Reinforced concrete--Deterioration

A significant amount of reinforced concrete structures in the USA are reaching the design life span of 50 years. Degradation of these infrastructure due to corrosion presents an economical, safety and quality of life challenge for our society. Being able to study and determine the conditions of our infrastructure, perform maintenance before failure and predict failure before occurrence has become critical for our society and our way of life. This study was performed to add to existing research in the understanding of the relationships between the corrosion current of the embedded carbon steel rebars in reinforced concrete, rebar mass loss due to corrosion and the degradation of the mechanical properties of the carbon steel embedded in high performance concrete structures. The study also aimed to study the influence of different independent variables such as the chloride solution reservoir size and the concrete composition of the prepared specimens for the study.
Specimens for the study were prepared by embedding three carbon steel size #4 rebars in blocks of high performing concrete with different admixture to enhance their performance against corrosion. To initiate corrosion specimens were exposed to accelerated chloride transport method (electromigration). To accelerate corrosion some samples were selected for anodic polarization and additional electromigration.
After corrosion initiation, the rebars Open Circuit Potential (OCP) and corrosion current (Icorr) were periodically measured using a galvanostat device from April 2017 to August 2021. The OCP average values showed that all the rebars considered in this study were in active corrosion. Faraday’s law was used to determine the rebar calculated mass loss from the measured corrosion current and the elapse time between measurements. The rebar mass loss was in turn used to model the loss of the physical properties of the rebar (yield strength, ultimate strength, and ultimate strain) using (Vanama & Ramakrishnan, 2020) model. Analysis of these parameters results showed a direct relationship between the measured corrosion current and the calculated mass loss of the corroding rebar. The study also showed a direct relationship between the calculated mass loss of the corroding rebar and the degradation of the physical properties of the rebar.

Experiments were conducted to determine the effectiveness of localized cathodic polarization for reducing corrosion of simulated prestressed concrete piles containing admixed calcium chloride and exposed to a simulated sea water tidal cycle. The specimens contained both continuous and segmented steel tendons, the purpose of the latter being to facilitate measurement of cathodic protection current. Conductive rubber in an impressed current system was used as the anode material. The specimens were initially freely corroded and then cathodically polarized at a constant current ranging from 0.5 to 1 mA/m$\sp2$ which corresponded to potentials (current-on) which ranged from $-$0.500 to $-$1.100 V(sce) in the anode region. The magnitude of impressed current and its distribution along the embedded steel was monitored as a function of exposure time, level of polarization and water levels. Current-on and instant-off potential distribution for both the continuous and segmented tendons were also measured. The level of cathodic polarization was assessed as a function of position along the specimens by the depolarization method. The results were evaluated within the context of marine bridge substructure cathodic protection technology.