Corrosion control of reinforced concrete structures in construction industry: A review

Abstract

Abstract Corrosion of steel reinforcement is one of the main deterioration phenomena which affect the durability of reinforced concrete structures. Together with the structural damages, corrosion will also increase the cost associated with it. Therefore, protection of reinforcing steel in concrete structures from corrosion is an inevitable need. Various protection techniques are in practice to mitigate corrosion of reinforcing steel in the concrete structure such as use of patch repairing, protective coating, impressed current method, and sacrificial anodes. Among these, electrochemical protection technique using sacrificial anodes can be suggested as a very effective tool for corrosion mitigation. Sacrificial anode cathodic protection system is a less popular corrosion control technique because of lack of awareness about the benefits of this method and the wide usage of other corrosion control practices. This paper provides a critical review on the common techniques in construction sites used for corrosion control of reinforced concrete structures. An overview of the benefits of sacrificial anode cathodic protection system, its working and installation is also provided in this paper.