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1 INTRODUCTION
The service life prediction (SLP) for corrosion-affected reinforced concrete (RC) structures has
undergone several developments in the past 2-3 decades, including the refinement of the
prediction of corrosion initiation and the development of corrosion propagation models. In
addition, the service life definition for corrosion-affected RC structures has undergone a
paradigm shift to incorporate the corrosion propagation phase (tp). Despite these developments,
continued deterioration of corrosion-affected RC structures mainly due to chloride-induced
corrosion can be observed. Further, there is an increasing demand by clients for a maintenance-
free service life, as well as an increasing need for effective and efficient repair methods for
deteriorated RC structures. As a consequence, the engineer is , on the one hand, constantly faced
with the need to deviate from conservative design codes and engage with researchers in their
quest to find working solutions. On the other hand, the researchers, in a bid to provide working
solutions to the engineers problems, are increasingly driven towards the use of accelerated
corrosion techniques in their experimental work, as well as simulated (virtual) experiments to
meet these demands.
As a result, the use of mathematical techniques and accelerated corrosion data to simulate the
corrosion process and predict the associated corrosion-induced damage (e.g. cover cracking,
spalling, loss of steel cross-section, loss of stiffness) has become popular. These techniques are
inexpensive and fast. However, the main drawback has been their inability to reliably simulate
the natural corrosion process and hence the rate of corrosion-induced damage in practice. These
aspects are covered in the following sections in more detail.
2 NATURAL VS. ACCELERATED CORROSION - OVERVIEW
Regardless of whether the corrosion process is natural or accelerated, the fundamental
electrochemical processes are not altered. There are both anodic and cathodic reactions i.e.
Fe Fe 2 2e - and 2H 2 O O 2 4e - 4OH - respectively. However, depending on the O2
concentration and the pH, different corrosion products may be formed in terms of type, density
and stability (Schwertmann and Cornell, 2000, El Maaddawy and Soudki, 2003, Jaffer and
Hansson, 2009). These factors (pH and quantity of oxygen) are extremely variable and difficult
to quantify in an in-service RC structure.
Natural corrosion processes of steel in concrete are well documented in the literature (e.g.
Stansbury and Buchanan, 2000) and include a redox electrochemical process involving both
anodic and cathodic reactions occurring on the steel surface. Corrosion is affected by inter alia
concrete quality, resistivity, oxygen availability and cover cracking (Otieno et al., 2010b). It is
important to note that natural corrosion processes, even under corrosion-sustaining conditions
(such as those presented in standard Pourbaix diagrams (Stansbury and Buchanan, 2000)), are
very slow processes and can take several years before their effects are evident. In the context of
this paper, only chloride-induced corrosion is covered and the natural corrosion process is
assumed to be that occurring in the marine exposure conditions described in BS EN 206-1
(2000) i.e. the XS exposure classes. However, there are no standard natural corrosion
conditions and even when the classification in BS EN 206-1 is adopted, corrosion rates may still
vary depending on the specific location of the structure.
3 EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP
In this research, both the natural and accelerated corrosion assessments were carried out on
cracked and uncracked beam specimens by measuring three commonly used parameters to
assess corrosion in RC structures: corrosion current density (corrosion rate), corrosion potential
(half-cell potential) and concrete resistivity. The results presented in this paper were obtained
from two different projects and slight differences, which will be highlighted later, exist. The
description cracked as used in this paper refers to beam specimens initially loaded until a
crack is visible on the concrete surface and then unloaded. It does not refer to first cracking.
Cracked and uncracked beam specimens (cover: 40 mm, two 12 mm diameter steel bars at 100
mm spacing c/c and dimensions of 150 x 175 x 1500 mm) were exposed to marine tidal zone
conditions in Cape Town, South Africa. All specimens were made using concrete admixed with
chlorides (2% by mass of binder) to shorten the time to active corrosion and were made using
two w/b ratios of 0.40 and 0.60. The cracks were produced by pre-loading the specimens and
unloading. The desired crack width at unloading was 0.3 mm but only 0.1 mm was achieved.
