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Construction and Building Materials 35 (2012) 564570

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

The corrosion investigation of rebar embedded in the bers reinforced concrete

Saeid Kakooei a,b, Hazizan Md Akil c,, Abolghasem Dolati b,d, Jalal Rouhi e,1
a

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Perak, Malaysia

Kish University, Kish Island, Iran
c
School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
d
Department of Materials Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
e
Nano-Optoelectronic Research (NOR) Lab, School of Physics, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
b

h i g h l i g h t s
" The polypropylene bers had caused delay in starting the degradation process.
" Reinforcement potential increased as the amount of bers increased from 0 to 2 kg m

3

" The corrosion rate in coral concrete is more than twice that in siliceous concrete.
" We concluded coral aggregates are not suitable for using in concrete structures.
" We used NDT methods (electrical resistivity, permeability) for concrete examine.

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 19 December 2011
Received in revised form 8 March 2012
Accepted 25 April 2012

Keywords:
Corrosion
Permeability
Fibers reinforced concrete
Polypropylene

a b s t r a c t
One effective method for preventing corrosion of steel reinforcement and improving the mechanical
properties of concrete is changing the physical nature of concrete by adding different materials. In this
study, we have used polypropylene bers as an additional material. We have compared the corrosion rate
of rebar using different volume ratios and sizes of polypropylene bers. Reinforcement potential
increased as the amount of bers increased from 0 to 2 kg m3. The polypropylene bers delay the initial
corrosion process by preventing cracking, thereby decreasing permeability of the concrete. In addition,
the corrosion rate of concrete samples made with Kish Island coral aggregate was compared to samples
made with a siliceous aggregate. The corrosion rate in this concrete is more than twice that in siliceous
concrete. We concluded that coral aggregate is improper for making concrete and using in concrete structures in the onshore atmosphere.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
It is generally understood that the initially protective environment that concrete provides for steel is due to the alkaline nature
of concrete. This is usually reected in passive or nobler corrosion
potentials (or Ecorr values) for steel in concrete. When aggressive
ions such as chlorides penetrate into concrete, the environment
can become favorable for steel corrosion [1,2]. When aggressive
ions reach the critical amounts, the potentials become more active,
and thus a shift in Ecorr values is often associated with the intrusion
of aggressive ions. This will cause the corrosion rate to increase.
When rebar embedded in concrete corrodes, the corrosion products slowly gather around the surface of the bar, taking more space
and applying pressure to the encasing concrete, leading to cracks.
The crack widths propagate in proportion to the degree of loss of
Corresponding author. Tel.: +60 45996161; fax: +60 45941011.
1

E-mail address: hazizan@eng.usm.my (H.M. Akil).

Present address.

0950-0618/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2012.04.051

rebar mass [3]. There are observable cases where concrete will
be exposed in marine environments or bridge decks subjected to
deicing salts that are replete with chloride ions [47]. Diffusion
of chloride into concrete that is exposed to the marine environment will decrease over time due to the hydration of the concrete,
making the concrete pore structure more dense, or removing chloride ions by binding [8]. Other factors can also have affected this
process, such as the amount of cover, the method and length of
consolidation and curing, and the water/cement ratio (w/c), but
it seems that permeability plays the main role. We can potentially
decrease this permeability by the addition of polymer bers and
the encasement of concrete in a polymer resin or polymer composite [5]. Additionally, ber reinforced concrete has a longer service
life in comparison with other types of concrete because of its resistance to corrosion and chemicals [9]. Payrow et al. mentioned that
the appearance of post-peak residual strength of concrete members in bending was the best benet of the using bers in concrete
as reinforcement [10].

