THE PREDICTION OF CORROSION RATES OF REINFORCING STEELS IN CONCRETE

The effect of chloride and acetate ions on corrosion of steel in concr ete was studied. The reinforcement corrosion was evaluated by measurin g the corrosion potentials and corrosion current density using linear polarization resistance technique. The initial corrosion rates (i(o)) of reinforcing steel in concrete containing either chloride or acetate ion were found to be higher as compared to concrete without admixture . The corrosion rate is very high at early days and decreases by time. The corrosion rate vs time curves for reinforcements in all three typ es of concrete blocks follow the same pattern. The following exponenti al quantitative relation between the corrosion rate (i(cor)) and time (Theta) was proposed: i(cor) = i(o) exp(-C Theta) where C was termed a s concrete corrosion constant having a value of 1.1 x 10(-3) day(-1) f or the types of concrete samples under consideration. Copyright (C) 19 96 Elsevier Science Ltd