Resumen
Carbonation of concrete is the secondreason of corrosion on reinforced concretestructures. This has led to study themethods that might be useful for defining,from the phase of project, the conditionsthat a certain concrete must have, besidesresisting mechanically, to be resistant toexternal attacks like it is the effect of theCO2 of industrial environments.With the purpose of establishing a simplemethod of testing that complementsthe compressive strength, and thatallows to predict the useful life of theconcrete in terms of its carbonation,possible relations were studied betweenfour parameters: depth of carbonation,capillary absorption, porosity andcompressive strength.Samples were made by concretes with w/c0.45 ? 0.53 ? 0.59. The three concreteswere prepared under the same proceduresand with the same cement, sand, graveland additives.The samples were tested to compressivestrength, capillary absorption andporosity, at different times of acceleratedcarbonation in a chamber designed forsuch purpose.The results showed a direct relationbetween coef f i c ient of capi l lar yabsorption and depth of acceleratedcarbonation on a concrete. The tests ofporosity did not show any correlationwith the depths of carbonation and withthe coefficient of absorption either.Finally it was found that the coefficientof absorption can be used as tool for thedevelopment of a new method of qualitycontrol for concrete durability.Key words: Accelerated carbonation, capillary absorption, concrete durability,porosity.