The average natural corrosion results (at the end of the 5 years spray zone exposure) presented
in this paper are summarised in Table 1 (Stanish and Alexander, 2008). In the Table, PC-40n
and PC-60n are CEM I 42.5N concrete at 0.40 and 0.60 w/b ratio respectively, and SL-40n and
SL-60n are slag concrete at 0.40 and 0.60 w/b ratio respectively.
Table 1. Average natural and accelerated average icorr, HCP and concrete resistivity
icorr (A/cm2) HCP (Ag/AgCl, -mV) Resistivity (k -cm)
Binder Mix label
UC Cracked UC Cracked UC Cracked
PC-40n 0.23 0.30 252 210 50 167
100% PC
corrosion
Natural
0.25 0.25
0 0
0 25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200
Resistivity (k-cm)
Figure 1. Corrosion rate vs. concrete resistivity and HCP (average natural corrosion, 5 years)
From the results presented in Table 1 and Figure 1, it is worth noting that there is no clear
general trend between corrosion rate and either resistivity or HCP. However, even though the
correlation between corrosion rate and concrete resistivity and HCP is poor (based on the R 2
values), the low passive corrosion rates correspond to the high resistivity and low HCP values
as expected (Andrade and Alonso, 1996, ASTM-C876-91, 1999). In general, it may not be valid
to correlate, for icorr prediction purposes, concrete resistivity and HCP with passive corrosion
rates of steel in concrete. Better correlations are only valid for the propagation stage i.e. active
corrosion rates (> 0.1 A/cm2). However, this is only possible if both HCP and resistivity are
measured under relatively controlled conditions of temperature and humidity in the laboratory
(Andrade et al., 2003).
The accelerated corrosion tests comprised 100 x 100 x 500 mm cracked and uncracked beam
specimens made from four concrete mixes using two w/b ratios (0.40 and 0.55) and two binder
types (100% CEM I 42.5N (PC) and 50/50 PC/Corex slag (GGCS) blend). A concrete cover to
the steel reinforcement of 40 mm was used for all the specimens. The beam specimens were
pre-cracked before being subjected to a cycle of 3-day wetting (with 5% NaCl) and 4-day air
drying under laboratory conditions (16-24 oC and 60-75% relative humidity) for a period of up
to 100 weeks. Similar to the natural corrosion specimens, cracked is used here to refer to beam
specimens loaded until a crack is visible on the concrete surface and then unloaded. A summary
of the results (up to 100 weeks) obtained from this study is presented in Table 1 and Figure 2
where PC-40a and PC-55a refer to CEM I 42.5N concrete at 0.40 and 0.55 w/b ratio
respectively, and SL-40a and SL-55a refer to slag concrete at 0.40 and 0.55 w/b ratio
respectively. Detailed results from the study can be found in Otieno et al. (2010a). Corrosion
rate and concrete resistivity were measured using the coulostatic LPR and Wenner 4-probe
techniques respectively. Contrary to the natural corrosion results, the accelerated corrosion
results show clear trends between corrosion rate and both resistivity and half-cell potential.
HCP (Ag/AgCl, -mV)
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
1.6 1.6
1 1
Resistivity uncracked
0.8 Resistivity cracked 0.8
Figure 2. Corrosion rate vs. concrete resistivity and HCP (average accelerated corrosion, week 80-100)
From the results presented, it is notable that there is a very weak correlation between corrosion
rate and either resistivity or HCP for the natural corrosion results. This is in contrast to those for
the accelerated corrosion process (see Figure 1 and Figure 2). This is expected because the
accelerated corrosion exposure conditions were more or less controlled as opposed to the natural
corrosion ones where fluctuations occur over time. This is one of the major obstacles in
correlating natural and accelerated corrosion. Another important observation is that regardless
of whether the corrosion process is natural or accelerated, the corrosion rates for the cracked
specimens are higher than the corresponding uncracked specimens; the influence of cracking on
corrosion rate has been extensively covered in another paper by the authors (Otieno et al.,
2010a).
