Investigation of carbonation parameters of selected structures along railway stations and CO2 level mapping

• Main Authors: Alejo, Francis Manuel A., Biscocho, Carmina Joy, Patawaran, Johannes Michaelo D., Piojo, Lucille Anne D.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2017
• Subjects: Transportation buildings; Railroads > Buildings and structures; Building materials; Civil Engineering
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/9360
• Institution: De La Salle University

Carbonation is considered to be a natural phenomenon in which carbon dioxide penetrates the pores of concrete structures, leading to the formation of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) (Copuroglu, Park, and Yoon, 2007) which initiates the corrosion of the steel reinforcement embedded within the concrete. On the local scale, Metro Manila is one of the densely populated and higly urbanized city in the Philippines which accounts for the possible high rate of carbonation within the city. Considering this, as well as the significant number of emerging structures in the city, the durability of old and new structures must be given paramount importance for the safety of the people utilizing these structures. Carbonation mapping is a tool to analyze the degradation of selected structures along train stations in Metro Manila, having comparable ages, due to carbonation and corrosion of reinforcing bar, and assessment of the serviceable life of the structures to avoid risking the lives of its occupants. To represent this, foul holes were drilled on the surface of a reinforced concrete: two of which were intended for carbonation depth through phenolphthalein testing, and other two for moisture content. The concrete powders obtained were tested to assess the current condition of the structures due to carbonation. The analyzed data gathered have indicated that majority of the assessed structures have already undergone carbonation. However, although there was no apparent relationship established with the carbon dioxide level and the carbonation depth, and former with the degree of carbonation generally, as the amount of carbon dioxide in an environment increase, the carbonation depth and degree of carbonation increases as well. Finally customized GIS tool was devised to interpret the findings in a scientific and formulated manner to clearly represent the data gathered. By using JavaScript, CSS and HTML languages and utilizing an opensource JavaScript map, an interactive map was done to summarize the data gathered.