Corrosion of Stirrups under Different Relative Humidity Conditions in Concrete Exposed to Chloride Environment
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 32, Issue 1
Abstract
This paper aimed to investigate the corrosion mechanisms of stirrups in concrete, considering the macrocell current between stirrup and longitudinal rebar. The impacts of relative humidity (RH) and area ratio of stirrup to longitudinal rebar were studied. To avoid mechanical damage like bending on the corrosion activity of stirrups, straight stirrups were used in concrete specimens. Corrosion experiments of concrete were carried out under a simulated marine atmospheric environment. Measurements of polarization curves and macrocell currents were performed to calculate the increase of the total anodic current of stirrups due to the macrocell current by means of curve-fitting analysis. The results showed that the microcell corrosion is the major mechanism in the corrosion of stirrups under different RH conditions. Results also indicated that as RH increased, microcell and macrocell corrosion current densities increased, whereas the galvanic coupling effect that was used to quantify the increase of the total current density of stirrups decreased.
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Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51320105013) and the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (Grant No. 2015CB655103). Zheng Dong would like to thank the support from China Scholarship Council (CSC).
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 32 • Issue 1 • January 2020
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 28, 2019
Accepted: Jul 1, 2019
Published online: Oct 30, 2019
Published in print: Jan 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Mar 30, 2020
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