Mathematical Modeling of Electrochemical Steel Corrosion in Concrete

A mathematical model for the corrosion of steel in concrete when exposed to seawater was developed to enable the evaluation of the corrosion rate. The analysis was made for the case of concrete placed in the splash zone and for concrete fully immersed in the seawater. Mathematical models of transport processes significant for the steel corrosion in concrete exposed to seawater include transport of capillary water, oxygen, chloride ions, and hydroxyl ions through the concrete cover. These physical processes are described using the system of partial differential equations, which were then solved using the finite element method in the spatial domain and using the finite difference method in the time domain, for an axi-symmetric problem.