Abstract
The corrosion of steel in concrete where deicing salts are used has become a serious problem in the United States. The corrosion of steel is particularly insidious in that generally the extent of corrosion is not evident until damage to the structure is sufficiently severe that remedial measures are necessary. There is a need for the development of some process whereby the progress of corrosion deterioration can be evaluated at its initial stages before external damage appears.
An earlier study of the literature revealed that much of the work reported has been concentrated on the effect of chloride while considerable less work has been done on the effect of pH, oxygen, and moisture (1). The study also revealed that the most widely accepted method for detecting corrosion in concrete is Stratfull’s technique of mapping the half cell potential of steel from the surface of the concrete (2). This approach, however, does not reveal information on the rate of deterioration. Dawson has shown that the a.c. impedence technique is useful in measuring the rate of corrosion of steel in alkaline solutions and concrete slurries in a laboratory setting, but evaluation of the data becomes difficult when applied to steel in concrete (3).
It is the purpose of this paper to set forth one approach to the solution of this question. Presently, studies are being carried out at the National Bureau of Standards where the factors affecting the corrosion of steel in concrete are being investigated and an electrochemical technique for measuring the corrosion rate of steel in this environment is being developed.
