BACKGROUND: AASHTO T 277/ASTM C 1202, Electrical Indication of Concrete Ability to Resist Chloride Ion Penetration, has been widely accepted for assessing the durability of concrete. The test provides an indication of the concrete’s ability to resist chloride ion penetration, but it has many shortcomings: it is slow and time consuming, destructive, and prone to errors caused by sample heating, and it fails to adequately capture features associated with supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). Electrical resistivity measurements (AASHTO T 358, Standard Method of Test for Surface Resistivity Indication of Concrete’s Ability to Resist Chloride Ion Penetration and ASTM C 1760, Standard Test Method for Bulk Electrical Conductivity of Hardened Concrete) have the potential of providing performance-based evaluation of concrete. Although the data from these methods are easy to obtain, they may not relate to concrete water permeability. It is suggested that a formation factor that incorporates the ratio of the resistivity (ñ) of the bulk concrete to the resistivity (ñ₀) of the pore solution or other approaches could be used to provide a better assessment of fluid transport properties. There is a need to consider using such approaches for rating concrete permeability based on resistivity measurements and providing an expedited means for assessing concrete water permeability to facilitate the evaluation of concrete durability.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this research was to develop a recommended procedure for rating concrete water permeability based on electrical resistivity measurements.

STATUS: Research is complete. The final report has been published as NCHRP Research Report 1086.