Carbonation of Bridge Deterioration in High Rainfall Tropical Region

The deterioration of reinforced concrete (RC) bridges is a common occurrence around the world, especially for older bridges. The causes of the deterioration can be unclear. There is currently a lack of study involving in situ tests of RC bridges exposed to the environment for a long time. One of the reasons for this is that researchers prefer accelerated deterioration tests in laboratories to save time and to control the parameters involved. In response to that, this paper presents a study on two old bridges located in the tropical country of Malaysia. Visual inspection was performed, while the microstructure and chemical compositions of concrete samples were determined using a scanning electron microscope, x-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. The tests confirm that only concrete carbonation was the source of deterioration for the RC bridges.