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Moreover, electrochemical techniques such as polarization

curves and potentiometer data applied to steel-reinforced concrete
can be useful in assessing the effect of the intrusion of aggressive
ions on the corrosion rate of the steel inside [11,12]. The control
of the crack width for improving concrete durability can be a key
parameter for designing reinforced concrete structures [1315].
In particular, unexpected cracking can be seen as a consequence
of steel corrosion, leading to a prematurely reduced service life
for a reinforced concrete structure [16,17]. Also the use of polypropylene can reduce shrinkage cracking in mortar mixture or concrete
[13,14]. Pelisser et al. investigated the use of different bers in
concrete, and they found that crack opening can be signicantly
reduced [14]. Ismail et al. studied the relation between cracks
and chloride diffusion. Their result suggested that if crack openings
were greater than the threshold value, chloride diffusion along the
crack path depends on mortar age [18]. In this research paper, the
use of polypropylene and its effect on corrosion rate of rebar in concrete was investigated. Following this, the study of corrosion rates
by electrochemical methods, and measuring the permeability of
the concrete cover of the reinforcement and concrete electrical
resistivity were investigated.
2. Experimental procedures
2.1. Materials and mix design
An ordinary Portland cement, equivalent to ASTM type II, was
used to prepare the mortar specimens. Siliceous sand ranging
between 0 and 6 mm diameter and tap water were employed at
laboratory temperature (2025 C). Cylindrical reinforced concrete
specimens 10 cm in diameter and 20 cm in height were used. The
composition of the concrete is given in Table 1. As shown in Fig. 1,
an airtapeconcretesteel interface and electroplaters tape were
used for minimizing crevice corrosion. The main physical characteristics of the polypropylene bers are listed in Table 2. In this research, concrete samples were prepared with volumetric ratios of
bers: 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 kg m3 as mentioned in our previous
work [19]. Usable aggregate must be in the special range for suitable mixing design and least permeability. Aggregate size was selected similar to ASTM C33 [20]. The ratio of water to cement
was 0.48. All experiments were run in a simulation of marine environmental conditions. For accelerating the corrosion process, concrete samples were put in a container of Persian Gulf seawater.
Chemical analysis demonstrates that the amount of Cl ions in this
water is about 250270 g/l. Concrete samples mix with coral
aggregate were named as CSP0. Where C: coral aggregate, S: sea
water environment, and P: volumetric ratio of polypropylene bers
(this is 0 in this mix). Concrete samples mix with the siliceous
aggregate were named as MSP02L19. Where M: siliceous aggregate,
S: sea water environment, and P: volumetric ratio of polypropylene
bers (0, 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 kg m3).
2.2. Experimental test
A triple-electrode system was used for electrochemical measurements. The electrode consisted of a reinforced concrete specimen as the working electrode. A saturated calomel electrode (SCE)

Table 1
The raw materials used in the presented mixture design.
Water
Cement
Aggregate
w
c

190 kg m3
400 kg m3
1760 kg m3
0.48

Fig. 1. Dimensions of the specimens.

Table 2
Physical characteristics of polypropylene bers.
Specic gravity
Diameter
Width crossing
Melting point
Water absorption
Torsion resistibility

0.91g cm3
22 lm
Circular
160170 C
0
400350 MPa

and a platinum electrode were used as reference and counter,

respectively. An EG&G Model ZAHNER IM6 potentiostat, was used
for electrochemical measurements. In addition, a computer program was used with a scan rate of 1 mV/s in order to analyze the
resistance to polarization. The variations of corrosion potential
(Ecorr) with time were recorded with respect to a saturated calomel
reference electrode at room temperature. In the beginning, these
measurements were taken every day, until balanced conditions
were established. The measurements were carried out on the 5th,
30th, 60th, and 100th day of the exposure period. The variations
of open circuit potentials (Ecorr) with time were recorded with
respect to a Cu/CuSO4 reference electrode at room temperature.
A RESI electrical resistivity meter (made in Switzerland) was used
for electrical resistivity measurement. Furthermore, permeability
measurements were carried out with a TORENT permeability set.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Polarization curves
3.1.1. The effect of volumetric ratio of polypropylene bers on
corrosion behavior of concrete samples
The effect of volumetric ratio of polypropylene bers on corrosion behavior of concrete samples with different volumetric ratios
of polypropylene bers that were exposed to sea water for 5, 50,
100, and 150 days are shown in Figs. 25. Initially, the concrete sample with 0.5 kg m3 of bers had the least potential in comparison to

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Fig. 2. Polarization curves of concrete samples with different volumetric amount of polypropylene bers after 5 days exposure in sea water. Numbers (15) indicate
volumetric amount of polypropylene ber as follows: 1 = 0.5 kg m3, 2 = 1 kg m3, 3 = 1.5 kg m3, 4 = 2 kg m3, and 5 = 0 kg m3 polypropylene bers.

