Abstract
This paper addresses both safe cathodic protection limits for pre-stressing steel in concrete given the concern of hydrogen embrittlement (HE) and the adequacy of cathodic protection using established criteria. Impressed current cathodic protection was applied to laboratory scale pilings at current densities ranging from 0.1 to 2.5 μA/cm2 via a skirt anode located at the waterline. Adequate cathodic protection was achieved at positions ranging from 25 cm above to 50 cm below the waterline, according to the 100 mV depolarization criterion, at an apparent applied current density of 0.33 μA/cm2. However, the -780 mVSCE criterion was not met for currents as high as 1.33 μA/cm2 for these positions. Hydrogen production, absorption, and permeation in steel was first observed via embedded hydrogen sensors, located 50 cm and 25 cm above the waterline, at an applied current density of 0.33 μA/cm2. The observation of hydrogen production verifies the concerns that the local oxygen concentration may be readily depleted at modest cathodic protection levels and that local pH levels may be below 12.5. Experimentation presented here, as well as within the literature, has demonstrated that steel crevice corrosion is readily initiated within chloride contaminated concrete prior to the application of cathodic protection, and that this corrosion is accompanied by an acidification of the local environment to a pH of 6 or below due to ferrous ion hydrolysis. The mobile subsurface hydrogen concentration present within the steel reinforcement was determined for each applied cathodic current density. Although hydrogen production and uptake occurred at current densities as low as 0.33 μA/cm2, the critical hydrogen concentration for embrittlement (2x10-7 mol H/cm3, as determined in prior research for bluntly notched pre-stressing steel) was not exceeded at area averaged current densities as high as 1.33 μA/cm2.
