Corrosion morphology of prestressing steel strands in naturally corroded PC beams

Abstract The geometric morphology of pits induced by corrosion has been investigated. To this aim, twenty-four seven-wire strands coming from 10 years old naturally corroded prestressed concrete beams have been analysed. The cross-sections of corroded strands were measured and examined in detail. The morphology of corrosion pits has been recorded by using a structured light 3D scanner and classified in terms of maximum pit depth, longitudinal dimension, and transversal width. Then, a new method for the approximate evaluation of the average pit depth of prestressing strands has been proposed. Finally, the pitting factor of the corroded samples has been calculated.