Fig. 3. Polarization curves of concrete samples with different volumetric amounts of polypropylene bers after 50 days exposure in sea water. Numbers (14) indicate
volumetric amount of polypropylene ber as follows: 1 = 0.5 kg m3, 2 = 1 kg m3, 3 = 1.5 kg m3, and 4 = 2 kg m3 polypropylene bers.

Fig. 4. Polarization curves of concrete samples with different volumetric amounts of polypropylene bers after 100 days exposure in sea water. Numbers (14) indicate
volumetric amount of polypropylene ber as follows: 1 = 0.5 kg m3, 2 = 1 kg m3, 3 = 1.5 kg m3, and 4 = 2 kg m3 polypropylene bers.

the other concrete samples. This sample was very prone to corrosion. The concrete sample with 1 kg m3 of ber also had a lower
tendency toward corrosion and was in a passive state. As the curves
show increasing polypropylene ber ratio caused a noticeable

increase in corrosion potential. Therefore, the curves shift to values

that are more positive. Also, current density of corrosion shifts to the
left side. It shows that there was lower current owing on the reinforcement surface.

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567

Fig. 5. Polarization curves of concrete samples with different volumetric amount of polypropylene bers after 150 days exposure in sea water. Numbers (15) indicate
volumetric amount of polypropylene ber as follows: 1 = 0.5 kg m3, 2 = 1 kg m3, 3 = 1.5 kg m3, 4 = 2 kg m3, and 5 = 0 kg m3 polypropylene bers.

3.2. Open circuit potential changes of concrete samples versus time

Increasing the number of bers has a direct relation to permeability. It causes concrete samples to become denser with lower
permeability. It means that a progressively smaller number of ions
enter the concrete samples. So corrosion potential will be more
positive and current density of corrosion will be lower [20,21]. Corrosion of rebar in the concrete sample with 2 kg m3 ber content
was severely increased after 150 days exposure in sea water. The
corrosion potential was decreased to the same level as in the concrete sample without bers. Fig. 5 shows the concrete sample with
1.5 kg m3 bers content after 150 days exposure in seawater. It
was more passive and had a more suitable degree of corrosion
resistance compared to the other concrete samples. This is because
the amount of bers has a direct inuence on the efciency of ber
reinforcement and the degree of rebar corrosion in concrete [17].

3.3. Corrosion current density (icorr) versus time

3.1.2. The effect of ber size on corrosion behavior of concrete samples

Concrete samples with similar volumetric ratios of polypropylene ber (2 kg m3) and different ber sizes (6 mm,12 mm,19 mm)
were exposed to sea water for 5, 50, 100 and 150 days. Polarization
curves of these samples were compared in Figs. 69. As polarization curves in Fig. 7 show, the concrete samples with ber size of
6 mm showed more active corrosion after 50-days compared to
the other samples. The Concrete sample with bers sizes of
12 mm had more positive potential as compared to two other samples. After 100 and 150-days exposure in sea water, the concrete
sample having 12 mm bers showed more positive potential and
was the most passive in relation to corrosion.

Corrosion current density of concrete samples was studied for

3 months (Fig. 11). The concrete sample with coral aggregate was
shown to have more current density corrosion than the other samples. The concrete sample without bers had variable corrosion
density. The current density decreased over 50 days and reached
a steady amount. In the case of concrete samples with polypropylene bers, the MSP1L19 sample was shown to have a lower corrosion
current density in comparison with other samples. But, because the
effect of potential is more signicant than current density (cf
Section 3.1.1), the concrete sample with 1.5 kg m3 of bers was
shown to have a better result. In this case, reading only the corrosion currents can lead us to incorrect understandings if the above

One of the well known methods for measuring rebar corrosion

in concrete is the half cell potential technique (Ecorr). In this method, the difference in potential between rebar embedded into concrete and a reference electrode (copper/copper sulphate electrode
(CSE)) is measured in accordance with ASTM C-876 [22,23].
Fig. 10 shows the result of the measurement of the potential for
4 months. With increasing volumetric ratio of ber, the potential
of samples shifted to more positive Ecorr values. This is noticeable
in concrete sample with 1.5 kg m3 bers content.

