Research Article
Research Article
Research Article
Journal of Engineering
Volume 2016, Article ID 8536850, 8 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/8536850
Research Article
An Experimental Study for Quantitative Estimation of Rebar
Corrosion in Concrete Using Ground Penetrating Radar
Copyright © 2016 M. I. Hasan and N. Yazdani. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
Corrosion of steel rebar in reinforced concrete is one the most important durability issues in the service life of a structure. In this
paper, an investigation is conducted to find out the relationship between the amount of reinforced concrete corrosion and GPR
maximum positive amplitude. Accelerated corrosion was simulated in the lab by impressing direct current into steel rebar that
was submerged in a 5% salt water solution. The amount of corrosion was varied in the rebars with different levels of mass loss
ranging from 0% to 45%. The corroded rebars were then placed into three different oil emulsion tanks having different dielectric
properties similar to concrete. The maximum amplitudes from the corroded bars were recorded. A linear relationship between the
maximum positive amplitudes and the amount of corrosion in terms of percentage loss of area was observed. It was proposed that
the relationship between the GPR maximum amplitude and the amount of corrosion can be used as a basis of a NDE technique of
quantitative estimation of corrosion.
2. Experimental Setup
Figure 2: Rebars with different degrees of corrosion.
A corrosion tank was prepared to perform the accelerated
corrosion of three rebars 16 mm in diameter. The tank was
filled with 5% sodium chloride solution, made of regular table
salt and tap water. The 300 mm long rebars were submerged in corrosion. An uncorroded rebar is shown on the extreme
the solution to act as anode of an electrochemical cell. A few left for comparison. Table 1 presents weight losses for each
extra rebars were also submerged in the salt water solution to rebar and the associated rebar cross-sectional area losses. The
act as a cathode. The three rebars were connected in series, corrosion loss for rebar areas ranged between 0 and 45%.
ensuring that the first of the three rebars would attract the Active corrosion can reduce the rebar diameter by as much as
most electrical current. This was expected to cause most 0.0039 in (0.1 mm) per year [8]. Therefore, the range of rebar
amount of mass loss in the first rebar. The other two rebars, corrosions studied herein is practical for concrete structures.
as they were connected in the series connection, would
receive less electrical current, resulting in lesser amounts of 3. Underlying Theory and Assumptions
corrosion. This approach resulted in the varying amounts of
corrosion in the three rebars as needed for the experiment. In the electrochemical corrosion process of embedded steel
A 15-volt DC current source was used to supply electrical rebars in concrete, the iron ions from the rebar are converted
current to the electrochemical cell through the anodes and to iron oxide or rust through the presence of chloride ions,
the cathodes. The experimental setup of the accelerated which is a very strong oxidizing agent. These corrosion
corrosion of the rebars is shown in Figure 1. The resulting products accumulate around the rebar and the effective
corrosion products can be seen floating on the salt water core area of the rebar gets smaller as the corrosion process
solution. continues. The corrosion products contaminate the concrete
After three days of continuous electrical current through in the vicinity of the rebar. This contamination increases the
the electrochemical cell, the process was stopped and the dielectric permittivity as well as the electrical conductivity
anode rebars were taken out of the solution and thoroughly of concrete. During the GPR scanning of a corroded rebar,
cleaned. The rebars were weighed to determine the amount the GPR electromagnetic wave travels through the rust
of weight loss due to corrosion. Some parts of the rebars contaminated concrete towards the rebar. But the radar
were outside of the solution tank and did not experience any wave has to penetrate through the corrosion product to hit
corrosion, and they were excluded in the calculation of weight the surface of the noncorroded core of the rebar and then
loss. It was assumed that the weight loss due to corrosion reflected back towards the receiver of the GPR antenna.
occurred uniformly along the corroded length of the rebar. The dielectric constant of iron oxide is higher than that of
Figure 2 shows the three rebars with varying amounts of concrete [9]. Steel is a very good conductor and almost totally
Journal of Engineering 3
Rebar # Weight after Weight loss (g) Length of corroded Average area loss,
Initial weight (g)
corrosion (g) part of rebar (mm) %
1 472 472 0 0 0
2 472 394 78 175 22
3 472 363 109 150 31
4 472 310 162 150 45
Antenna corrosion products and agents not only increase the overall
dielectric constant of the concrete but also increase the
Direct wave Return wave electrical conductivity of the concrete which is an important
factor for GPR signal attenuation. In this study, only the effect
of changing dielectric constant is addressed. The corrosion
Non-corroded
Corrosion core of rebar product is manly iron oxide and it may affect the magnetic
product part of the electromagnetic wave. This effect is also not
(Iron oxides)
considered in this study.
