Estimating Critical Corrosion for Initiation of Longitudinal Cracks in RC Structures Considering Phases and Composition of Corrosion Products
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 28, Issue 12
Abstract
Premature deterioration and reduction in the life of reinforced concrete (RC) structures due to corrosion of the embedded reinforcing steel bars is a major concern across the world, and the time for formation of longitudinal cracks has been largely accepted as the “service life” of the structure. It is also widely known that the formation and deposition of expansive corrosion products (of iron) on the bars exert radial pressure on the cover concrete, which finally cracks. In this case, it is reasonable to assume that the composition of the corrosion products, in terms of the different phases of the oxides and hydroxides, and their relative percentages, play a vital role in determining the loss of weight (of iron) that causes sufficient pressure for the onset of such longitudinal cracks. It is interesting that virtually no quantitative information is available in the literature on this subject. The main thrust of the present work is to understand the effect of composition and relative amount of different rust phases with longitudinal crack initiation in RC structures. A laboratory study was carried out where corrosion in the reinforcement embedded in concrete specimens was accelerated by impressing a direct current. The amount and composition of the corrosion products were determined using sophisticated spectroscopic and microscopic methods. This composition was compared with that of the corrosion products taken from the embedded reinforcement in a 50-year-old concrete building; it was found to be very similar. Carrying the work further, this composition was used to estimate the critical amount of corrosion () required for the onset of longitudinal cracks using an axisymmetric plane strain formulation of corrosion pressure in RC structures. An effort was made to study the effect of concrete compressive strength and the cover-to-diameter ratio on . The typical values found were in the range of 38.5 to .
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Acknowledgments
The experiments were carried out in the Structural Engineering laboratory, Non-equilibrium Processing and Corrosion laboratory, and, the Physical metallurgy laboratory of IIT Kanpur, India, and the support extended by staff in all the laboratories is gratefully acknowledged.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 28 • Issue 12 • December 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 13, 2015
Accepted: Apr 14, 2016
Published online: Jul 12, 2016
Published in print: Dec 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Dec 12, 2016
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