Fig. 6. Polarization curves of concrete samples with different sizes of polypropylene bers after 5 days exposure in sea water. Numbers (13) indicate the size of
polypropylene ber as follows: 1 = 6 mm, 2 = 12 mm, and 3 = 19 mm.

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Fig. 7. Polarization curves of concrete samples with different size of polypropylene bers after 50 days exposure in sea water. Numbers (13) indicate the size of
polypropylene ber as follows: 1 = 6 mm, 2 = 12 mm, and 3 = 19 mm.

Fig. 8. Polarization curves of concrete samples with different size of polypropylene bers after 100 days exposure in sea water. Numbers (13) indicate the size of
polypropylene ber as follows: 1 = 6 mm, 2 = 12 mm, and 3 = 19 mm.

Fig. 9. Polarization curves of concrete samples with different size of polypropylene bers after 150 days exposure in sea water. Numbers (13) indicate the size of
polypropylene ber as follows: 1 = 6 mm, 2 = 12 mm, and 3 = 19 mm.

factors are not taken together with other parameters related to the
corrosion kinetics.
3.4. Corrosion rate of concrete samples
Fig. 12 shows a comparison of corrosion rate of concrete samples with different volumetric amount of polypropylene bers. As
shown, the concrete sample with 2 kg m3 of ber has the lowest

corrosion rate. And after 40-days of exposure in sea water, concrete

produced with bers was shown to have a lower corrosion rate
compared to the samples without bers. It should be mentioned
that polypropylene bers delay the initial corrosion process as well
as decreasing permeability, and decreasing volumetric expansion
and contraction. In addition, it shows the ability of bers to arrest
crack formation and to control crack propagation [11,17,22,2425].
Also, the concrete sample with coral aggregate showed a higher

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Fig. 10. Open circuit potential changes of concrete samples (potentiometry);

Numbers (15) indicate volumetric amount of polypropylene ber as follows:
1 = sample with coral aggregate without polypropylene ber, 2 = 1.5 kg m3,
3 = 0.5 kg m3, 4 = 1 kg m3, and 5 = 0 kg m3 polypropylene bers.

Fig. 13. Corrosion current changes of concrete samples with different ber sizes;
Numbers (13) indicate the size of polypropylene ber as follows: 1 = 6 mm,
2 = 12 mm, and 3 = 19 mm.

Table 3
Electrical resistivity of concrete samples with different volumetric ratio of polypropylene ber.

p (KX cm)

MSP0.5L19

MSP1L19

MSP1.5L19

MSP0

CSP0

1314

1419

1118

1415

1114

3.5. Corrosion current changes in concrete samples with different ber

sizes over time
Fig. 13 shows corrosion current changes with time for concrete
samples with 6 mm, 12 mm and 19 mm ber sizes. According to
Fig. 13, sample MSP2L12, was shown to have corrosion current lower than the two other samples.
3.6. Electrical resistivity of concrete samples with different volumetric
ratio of polypropylene ber

Fig. 11. Corrosion current density (icorr) versus time (days); Numbers (15) indicate
volumetric amount of polypropylene ber as follows: 1 = sample with coral
aggregate without polypropylene ber, 2 = 0 kg m3, 3 = 0.5 kg m3, 4 = 1 kg m3,
and 5 = 1.5 kg m3 polypropylene bers.

