RELIABILITY OF IMPRESSED CURRENT METHOD ON SIMILATING NATURAL CORROSION IN REINFORCED CONCRETE

Abstract

Corrosion of steel rebar in reinforced concrete is one of the primary causes for the reduction of load capacity, then shortening of service life of structure. Various research have been done to characterize the behavior of steel in reinforced concrete under various aspects. However, the corrosion process of steel rebar in concrete can take place for several decades. The impressed current method has been employed widely in order to provoke and accelerate the corrosion process. Unfortunately, the reliability of this method is still unclear if it is fully able to simulate the natural corrosion of steel in concrete. In this research, the microstructure of mill-scale and the damage of this protective layer under the effect of impressed current was studied to evaluate the reliability of impressed current method.