1.6
Uncracked Cracked
Corrosion rateaccelerated (A/cm2) 1.4 Uncracked Cracked
1.2
icorr, acc = 1.63(icorr, nat) + 0.65
1 R = 0.87
0.8
0.6
0.4
icorr, acc = 0.18(icorr, nat) + 0.07
0.2
R = 0.63
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Corrosion ratenatural (A/cm )2
Even though a moderately high correlation coefficient (R2> 0.5) is obtained between the natural
and accelerated specimen corrosion rates for uncracked specimens, the nearly horizontal (zero
slope) trend-line does not give a valid relationship between the two corrosion rates. This may
be due to the passive corrosion rates recorded in some of the natural and accelerated slag
specimens (Table 1).
5 DISCUSSION
On the one hand, the results presented in this paper point to the possibility of finding a
correlation between natural and accelerated corrosion rates, but a more statistically
representative long term data set is required. Even though such a correlation may be limited to
the experimental conditions, it can be used as guidance for day to day use for design purposes.
On the other hand, the poor correlation between the natural corrosion rates and the
corresponding resistivities and half-cell potentials portray the difficulty and unreliability in
using these parameters to assess corrosion in in-situ RC structures.
The natural resistivity results showed that in-situ measurement of concrete resistivity (and to
some extent half-cell potential) cannot easily be used to diagnose corrosion-affected RC
structures due to the inherent in-service influencing factors, dominantly temperature, degree of
saturation and to some extent cover cracking. Therefore, in order to reliably use resistivity to
assess in-service corrosion affected RC structures, it is proposed that representative cores should
be taken from the structure and pre-conditioned to a given degree of water saturation and
temperature before resistivity measurements are taken. This approach has been used previously
by Martinez and Andrade (2009) who proposed conditioning in-situ cores to either 85% RH (for
structures sheltered from rain) or vacuum water-saturated (for non-sheltered or submerged
ones).
In the light of the results and analyses presented in this paper, the following issues still need
further investigations and/or clarification:
(i) The actual mass losses (and the distribution) for both accelerated and natural corrosion
should be determined at the end of the study to check if they tally with those calculated
using Faradays law. These (i.e. actual and predicted mass losses) have been reported to
vary in previous studies (e.g. Ballim and Reid, 2003, Azher, 2005).
(ii) A time factor should be incorporated in accelerated and natural corrosion rate correlations
for service life prediction purposes. This can be achieved if parallel corrosion
measurements are made in the natural and accelerated specimens. A study designed to
incorporate this aspect is currently being carried out by the authors.
(iii) Acceleration of corrosion was achieved by cyclic wetting and drying and the results and
correlations presented in this paper may not be applicable to other forms of corrosion
acceleration such as the use of impressed current. Further, it may be important to explore
the validity of using other wetting and drying regimes i.e. different wetting and drying time
periods.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Based on the results presented in this paper, and considering that the study is ongoing, the
following preliminary conclusions can be drawn:
(i) It is admissible to find a correlation between natural and accelerated corrosion rates.
However, it is important to note that:
a) The correlation between the natural and accelerated corrosion should be seen as a
guideline to expected natural/in-situ corrosion rates. This is because natural corrosion
rate is affected by several factors such as temperature and humidity which vary from
place to place and from time to time.
b) An acceleration technique that closely represents natural corrosion such as the cyclic
wetting and drying with NaCl solution should be used. A viable question is what
chloride concentration to use.
c) An optimal wetting and drying regime to obtain results faster should be sought. There
are currently no guidelines on this.
(ii) There seems to be no good correlation between natural and accelerated corrosion rates if
one set of corrosion rate values (i.e. the natural corrosion rates) is in the passive region i.e.
icorr < 0.1 A/cm2.
(iii) It is proposed that resistivity measurement for in-service corrosion affected RC structures
should be carried out by taking representative cores which should then be pre-conditioned
to a given degree of saturation before resistivity measurement is take.
7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to acknowledge the funding assistance and support of the University of
Cape Town.
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