the structure. As both models have many
Rosowsky, 1998): parameters in common, coupled Monte Carlo simu-

( )
lations are performed in which every vector of ran-
Ø ( t p ) = Ø ( t p − 1) − 0.0116 icor ( t p ) + icor ( t p − 1) (4) dom realizations is implemented in both models. In-
formation with respect to the corroded reinforcement
with Ø(tp) the reinforcement diameter tp years after diameter and the occurrence of spalling is transferred
corrosion initiation and with Ø(0) = Ø0. from the corrosion model to the structural model.
Results are visualized in Figure 4 for the slab
3.4 Time to concrete cracking and spalling configuration defined by Tables 1 and 2, but assum-
ing that no spalling occurs (Tspall = infinity).
The corrosion products are up to 3 times larger than
the corroded volume of reinforcement. This results
in considerable pressures exerted on the concrete at
the reinforcement interface and tensile stresses in the
surrounding concrete.
As Figure 1 indicates that the occurrence of spall-
ing has a huge impact on the fire performance of
concrete slabs, the development of horizontal cracks
connecting the reinforcement bars is of interest. The
model for calculating the time to continuous hori-
zontal cracks is based on the cylinder concept pro-
posed by Liu and Weyers (1998):

f ct  s 2 + ( Ø0 + 2d0 )2 
ds = ( s − Ø0 − 2d 0 )  2 − ν  (5)
− ( + ) 
2
2 Eef s Ø 2 d
 0 0 
Figure 4. βfi,t as a function of the age of the element, for differ-
π ( Ø0 + 2d0 + 2d s ) − Ø  ρ cp
2 2 ent fire exposure durations, neglecting spalling.
Vcrit , Fe =  0
 (6)
4 (1.75 ρ Fe − ρ cp ) While the occurrence of spalling is highly uncer-
tain, the loss of concrete cover can have a very im-
portant influence on reliability. Figure 5 was calcu-
VFe,cor ( t p ) =
4(
π
Ø 0
2
− Ø (t p )
2
) (7) lated with the same input variables as Figure 4, but
with Tspalling modeled as a lognormal distributed var-
iable, according to Table 2. It is stressed this sto-
where ds = critical thickness of the additional layer
chastic model was chosen for indicative purposes
of corrosion products at which a horizontal crack
only and does not relate to experimental results. If
develops [mm], fct = concrete tensile strength at
test data is available, an updated model for Tspalling
20°C [MPa], Eef = effective concrete modulus of
can easily be incorporated in the calculations.
elasticity [MPa], s = horizontal spacing of rein-
forcement bars [mm], d0 = thickness of porous layer
at concrete-reinforcement interface [mm] (Liu &
Weyers, 1998), ν = Poisson coefficient for concrete
[-], Vcrit,Fe = critical volume of corroded reinforce-
ment [mm³], VFe,cor = corroded volume of reinforce-
ment [mm³], ρFe = steel density [kg/m³], ρcp = densi-
ty of corrosion products [kg/m³].
Once a horizontal crack has developed, spalling
may occur. The subsequent time between cracking
and spalling is modeled by Tspall. Once spalling has
occurred, the corrosion process is in its final phase.

