Direct and Probabilistic Interrelationships between Half-Cell Potential and Resistivity Test Results for Durability Ranking

Tests related to durability studies on structures often feature half-cell potential and resistivity data. An approximately linear relationship between half-cell potential testing and resistivity data has been discussed and well-researched. In spite of criticisms related to environmental sensitivity of resistivity tests it remains as a popular choice for investigations into durability of structures. This paper investigates the correlation between half-cell potentials and resistivity tests on reinforced concrete from field data from tests on six bridges. The empirical interrelationships from the six bridges with widely varying environmental exposure conditions and the variation of such interrelationships are observed. Similar investigations are carried out on different elements of bridges. The paper then discusses problems related to the interpretation and practical application of correlations carried out on absolute values and advocates the use of statistical measures obtained from test data. The percentile correlations are observed to be helpful when considering exceedances of different threshold values. A customised use of such data in an empirically correlated probabilistic format with can be useful in durability ranking and infrastructure maintenance management. The studies presented in this paper emphasize the advantages of using probabilistic formats over traditional formats when interpreting or quantitatively establishing field relationships between half-cell potential and resistivity data. The ability of this empirically correlated probabilistic format to support structure-specific thresholds of serviceability limit states is discussed. The need for a shared repository for the improvement of accuracy of such correlations and for the use of such correlations as a surrogate for other structures is emphasized.