With a strong interest in the development of limit-state service life design, it is most encouraging to see such research by the authors. The useful service life during the propagation period will largely depend on how corrosion, such as chloride-induced corrosion, affects the structural behaviour. One approach has been in quantifying when an unacceptable wide crack occurred. The second approach could be when and how cracking adversely affects structural performance either in terms of serviceability or load-carrying capacity. Li and Zheng contribute to the second approach.They conclude that the water/cement (w/c) ratio has some influence on structural deterioration in terms of strength deterioration of reinforced concrete (RC) flexural members whereas there was no clear evidence on the influence of the cement type. They also found different deterioration rates in terms of strength and stiffness (serviceability) with the latter deteriorating faster, and that the corrosion current method underestimates the strength deterioration by an order of 20%.
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