4 RELIABILITY DURING FIRE OF

CORROSION-DAMAGED SLABS

Combining the corrosion model with the model for Figure 5. βfi,t as a function of the age of the element, for differ-
the bending capacity allows to calculate the evolu- ent fire exposure durations, with Tspall according to Table 2.
In agreement with the conclusions presented by Val
et al. (2000), the reliability at standard temperatures
(i.e. at 0 minutes of ISO 834) is only slightly affect-
ed by the aging of the slab. If the occurrence of spall-
ing is neglected, the same observation holds for the
reliability during fire (Figure 4). However, when in-
corporating the possible occurrence of spalling, βfi,t
experiences large reductions with increasing age, i.e.
loss of concrete cover results in an accelerated heat-
ing of the reinforcement in case of fire and a drop in
reliability, as visualized in Figure 5. These results
indicate that the possible occurrence of spalling
should not be neglected when assessing structural re-
liability during fire for existing structures.
As indicated, the occurrence of spalling is highly
uncertain and for realistic structures with a limited
lifetime, spalling may not occur at all. Therefore, the
influence of Tspall is studied by varying µ Tspall. While
for illustrative purposes a mean of 15 years was as-
sumed in Figure 5, a comparison between different
assumptions is made in Figures 6 and 7 for 30 and
120 minutes ISO 834 respectively.
Figure 6. βfi,30min ISO 834 as a function of the age of the element,
for different µ Tspall, other parameters according to Table 2.
Figure 7. βfi,120min ISO 834 as a function of the age of the element,
for different µ Tspall, other parameters according to Table 2.
Clearly, the mean time between cracking and spall-
ing is an important parameter when investigating the
expected loss of reliability due to corrosion. Howev-
er, while some slabs may have spalled and are in
need of repairs, others still retain their cover. There-
fore, an inspection program should be drafted for ex-
isting structures, depending on the appropriate value
of µ Tspalling.
Lounis & Daigle (2013) mention a formula for
calculating the time between corrosion initiation and
delamination. However, for the specific slab config-
uation of Tables 1 and 2 the results are found to be
overly conservative.
5 PARAMETER STUDIES
The developed model can be used to assess the im-
pact of different constituent parameters and to com-
pare design alternatives. In the previous sections a
surface chloride content of 2.95 kg/m³ was assumed,
which can be associated to a structure in the coastal
spray zone (Vu & Stewart, 2000). Other values may
be appropriate for structures further inland. For the
model assumptions described above, lower values of
C0 only affect the time of corrosion initiation and as
such postpone the reduction of reliability (Figure 8).
Figure 8. βfi,120min ISO 834 as a function of the age of the element,
for different C0, other parameters according to Tables 1 and 2.
For a sufficiently low chloride content, e.g. 0.03
kg/m³ for structures more than 1 km from the sea
(Vu & Stewart, 2000), no change in reliability is
witnessed during the simulated lifetime of 50 years.
For structures exposed to deicing salts, Vu & Stew-
art (2000) propose a lognormal distribution with
mean 3.5 and coefficient of variation 0.5. Figure 8
indicates that the associated reliability during fire is
comparable to the reliability calculated using a de-
terministic surface chloride content of 2.95 kg/m³.
Consequently, the magnitude of C0 is found to be
a determining factor with respect to the chloride-
induced reduction of structural fire resistance. Struc-
tures which are not exposed to any increased concen-
tration of chlorides can be considered to maintain
their initial fire resistance throughout the normal
lifetime.

As shown above, both the nominal concrete cover

and its standard deviation are important parameters
when describing the structural reliability during fire.
As the concrete cover is an important parameter in
the corrosion models as well, its overall influence
should be investigated.
In Figure 9 the reliabilities at 0, 30 and 120
minutes of fire exposure are compared for concrete
covers of 25, 35 and 45 mm. All other variables are
taken from Tables 1 and 2.

Figure 10. βfi,t as a function of the age of the element, for dif-
ferent standard deviation of the concrete cover (cnom = 35 mm).

Clearly, chloride-induced corrosion can have a sig-

nificant impact on the structural reliability during
fire. However, from a practical point of view the im-
pact on the structural fire resistance time tR is of spe-
cial interest. This is investigated in the subsequent
section by using a threshold value for the reliability
βfi,t to define tR.

6 RELIABILITY-BASED FIRE RESISTANCE

Building codes generally define the required fire re-

Figure 9. βfi,t as a function of the age of the element, for differ-
ent nominal concrete cover (σc = 5 mm).
As expected, a lower concrete cover reduces the time
to corrosion initiation and accelerates the loss of re-
inforcement diameter. Consequently, a lower con-
crete cover can be associated with an earlier loss of
reliability with aging of the structure (Figure 9).
These effects should be taken into account in the de-
sign of new structures when deciding on the appro-
priate concrete cover in order to maintain an ade-
quate fire resistance during the expected lifetime.
Furthermore, for new structures the variation or
the uncertainty with respect to the concrete cover
was shown to have an important influence on the
structural reliability during fire (Figure 2). However,
when taking into account deterioration due to chlo-
ride-induced corrosion, the initial differences are
found to diminish with aging and a similar evolution
of the structural reliability is witnessed, irrespective
of the standard deviation of the concrete cover. This
is because the reduction of the reinforcement cross
section and spalling govern failure.
sistance of a concrete element as a standard fire du-
ration tR during which the element should maintain
its load bearing function. For the specific situation of
European legislation, EN 1992-1-2 applies and the
ISO 834 standard fire is used to define tR as:
M Rd , fi ,t ≥ M Ed , fi ,t for t ≤ t R (8)
Investigations by Van Coile et al. (2013b) for the
slab configuration of Table 1 indicate tR can be asso-
ciated with a reliability level βfi,tR of approximately
1. Using this limiting value to define a reliability-
based fire resistance time tR,β, the evolution of the
structural fire resistance with the age of the structure
can be calculated. Results are visualized in Figure 11
for the slab configuration of Tables 1 and 2 for dif-
ferent values of µ Tspalling.

