Corrosion Resistant Steel Reinforcement--Laboratory and Field Testing

Results of accelerated corrosion testing have shown that some types of alloyed steel have very good corrosion resistance in carbonated and chloride contaminated alkaline media, simulating a concrete pore solution. In order to fully research their corrosion behaviour and the possibility of their utilization as reinforcement, they should be tested in concrete specimens in laboratory and on site conditions. In this paper the results of electrochemical testing of different types of steel reinforcement embedded into concrete samples are presented. Different types of steel reinforcement were embedded into small concrete specimens for laboratory and in larger concrete columns for field testing. The corrosion behaviour of different types of steel reinforcement has been studied through half-cell potential and current density measurements. The aim of this research is to compare corrosion behaviour of different types of steel reinforcement embedded into concrete and to compare results of accelerated laboratory and real-time field testing of corrosion behaviour.