Vedalakshmi, R. and Balamurugan, L. and Saraswathy, V. and Kim, S.H. and Ann, K.Y. (2010) Reliability of Galvanostatic Pulse Technique in Assessing the Corrosion Rate of Rebar in Concrete Structures: Laboratory vs Field Studies. Korean Society of Chemical Engineering Journal of Civil Engineering, 14 (6). pp. 867-877.

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Abstract

Corrosion of rebar in concrete structures is one among the various causes impairing its long-term durability. Precise assessment of corrosion rate (CR) is of prime importance to evaluate the structural safety as well as for estimation of service life of concrete structures. Among the electrochemical techniques, Galvanostatic Pulse Technique (GPT) is very promising for field mapping due to its rapidity. The reliability of GPT in determining the CR under passive and active state of rebar has been carried out using small size laboratory specimens and large scale aged concrete structures. The CR determined by the GPT is compared with the CR obtained by Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy Technique (EIST) and weight-loss method. The study reveals that an anodic pulse of 100 μA with a pulse duration of 10 seconds is able to determine the CR from 1-663 μm/y (from negligible to higher corrosion activity) on the rebar network more precisely even up to 65 mm of cover concrete. For instance the rebar corroding at higher rate, the CR predicted by GPT is very close to the CR by weight-loss method whereas it is 20 times less by EIST. In the case of passive state of rebar, the CR predicted by EIST is very close to weight-loss method whereas GPT predicts 10 times higher. In aged structures, the change in microstructure of concrete and loss of moisture from the concrete make the potential of rebar and resistivity of concrete more unpredictable and mislead the status of rebar embedded inside the concrete.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	corrosion rate; galvanostatic pulse technique, electrochemical impedance; spectroscopic technique; frequency domain time domain, transient technique, weight-loss method
Subjects:	Corrosion Science and Engineering
Divisions:	UNSPECIFIED
Depositing User:	ttbdar CECRI
Date Deposited:	08 May 2012 06:50
Last Modified:	08 May 2012 06:50
URI:	http://cecri.csircentral.net/id/eprint/487

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