Impact of climate change on the corrosion of the European reinforced concrete building stock

The study provides assessment of the penetration of climate change induced carbonation in the concrete cover of the existing buildings in the EU Member States. It estimates the time for on-set of corrosion due to depletion of the cover of the reinforcement, and evaluates the repair costs under the moderate emissions scenario RCP4.5, and under the extreme scenario RCP8.5.

The results conclusively show that if there would be no climate change, the depth of carbonation would be much smaller than the depth of the concrete cover and would not lead to corrosion process. The study proves that the carbonation triggered by the long-term climate projections up to 2100 does not pose a threat to recent concrete buildings that follow the recommendations of the modern European standards for durability of the concrete cover. However, the climate change induced carbonation is expected to trigger corrosion in the building stock, which was designed upon the standards of the 20th century.