Influence of climate change on concrete durability in Yucatan peninsula

Abstract

The environmental effects of global climate change (GCC) are becoming more evident. Nonetheless, efforts to document its effects on the durability of infrastructure are still limited. The present study used long term data (1961-2008) on temperature, relative humidity, precipitation and evaporation recorded in a tropical microclimate of the port of Progreso (Yucatan, Mexico) in order to detect climatic patterns associated to GCC. In addition, the authors analysed chloride profiles in concretes of different quality but of the same age (15 years) and exposed to the same microclimate. Results suggest the presence of environmental changes associated to GCC during the last 40 years, especially in terms of average and maximum temperature, which showed increases of 1 and 0·22°C per decade respectively. Results also showed that seasonal and multiannual climatic cycles had an influence on the behaviour of the chloride profile of the studied concretes and thus on their durability.