In situ study of chloride ingress in concretes containing natural zeolite, metakaolin and silica fume exposed to various exposure conditions in a harsh marine environment

The Persian Gulf is well known as one of the most aggressive environments in the world because of its high relative humidity, temperature and concentration of chloride ions. Therefore, studying the deterioration processes, such as the chloride ion penetration process, that lead to severe reinforcement corrosion in aggressive environments is necessary. To improve the durability and serviceability of concrete structures in such environments, several investigations have been conducted that address the addition of silica fume and metakaolin, while less attention has been given to the newly introduced pozzolan called natural zeolite. In this paper, the performance of concretes containing natural zeolite, metakaolin and silica fume and that of concretes with different water-to-binder ratios under various exposure conditions in terms of chloride ion diffusivity were investigated. To achieve this objective, concrete specimens with water-to-binder ratios (w/b) of 0.35, 0.40, 0.45 and 0.50 were fabricated. In addition, to examine the performance of three different pozzolans, other specimens with constant water-to-binder ratios of 0.40 containing 10% natural zeolite, 5% metakaolin and 5% silica fume were prepared. All of the specimens were subjected to four exposure conditions (tidal, splash, atmosphere and soil). The results were obtained from a field exposure site and indicate that natural zeolite exhibits good performance in terms of improving the durability of concrete in harsh environments. In addition, it is concluded that splash zones affect concrete structures more harshly than tidal zones.