Effect of global warming on chloride resistance of concrete: a case study of Guangzhou, China

In this chapter, we embark on a preliminary exploration of the effect of global warming on the durability of reinforced concrete (RC) structures under chloride ion attack in a humid and coastal environment. For this purpose, we collected historical data of the annual average temperature and relative humidity of Guangzhou, the third-largest city in China, for the period 1980–2021 and then fitted the corresponding data for the next period 2021–2100 using a cubic exponential smoothing model for time series prediction analysis. Based on the known and predicted data, we estimated and compared the service life reduction of RC structures with three existing chloride ingress models. In our comparative analysis, the time was split into two stages: past (1980–2021) and future (2021–2100). It was turned out that an average temperature increase of 2.35°C from 2000 to 2100 could happen in Guangzhou. Consequently, the durability of RC structures exposed to the chloride-contaminated environment is likely to worsen over time, with the service lifetime estimated to be reduced by about 7–19 years. A clear warning is thus sounded that both structural design and maintenance guidelines should be adapted to those significant changes.