Model-Assisted Non-destructive Monitoring of Reinforcement Corrosion in Concrete Structures

Half-cell potential mapping is a non-destructive technique that helps ­predict the probability of steel corrosion in concrete. A major shortfall of this technique is that it does not give insight into the rate and the nature of corrosion. In the case of localized corrosion, the predictions of half-cell measurements can even lead to wrong interpretations of the severity of corrosion. This paper presents an inverse numerical tool that can be used to better interpret the results of half-cell potential measurements. This tool quantitatively relates the potential readings on the surface of the concrete to the rate of probable localized reinforcement corrosion, allowing engineers to gain supplementary information from half-cell tests. Numerical experiments demonstrate the potential benefits of the proposed approach when typical half-cell measurements may not be able to predict the localized corrosion mechanism.