37º IAHS World Congress on Housing: - Universidad de Cantabria

XXXVII <strong>IAHS</strong><strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> on HousingOctober 26 – 29, 2010, Santander, SpainCODE: 156PERFORMANCE OF CORK CONCRETE SUBJECTED TOCHLORIDE MIGRATIONFernando G. Branco 1 , Maria de Lurdes Belgas 2 , António Tadeu 11 CICC, Department of Civil EngineeringUniversity of Coimbra, Portugale-mail: fjbranco@dec.uc.pt; tadeu@dec.uc.pt2 CICC, Department of Civil EngineeringPolytechnic Institute of Tomar, Portugale-mail: lbelgas@ipt.ptKey words: concrete, cork, durability, chlorideAbstractThe huge importance of reinforced concrete as a building material is an undeniable fact. Notonly is one of the most used and widespread of the building materials, but also the basis for aconsiderable amount of building techniques that depend on concrete performance.Concrete technology improvements along the last decades allowed significant improvementon concrete performance, namely on mechanical strength, durability, sustainability andaesthetics. During the last few years, for sustainability and economical reasons, the use ofseveral types of industry by-products and waste have been tested on concrete admixtures.Rubbers, several types of polymers, glass, organic materials and construction and demolitiondebris have been used to partially replace the traditional aggregates. This aggregatereplacement leads to important changes on mechanical strength and durability of concrete,some of them requiring further research for a better knowledge of the material.Durability of concrete under aggressive environment is one of the most studied phenomena.The main concern on reinforced concrete structures is the problem of steel reinforcementcorrosion, which is highly influenced by carbonation and chloride action.The present work presents the results of research carried out to check the influence of corkgranulates produced by cork manufacturing industry, used as lightweight aggregate forconcrete, under chloride migration. Laboratory tests were carried out, to compare theperformance of different types of concrete, subjected to chloride diffusion. A colorimetricmethod was used to determine the depth of chloride penetration after 28 days, 3 months and 6months.37º <strong>IAHS</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> On Housing Science 99