My research during my master’s degree in SIIT, Thammasat University, focused on the airborne chloride deposition and surface chloride content of structures located in the marine environment.
To begin with, structures exposed to the chloride-rich environment were damaged by the chloride attacks. Chloride ions attach to the surface of the reinforced concrete structures and diffuse into the concrete covering to corrode the reinforcing steel. The corrosion of the steel damages the concrete covering and the overall strength of the structure.
To estimate the free-service life of these structures, Fick’s second law was used as the design equation with surface chloride content as one of the important parameters in the equation. Surface chloride is mainly from the sea where its waves produce whitecaps that are later transported inland by the wind intensity and wind direction in the form of airborne chloride. Investigations in many countries were conducted to find the relationship between surface chloride and airborne chloride deposition. Thus, it would be very convenient to predict surface chloride content from the amount of airborne chloride deposition. My research aims to investigate the amount of airborne chloride and surface chloride in the coastal region of Thailand and to construct a prediction model for surface chloride content.
Concrete specimens were cast using fly ash as cement replacement material and exposed in many coastal provinces of Thailand. Additionally, chloride contents from the surface of actual structures alongside the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand were collected. Chloride content was extracted from the concrete specimens using a titration machine according to ASTM 1152. As a result, surface chloride content was found influenced by some parameters such as airborne chloride deposition, distances from the seashore, elevations above mean sea level, fly ash content as cement replacement materials, and water-to-binder ratios. Finally, a surface chloride prediction model was constructed according to the experimental data.
For my future research, I am interested in sustainable concrete. Concrete produces a very high amount of CO2, which pollutes the environment. However, concrete is not the only source of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, there are many other sources such as fossil fuels. Moreover, there are many environmental issues in the world such as climate change, global warming, and recently PM 2.5. These problems are from the exceeded amount of carbon dioxide, air pollution, food waste, plastic pollution, deforestation, etc. I am a civil engineer, so the only problem I could manage is to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide from the environment via research for sustainable concrete. According to your biography, you have been working on Geopolymer concrete and Red mud and glass powder as fly ash replacement material so I am sure that it would be useful for the structures in the marine environment as well as the environment of the earth. I am convinced that I could have a suitable topic to work on under your supervision according to your research interests.