4. GPR Scanning
According to existing research knowledge, water oil emul-
Figure 3: GPR scanning of corroded rebar in concrete. sions can be used as a substitute of concrete in geophysical
investigation using GPR [11]. This emulsion can be made
with appropriate proportioning of water and oil to match the
dielectric constant of concrete. In this study, three different
reflects the incident GPR wave. The power of the reflection water oil emulsion tanks were prepared to simulate concrete
wave from the interface of two different materials depends dielectric constants for embedding the corroded rebars in
on the contrast of the dielectric constants of the two media these solutions. Sodium lauryl sulphate was used as an
[10]. If the contrast is high, most of the incident wave gets emulsifying agent to assure proper mixture of oil and water in
reflected and a small part of the wave goes through the the emulsions. The simulated dielectric constants of the three
interface. If the dielectric contrast is low, a small part of the tanks were measured as 2.73, 5.47, and 9.3 using the two-way
incident wave gets reflected and most of it travels through the travel time (TWTT) of a GPR scan by placing a steel plate
interface into the second medium. In this study we assume under the tank. These values fall within the range of dielectric
that the concrete is very severely corroded and the corrosion constants of most concrete. GPR is very sensitive to presence
products got dispersed around the rebar through cracks and of moisture because of the very high dielectric constant of
interstitial pores. The dielectric constant of iron oxide is 14 water. The dielectric constant of concrete mainly depends on
[9] which is a little higher than the dielectric constant of the presence of moisture in the interstitial spaces in concrete.
concrete. This close difference indicates that a radar wave Very dry concrete has a low dielectric constant and fresh
can penetrate through the corrosion contaminated concrete concrete or concrete with a high moisture content shows
and the rust and eventually reflect back from the surface of higher value of dielectric constant. A system was designed
the noncorroded rebar core. Therefore, it is assumed that and made to hang the rebars at particular depth in the oil
GPR wave can travel through the corrosion products. The water emulsion tanks. The rebar hanging arrangement was
changed environment in the vicinity of a corroded rebar supporting the Plexiglas cover over the emulsion as shown in
can be monitored with a GPR. The schematic diagram of Figure 4. A thin Plexiglas cover was placed over the emulsion
GPR scanning of a corroded rebar in concrete is shown tank to facilitate the movement of the antenna over the liquid
in Figure 3. The dielectric constant of the concrete between surface. The dielectric property of Plexiglas is similar to the
the GPR antenna and the noncorroded core of the rebar oil used in the emulsion. So the GPR wave is assumed to be
increases due to the contamination of the concrete by external unaffected by the layer of Plexiglas at the top of the emulsion.
corrosion agents and the internal development of corrosion Figure 5 shows comparison between GPR data collected from
products. The reduction of the rebar area and the increase the oil emulsion tank and a real concrete beam. It is obvious
of the dielectric constant of rust contaminated concrete are from Figure 5 that the B-Scan and A-Scan from both the
the two major factors that can differentiate the GPR response sources are compatible.
from a corroded rebar and that from a noncorroded rebar. It Each corroded rebar was placed in each emulsion tank
was expected in the study reported herein that the increase of at three different depths of 1 in (25 mm), 2 in (50 mm), and
dielectric constant and decrease of the rebar size would result 3 in (75 mm). The placement of the corroded rebar in the
in a decrease in the maximum amplitude of the returning emulsion tanks with known dielectric constants was similar
radar wave from the rebar. It is worth mentioning that the to a real corroded rebar embedded in concrete. The GPR
4 Journal of Engineering
(in)
0 12
−0.2 0.0 0.2
0.00
1.00
2.00
Rebar reflection
3.00
(ns)
4.00
5.00
1.00
2.00
3.00
(ns)
4.00
5.00
6.00
7.00
B-Scan from real concrete beam A-Scan from rebal concrete beam
Figure 5: Comparison between the emulsion tank and a real concrete beam.
