It is a well known fact that infrastructures in marine environments are subjected to corrosion attacks all the time. The most severe corrosion happens to the steel materials that are directly exposed in the marine environment, particularly for the portion exposed in the splash zone, where the air (oxygen)is embroiled with water causing a wet and dry alternately exerting environment. The most widely used material of
marine infrastructure, such as reinforced concrete, is also subjected to deterioration damage from the marine environment.
In this way, it weakens the impermeability of the material so that the sea water is allowed to penetrate through the protection layer of the structural member and therefore, the reinforced bars embedded in the concrete are corroded. In this study, several experimental tests were designed and carried out to examine the applicability of a scheme by replacing a small amount of aggregates with the bamboo charcoal to
improve the characteristics of cement mortar utilized in infrastructures in marine environment. Tests including the
properties of fresh mixed cement mortar, the compressive strength test, sulfate-resistant capability tests, chloride-block tests and permeability relevant tests were carried out to investigatethe influence of bamboo charcoal on the mechanical properties of the cement mortar. It was found that a small
amount of replacement of fine aggregate with bamboo charcoal may greatly improve the properties of cement mortar applied to infrastructures in marine environment. The material deterioration may be mitigated by the improvements of moisture impermeability and chloride blocking effects due to the application of bamboo charcoals.
