A comparison between uniform and galvanic corrosion rate in carbonation induced corrosion of reinforced concrete

Abstract

Carbonation-induced corrosion is usually considered in uniform or generalized corrosion. This is true for small laboratory samples but not necessary the case for real reinforced concrete structures built with multilayers reinforcement. Multi-layers reinforcement could lead to a galvanic corrosion between first de-passivated layer closed to the concrete surface and deeper layers still passivated. The present paper compares the uniform corrosion density and the galvanic corrosion density for concrete samples made with two different type of cements. CEM III cement despite their higher susceptibility to carbonation show a significant lower galvanic corrosion density, which would lead to a significant increase in the service life of RC structures, exposed to carbonation.