PSI - Issue 84

Kelly Camarena et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 84 (2026) 999–1006

1004

(a )

(b) (c) Fig. 5. Time for corrosion initiation in (a) Venice, (b) Cortina d’Ampezzo and (c) Verona.

To better illustrate these differences, three representative cities were chosen, one from each zone: Venice (Zone 1, coastal), Cortina d’Ampezzo (Zone 2, mountain), and Verona (Zone 3, inland). These case studies provide a closer look at how temperature influences corrosion initiation under different RCP scenarios, see Figure 5. In summary, for a properly designed RC section, chloride-induced corrosion is a serious durability issue in the coastal zone, especially in Venice, where even in the most optimistic case, corrosion is expected to start within 100 years. In contrast, the mountain and inland areas show much longer initiation times: in Cortina d’Ampezzo, corrosion may take more than 300 years to begin, while in Verona it can exceed 400 years under favourable conditions. 4.2. Carbonation-induced corrosion To explore the effect of emissions, a sensitivity analysis was carried out by changing the CO₂ concentration under three scenarios: the baseline concentration, a 50% increase, and a 100% increase including all 563 municipalities of Veneto. The estimated time to corrosion initiation decreases as the CO₂ concentration increases. With a 50% increase in concentration, the predicted time to initiation drops by about 40%, and when the concentration is doubled, the reduction reaches around 58% compared to the baseline. Furthermore, the spatial distribution (Figure 6, 7 and 8) shows that the municipalities with the highest CO₂ concentrations are mostly in central Veneto, where industrial activity is most concentrated. This correlation suggests that industrial emissions play a major role in speeding up carbonation damage in reinforced concrete.

(a )

(b) (c) Fig. 6. (a) Baseline CO₂ concentration; (b) Baseline + 50%; (c) Baseline + 100% - 5th percentile of carbonation-induced corrosion initiation time.

(a) (c) Fig. 7. (a) Baseline CO₂ concentration; (b) Baseline + 50%; (c) Baseline + 100% - 50th percentile of carbonation-induced corrosion initiation time. (b)