Carbonation:
Year of Corrosion Initiation Assessment
The carbonation analysis tool, DTI DME 5.1 developed by John Broomfield et al is a spreadsheet which takes as its inputs carbonation and cover measurements and predicts Carbonation Rates using the equation below:
x = ktn
Where
x is carbonation depth (mm)
k is a constant (mm/yrs1-n)
t is time (years) and
n is an exponent between 0 and 1, but usually equal to 0.5
In cases where the carbonation data are not readily available then the ' Time to Corrosion Initiation ' value has to be estimated. This is a key parameter that is required within the recommendation tool. Recommendation of the appropriate repair strategy is the next logical step after the analysis.