Figure 11. Reliability-based fire resistance time tR,β as a func-
tion of the age of the structure, for different µ Tspalling.
Similarly, tR,β can be calculated for different surface
chloride contents C0 (Figure 12).
Figure 12. Reliability-based fire resistance time tR,β as a func-
tion of the age of the structure, for different surface chloride
contents C0.
7 INFLUENCE OF UNCERTAINTY WITH
RESPECT TO µ TSPALLING
As noted above, the mean time from concrete crack-
ing to spalling is highly uncertain. This uncertainty
can be translated into a probabilistic formulation of
tR,β when modelling µ Tspalling as a stochastic variable.
Subsequently, an appropriate design value for tR,β
can be determined from this distribution. As an ex-
ample, when describing µ Tspalling as a lognormal vari-
able with mean 15 and coefficient of variation 0.5, a
stochastic representation of tR,β is visualized in Fig-
ure 13 by a histogram for an age of 10, 20, 30 and 40
years respectively. In accordance with European leg-
islation, only a limited number of fire resistance
times Rx are considered. Therefore, a tR,β of 39
minutes is for example classified as a structural fire
resistance R30.
Figure 13. Discrete probability density function of the reliabil-
ity-based fire resistance time for µ Tspalling = LN(15;0.5), for
structures with an age of 10, 20, 30 and 40 years.
Clearly, deterioration mechanisms can significantly
reduce the structural fire resistance time. While al-
most all slabs can be expected to maintain their orig-
inal fire resistance of 180 minutes for at least 10
years after construction, the possible occurrence of
chloride-induced spalling increases the probability of
achieving an R-value of only 30 minutes for older
structures. It is concluded that investigating the
structural fire performance is of specific importance
with respect to existing structures.
8 CONCLUSIONS
• A probabilistic calculation tool is developed to as-
sess the loss of structural reliability during fire
due to chloride-induced corrosion.
• While the reliability at normal loading conditions
(i.e. at 20°C or at 0 min ISO 834) is found to de-
crease only modestly with aging, the reliability
during fire may reduce significantly due to a loss
of reinforcement cross section and spalling of the
concrete cover.
• The loss of reliability is found to be lower for
structures with a lower surface chloride content
and a larger concrete cover.
• While the variation of the concrete cover has an
important influence on reliability during fire for
uncorroded slabs, a large probability of corrosion
damage reduces the importance of the concrete
cover standard deviation as the occurrence of
spalling governs the structural fire performance.
• A reliability-based fire resistance time is calculat-
ed and found to be highly influenced by chloride-
induced corrosion.
9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Ruben Van Coile is a Research Assistant of the
FWO Research Foundation Flanders. The authors
wish to thank the FWO for the financial support on
the research project “Probabilistic formulation of the
structural reliability of concrete structures subjected
to fire in relation to risk-based decision making and
risk-transfer mechanisms”.
Van Coile, R., Caspeele, R., Taerwe, L. & Gouverneur, D.
2013a. Probabilistic assessment of the effect of spalling on
the displacement of concrete slabs exposed to fire. In fib
Symposium: Engineering a Concrete Future, Proc., Tel-
Aviv, 21-24 April, 2013.
Van Coile, R., Caspeele, R. & Taerwe, L. 2013b. Reliability-
based evaluation of the design format for concrete slabs
subjected to fire. submitted to Fire Safety Journal
Vu, K.A.T. & Stewart, M.G. 2000. Structural reliability of con-
crete bridges including improved chloride-induced corro-
sion models. Structural Safety 22: 313-333.

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