equipment consists of a mainframe radar wave generator, a was of a ground coupled 2.6 GHz type, which has one of the
hand cart with antenna mount and calibrated wheels, and a highest frequencies among the commercially available GPR
high frequency antenna. The GPR scan can be performed and antennas. The wavelength of the antenna is 1.8 in (46 mm)
the scan results can be seen in real time. The GPR antenna in free space. The B-Scans (two-dimensional GPR scans)
Journal of Engineering 5
1 1.4
1.2
0.8
1
0.6
TWTT (ns)
TWTT (ns)
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.4
0.2
0.2
0 0
1 2 3 1 2 3
Cover depth (in) Cover depth (in)
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
TWTT (ns)
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
1 2 3
Cover depth (in)
Bar-1 Bar-3
Bar-2 Bar-4
(c) Tank 3 (dielectric = 9.3)
Figure 6: Change of TWTT with cover depth for varying corrosion levels. Note: 1 in = 25 mm.
or radargrams for each rebar were recorded for different 5. Results and Discussion
tanks and different depths in each tank. For each rebar,
nine sets of data were collected where 3 sets were collected Two GPR parameters were chosen to relate with the extent of
from each tank at three different cover depths. Data was rebar corrosion. They are two-way travel time (TWTT) from
also collected for the noncorroded rebar to compare with the rebar and the maximum positive reflective amplitude
the corroded rebars. The B-Scans were transferred to the from the rebar. Two-way travel times were plotted against
GPR postprocessing software for refinement. During the the rebar depth in the corrosion tanks, as seen in Figure 6.
postprocessing, background removal filter was applied and It may be observed that the TWTT is increasing with the
the maximum amplitudes from the rebars and the TWTT increase of the corrosion rate. The reduced rebar diameter
were recorded. due to corrosion created a longer travel path for the GPR
6 Journal of Engineering
20000 15000
15000
10000
Amplitude
Amplitude
10000
5000
5000
0 0
0 20 40 60 0 20 40 60
Rebar area loss (%) Rebar area loss (%)
1 in 1 in
2 in 2 in
3 in 3 in
(a) Tank 1 (dielectric constant = 2.73) (b) Tank 2 (dielectric constant = 5.47)
12000
9000
Amplitude
6000
3000
0
0 20 40 60
Rebar area loss (%)
1 in
2 in
3 in
(c) Tank 3 (dielectric constant = 9.3)
Figure 7: Maximum amplitude versus rebar area loss.
signal and the extra distance traveled was reflected in the generated herein. The best fit equations and the correspond-
increase of TWTT. Figure 6 shows that the TWTT increased ing correlation coefficients are presented in Table 2. The
with increasing cover depths. Similar behavior was observed correlations coefficients are very high, ranging from 0.85
in all three tanks. However, the TWTT for a particular cover to 0.99, indicating high levels of accuracy of the corrosion
depth and rebar corrosion is increasing with the increase of models. It is also observed that the relationship between
the dielectric constant. the GPR maximum amplitude from the corroded rebars
Figure 7 shows the plot of maximum amplitudes ver- and the amount of corrosion is almost linear. Figure 6
sus cover depths for the three tanks having three differ- shows that the rate of change in GPR amplitudes is greater
ent dielectric constants. It is observed that the maximum at lower cover depths which means that the changes in GPR
amplitude decreased with the increase of rebar area loss signal due to corrosion at lower depths are more prominent.
due to corrosion in all three tanks with varying dielectric The models from Table 2 show that a relationship exists
constants and for all cover depths. In order to develop between the maximum positive amplitude and the amount
predictive models for rebar corrosion estimation, regression of corrosion if the dielectric constant and the concrete cover
equations for the best fit trend lines (shown in Figure 6) were are known.
