Chapter 1

Introduction
1.1 General
Deterioration of infrastructures due to corrosion of steel in reinforced concrete
structures (RC) has become a serious issue world wide. The corrosion problem has grown
to extent that maintenance and repair work cost a huge amount of money annually.
Additionally, corrosion can cause serious damage to reinforced concrete structures
especially in case of severe environmental conditions. Generally, concrete structures are
expected to last for more than 50 years. The concrete cover is designed to protect rebars by
preventing the ingress of dangerous substances and setting a high alkalinity around the
rebars. Nevertheless, carbon dioxide can decrease this alkalinity substantially and chloride
can destroy the passivation film around the steel bars depending on severity of the
surrounding environment. In this condition and with the presence of oxygen and water,
steel corrosion will occur and shorten the service life of the RC structures.
In normal environment, a RC structure can resist the attacks and shows good longterm durability. However, corrosion problems arrive when the structures are located in
severe environments, especially marine. In this environment, the RC structures can
deteriorate by chloride attack. The penetrations of chloride ions though concrete causes the
depassivation of reinforcing bars and may shorten the life of the structures. The service
lifetime of the RC structures can be simply divided into an initiation stage and propagation
stage (Bertolini, 2000). The period of initiation stage, controlled by chloride ion
penetration to reach the embedded steel, depends on the microstructure of concrete, the
external concentration of the chlorides, the transport distance (thickness of concrete cover),
condition of sub environment such as wet-dry, etc. as well as the existence of cracks.
Subsequently, the propagation stage is followed by the starting of electro-chemical
process, which is controlled by the availability of oxygen, the relative humility in the
concrete and the temperature around the corrosion area. A schematic sketch of steel
corrosion sequence in concrete is shown in Fig 1.1.
This requires counter measure to repair damaged structures and more importantly
to protect them from corrosion. These works can only be carried out efficiently after
diagnosis of corrosion. The corrosion of steel embedded in concrete can be detected simply
by visual inspection. Because of the expanded volume of corrosion products around the
reinforcement, internal stress is present and resulting in crack at the concrete surface.
Concrete delamination and rust staining can be observed in case of heavy corrosion. Visual
inspection provides the first indication of corrosion state, however, it dose not give
sufficient information. For investigating corrosion and evaluating corrosion risk even
before corrosion took place, a number of methods have been developed.

Figure 1.1 Schematic sketch of steel corrosion sequence in concrete (Bertolini, 2000).
In case of destructive testing method, concrete and steel samples are selected from
representative locations on structures for assessment. Some basic parameters of steel
corrosion such as mass loss and corroded area; and parameters on concrete such as chloride
content, carbonation depth, and so on are measured. Furthermore, permeability or
diffusions for oxygen and chloride ions, indicating the ease by which aggressive
substances can enter concrete structures, can be tested. This method provides insights into
the corrosion state and its progress but it is time consuming and so costly. In certain
circumstances, this method is impractical due to damages imposed on the structures and so
a non-destructive testing method is an alternative providing electrochemical information
about the corrosion process.
The corrosion process includes the formation of anodic and cathodic sites on
reinforcing steel because of different chemical reactions. Subsequently, a potential
difference is observed between the anode and the cathode. The amount of current flow in
the corrosion process is determined by this potential difference. Basically, a nondestructive testing method, based on measurement of electrical potential and magnitude of
corrosion current, indicates the probability of corrosion, the trends of changes in corrosion
process and corrosion rate. The method includes several techniques such as half-cell
potential measurement, polarization resistance, electrical resistance, galvanostatic pulse,
electrochemical noise, etc.
One of the famous nondestructive techniques is half-cell potential measurement and
is available in practice. Half-cell potential measurement is simple and inexpensive to
assess the corrosion risk of reinforcing steel. This method can be used to estimate the
corrosion risk of steels even if there is no sign of corrosion on the concrete surface and it
provides a significant advantage for inspecting existing concrete structures. By this
method, the electrical potential difference between the reinforcing steel and a standard
portable reference electrode in contact with the concrete surface is measured. The HCP
values are then plotted on schematic diagram of the investigated structure as an
equipotential contour map.

There are many reports showed recommendations to use the half-cell potential
measurement. For instance, The ASTM standard C876 provides general guidelines for the
interpretation of the HCP data. According to these guidelines, the probability of corrosion
of the reinforcing steels is less than 10% if the potential is greater than -200 mV, whereas
potential values lower than - 350 mV indicate a high probability (> 90%) that corrosion is
active. The HCP values between these limits indicate areas where the corrosion activity is
uncertain.
Although half-cell potential measurement is famous for assessing the corrosion
risk, many reports have shown that efficiency of measurement depends on many factors.
For example, the potentials measured are very sensitive to moisture content, thickness of
concrete cover, surface coating and resistivity of concrete. In addition, different
organizations have different recommendations on half-cell potential measurements. ASTM
C 876 suggests numerical criteria for assessing the corrosion risk of steels based on a
survey of concrete bridge decks. Meanwhile, RILEM TC 153-EMC recommends that
numerical criteria from ASTM C 876, lead to misinterpretation because the measured
values of the potential fluctuate due to various factors.
1.2 Objectives and scope of study
The interpretation of half-cell potential measurements (HCP) in reinforced concrete
structures can be a major challenge for civil engineers. The main reason for this is that
HCP mapping provides information to detect the probability of corrosion in concrete.
However, the influence of concrete properties such as mix proportions, concrete cover
thickness and deterioration of concrete such as chloride attack and carbonation can affect
half-cell potential values.
The main objective of the present work is to provide a tool for engineers to
effectively interpret the results of HCP measurements. Moreover, this thesis presents the
influence of concrete properties and deterioration on HCP reading for monitoring corrosion
state of reinforcing steel.
On the basis of this phenomenon, the present study was aimed to:
1. Investigate the efficiency of HCP method to indicate the corrosion state of
reinforcing steel due to chloride attack. The HCP values are investigated with
macro-cell corrosion current to recheck the corrosion.
2. Study the influence of carbonation of concrete on HCP measurement.
3. Verify proper methods for testing depassivation of steel bars in concrete which is
attacked by chloride and carbonation in laboratory.
4. Study effect of water to binder ratio, fly ash and limestone powder replacement,
concrete cover thickness on half-cell potential.
5. Study effect of combined cyclic chloride environment and carbonation on half-cell
potential values.