Abstract
Mild steel reinforcing bars embedded in concrete exposed to marine environment are prone to severe corrosion leading to serious damage to the structures. The various technologies developed and adopted to reduce the corrosion of steel reinforcement, have been discussed in this paper along with a new high strength low alloy (HSLA) steel reinforcing bar. The bare HSLA rebars have been tested extensively along with mild steel rebars for comparative study in saline and sulphurous electrolytes in the laboratory by Potentiodynamic tests as well as in natural marine and industrial environments. The HSLA and mild steel rebars embedded in concrete were also tested in saline water by alternate immersion test and by impressed anodic current methods. The bare HSLA rebars showed 2-3 and 1.5- 1.9 times better corrosion resistance to mild steel rebars in laboratory and field exposure tests respectively. The HSLA rebars embedded in concrete and exposed to saline water with impressed anodic current of 200 µA/ sq. cm showed 2.5 times better corrosion resistance to mild steel rebars. The XRD analysis of the rust formed on the samples of field exposure tests conducted in marine and industrial environments, clearly showed the formation of compounds which reduce the corrosion rate of steel.
