Monitoring Method of Steel Reinforcement Corrosion Rate in Concrete

Steel reinforcement concrete is one of the most widely used composite materials in architectural and civil engineering. The alkaline of concrete makes steel passive state, so the steel bars in conrete are kept in anti-corroded phase. Carbon dioxide in atmosphere, however, chemically reacts to the alkaline components in long term, and the passive state of steel is missing. Steel corrosion in concrete is not visible but it may cause decaying buildings or civil construction. The author developed the electrochemical measurement method of monitoring steel corrosion rate in concrete. With the measurement method, the author measured the variety of corrosion rates of steel reinforcement in several atmospheres, such as indoors, outdoors, in-water, underground, and so on. In this paper, found and analyzed mechanisms of steel corrosion in those atmospheres are mainly shown. For an interesting result, the most corroded sample is not the sample exposed outdoor, nor exposed in water, but the sample exposed in wet room. This may cause the diffusion balance of oxygen and water in concrete.