A non-destructive electromagnetic sensing technique to determine chloride level in maritime concrete

Deterioration of concrete due to the corrosion of reinforcement is a serious durability problem faced by the construction industry. This study aims to develop a non-destructive and real-time technique to monitor the chloride level at an early stage to prevent the development of the reinforcement’s corrosion using electromagnetic spectroscopy. The experimental work was performed on 5 concrete specimens with different chloride levels at three different concrete depths (18, 40, and 70mm) using the sensor system (2-12GHz frequency range) and a chlorometer. The LM algorithm was selected to develop a prediction model for the detection of chloride ions. The results demonstrated that the proposed technique can predict the chloride level with R²=0.986709 and RMSE =0.000120 at 5.42GHz. The results demonstrate that the sensor can predict the chloride ion content across the range of the investigated concrete depths with the percentage error of 0.034% with respect to the accuracy of the chlorometer.