Journal of Engineering 7
the loss of energy in the radar wave is less. Therefore, [6] W.-L. Lai, T. Kind, M. Stoppel, and H. Wiggenhauser, “Measure-
when the radar wave is reflecting from the surface ment of accelerated steel corrosion in concrete using ground-
of the corroded rebar, there is a small amount of penetrating radar and a modified half-cell potential method,”
loss of energy. This is evident by high magnitude of Journal of Infrastructure Systems, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 205–220,
amplitudes from the rebar at 25 mm cover depth level. 2013.
When the cover depth is higher, the radar wave has to [7] S. Hong, W. W.-L. Lai, G. Wilsch et al., “Periodic mapping of
travel a longer path to and from the rebar towards the reinforcement corrosion in intrusive chloride contaminated
antenna. In the process, the loss of energy in the radar concrete with GPR,” Construction and Building Materials, vol.
66, pp. 671–684, 2014.
wave is high. This is evident by the low magnitude of
amplitude at 75 mm cover depth. [8] ACI Committee 222, Corrosion of Metals in Concrete, American
Concrete Institute, Detroit, Mich, USA, 1996.
(iv) The relationship between the maximum GPR ampli- [9] Dielectric Constants of Various Materials—Clipper Controls,
tudes from corroded rebars and the corrosion loss of January 2015, http://www.clippercontrols.com/pages/Dielec-
the rebar is observed as linear. However, this study tric-Constant-Values.html.
is done with only four different levels of corrosion. [10] J. J. Daniels, Ground Penetrating Radar Fundamentals, Prepared
More points need to be considered to confirm the lin- As an Appendix to a Report to the US EPA, Region V, 2000.
earity of the amplitude versus mass loss relationship. [11] C. Warren and A. Giannopoulos, “Creating finite-difference
Maximum amplitudes decrease with the increase of time-domain models of commercial ground-penetrating radar
corrosion. The rate of decrease of amplitude is higher antennas using Taguchi’s optimization method,” Geophysics, vol.
at lower concrete covers. 76, no. 2, pp. G37–G47, 2011.
Conflict of Interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests
regarding the publication of this paper.
References
[1] I. Hasan and N. Yazdani, “Investigation of inadequate concrete
covers in a new bridge deck using ground penetrating radar,”
in Proceedings of the 93rd Annual Meeting of the Transportation
Research Board, no. 14-4191, Washington, DC, USA, January
2014.
[2] J. Hugenschmidt, “Concrete bridge inspection with a mobile
GPR system,” Construction and Building Materials, vol. 16, no.
3, pp. 147–154, 2002.
[3] N. Gucunski, C. Rascoe, R. Parrillo, and R. L. Roberts, “Com-
plimentary condition assessment of bridge decks by high fre-
quency ground penetrating radar and impact echo,” in Proceed-
ings of the 88th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research
Board, Washington, DC, USA, January 2009.
[4] ASTM, “Standard test method for half-cell potentials of
uncoated reinforcing steel in concrete,” ASTM C876-09, Amer-
ican Society for Testing and Materials, West Conshohocken, Pa,
USA, 2014.
[5] S. S. Hubbard, J. Zhang, P. J. M. Monteiro, J. E. Peterson, and
Y. Rubin, “Experimental detection of reinforcing bar corrosion
using nondestructive geophysical techniques,” ACI Materials
Journal, vol. 100, no. 6, pp. 501–510, 2003.
International Journal of
Rotating
Machinery
International Journal of
The Scientific
Engineering Distributed
Journal of
Journal of
Journal of
Control Science
and Engineering
Advances in
Civil Engineering
Hindawi Publishing Corporation Hindawi Publishing Corporation
http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014 http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014
Journal of
Journal of Electrical and Computer
Robotics
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Engineering
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014 http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014
VLSI Design
Advances in
OptoElectronics
International Journal of
International Journal of
Modelling &
Simulation
Aerospace
Hindawi Publishing Corporation Volume 2014
Navigation and
Observation
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014
in Engineering
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014
Engineering
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
http://www.hindawi.com
http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014
International Journal of
International Journal of Antennas and Active and Passive Advances in
Chemical Engineering Propagation Electronic Components Shock and Vibration Acoustics and Vibration
Hindawi Publishing Corporation Hindawi Publishing Corporation Hindawi Publishing Corporation Hindawi Publishing Corporation Hindawi Publishing Corporation
http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014 http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014 http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014 http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014 http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014