Measuring of electrical resistance is clearly described in a scientic paper by Ferreira and Jalali [28]. Electrical resistance of concrete samples was shown in Table 3. Electrical resistance is
dependent on the continuous hydration of cement and it varies in
correspondence to the changes in concrete [28]. Electrical resistance of produced concrete samples consisting of 1 kg m3 and
1.5 kg m3 bers had maximum values compared to other samples.
This is because of the decrease in corrosion induced by the electrical
current.
The concrete sample with coral aggregate was shown to have
the lowest electrical resistance. The decrease in electrical resistance is related to presence of chlorides components in coral
aggregate.
3.7. Oxygen permeability of concrete samples with different volumetric
ratio of polypropylene bers

Fig. 12. Corrosion rate of concrete samples with different volumetric amounts of
polypropylene bers; Numbers (15) indicate volumetric amount of polypropylene
ber as follows: 1 = sample with coral aggregate without polypropylene ber,
2 = 0 kg m3, 3 = 0.5 kg m3, 4 = 1 kg m3, 5 = 1.5 kg m3, and 5 = 2 kg m3 polypropylene bers.

corrosion rate compared to the concrete sample with siliceous

aggregate, which was related to the presence of chloride compounds in coral aggregate [26,27].

The importance of measuring the concrete moisture is to determine the gas permeability. Therefore, it should be conducted in
such a way as to neutralise the moisture effects. In this regard the
electrical resistivity q should be determined, which can be measured by the four electrode method. For this purpose, the circuit
was between two external electrodes and the potential reduction
was measured between the two internal ones. A repeatable laboratorial method was properly obtained by comparing the results of
KT, q and Ko (oxygen permeability factor) which can be applied
for columns, the samples made up of different concrete mixtures
of different amounts of moistures. Formulas (1) and (2) were used
for dry concrete and moisture concrete, respectively.

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S. Kakooei et al. / Construction and Building Materials 35 (2012) 564570

Table 4
Permeability factor of different concrete samples in 3 months exposure in sea water.
Time (day)
16

KT (10
1
5
9
15
25
30
35
40
62
92

Concrete samples
MSP0.5L19
MSP1L19

to thank Universiti Sains Malaysia for supporting the research

work (8640013).

MSP1.5L19

MSP2L19

MSP0

CSP0

References

3.2
0.046
0.119
0.131
0.025
0.007
0.093
0.077
0.234
0.03

3.01
0.038
0.150
0.103
0.015
0.007
0.073
0.047
0.135
0.07

8.25
0.083
0.091
0.031
0.03
0.122
0.64
0.103
0.894
1.06

13.58
0.58
0.335
0.05
0.04
0.974
0.111
0.106
0.435
0.98

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m )
6.962
0.062
3.692
2.563
2.413
0.082
0.115
0.039
0.810
0.024

2.58
0.160
0.173
0.150
0.068
0.061
0.045
0.614
0.301
0.905

KoT 2:5  KT 0:7

KoF 6  KT

0:4

1
0:7

=q

where Ko(T) is the oxygen permeability calculated for dry concrete

(E16 m2), Ko(F) is oxygen permeability calculated for moisture
concrete (E16 m2), KT is gas permeability calculated by Torrent permeability test (E16m2), and q is the electrical resistivity by 4-pin
Wenner method (KX cm).
The explanation for formula (2) is that a concrete cover being
low in quality has high gas penetration (KT) and therefore the
low electrical resistivity q in (KT0.4/q0.7) of formula (2) is affected
by the quality. If the concrete cover is moisturized, the KT and q
are lower and therefore (KT0.4/q0.7) is less affected. Results of these
comparisons are illustrated in Table 4. [17,21,2930]. According to
this result, it can be said that permeability is the main factor that is
responsible for diffusion of chloride ion as an aggressive element in
concrete.
4. Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn from this research:
i. Polarization curves became more positive with increasing
volumetric ratio of polypropylene bers.
ii. Samples with ber volumetric ratios of 1.5 kg m3 indicated
better corrosion resistance compared to the other samples.
iii. In this research, using coral aggregate for producing concrete
samples showed that this concrete composition was not a
practical composition. Corrosion rate in this concrete was
at least twice that was shown in siliceous concrete.
iv. The results show that 6 mm length bers were not the suitable size to be used in concrete. The result of using bers
with length of 12 and 19 mm was approximately the same,
with the optimum size being 12 mm.
v. Apart from increasing corrosion resistance, the presence of
polypropylene bers decreased the permeability, volumetric
expansion and contraction of concrete, which in turn had
reduced the chance of concrete cracking.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Mr. Ray Lingel for the English
editing of this manuscript. Facilities and funding for this study
were provided by Kish University, Iran. Also authors would like