Corrosion of steel in concrete due to one and two dimensional chloride ingress

Abstract

This paper presents results of an ongoing research of the effect of 1D and 2D chloride ingress on concrete resistivity and corrosion rate of steel reinforcement. 12 concrete beams made with concrete of binder blend PC(50)/GGBS(50), w/b = 0.40, 10 mm steel reinforcement rods at concrete cover of 20 mm were used in this laboratory based experiment. The steel reinforcement bars were placed at the middle or at an orthogonal corner of the concrete beams subjected to 1D and 2D chloride ingress respectively. A single crack was induced using 3-point bending on one-half of the beams. The beams were exposed to a repeated cycle of 2 weeks ponding in 5% NaCl and then air drying in ambient laboratory condition for 2 weeks. The corrosion rate of both cracked and uncracked specimens exposed to 2D chloride ingress was significantly higher than that of beams exposed to 1D chloride ingress. The uncracked specimens had lower concrete resistivity values compared to the cracked specimens even though higher corrosion rates were measured.