Comparative study on concrete permeability limits in Spanish and European standards

Abstract

The Spanish Codes for concrete, EH-91 and EP-93, include at present procisions for limiting the permeability of concrete, measured in the water penetration test described in the UNE 83.304/90 standard. The prescriptios of the Spanish Codes are not exactly coincident with the ones of ENV-206. So, the limiting value for the average penetration depth is different: 20 mm for ENV-206 while 30 mm in the Spanish Codes. The broad experience in this field of the Laboratorio Central de Estructuras y Materiales from CEDEX, has allowed to perform a study on the validity of the average penetration depth fronts in both standards. In the study, both laboratory cast concrete samples, and in-suty drilled cores were used. In the paper, the study is described in general terms, and the main conclusions are presented, these revealing a higher soundness of the limiting values in the Spanish Codes. Also a study of the deviations obtained in the test is performed, and a procedure is presented for using the water penetration test as a standard control method for the durability specifications of concrete.