• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.1-8
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• 2019

The primary purposes of this study are to understand a fundamental effects of electro-deposition on reinforcing steel in saturated Ca(OH)2 electrolyte, and evaluate the corrosion rates of rebars under cyclic 3wt.%NaCl immersion and dry corrosion environment. The three cement mortar specimens with cover thickness 5, 10 and 30mm, were prepared in the experiment. To monitor the corrosion rates of rebars in mortar, the three cement mortar specimens were exposed to 110 wet-drying cycles(8-hour-immersion in 3wt.%NaCl and 16-hour-drying in a room temperature) in the laboratory. During the wet-dry cycles, the polarization resistance, Rp, and solution resistance, Rs, were continuously measured. The instantaneous corrosion rates of rebars on the effect of electro-depositing with sat. Ca(OH)2 electrolyte were estimated from obtained R-1p and degrees of wetness were estimated from Rs values. From the experimental results, the corrosion rates of rebars were greatly accelerated by wet/dry cycles. During the mortars exposed to drying condition, the large increases in the corrosion rates were showed at all rebar surfaces in three mortar specimen, attributed from the accelerated reduction rates of dissolved oxygen in drying process. However, the corrosion rates on rebar surface electrochemically deposited with sat. Ca(OH)2 electrolyte showed the clear decreases, caused by calcium deposits in the porous rust layer.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.10-18
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• 2018

The primary purposes of this study are to understand a fundamental aspect of current uniformity around a reinforcing bar (rebar) in cement mortar, and to develop an accurate monitoring method in a wet-dry cycling process with the alternative current (AC) impedance method. Three cement mortar specimens with two embedded rebars were prepared in the laboratory. As a main variable, the distance between two rebars was designed to be 10, 20 and 30 mm with the same thickness of 20 mm. To simulate the corrosion of rebars in concrete structures in a marine environment, three cement mortar specimens were exposed to 15 wet-drying cycles (24-hour-immersion in seawater and 48-hour-drying in a room temperature) in the laboratory. It was observed that the potential level shifted to a noble value during corrosion potential monitoring, which is attributed to acceleration of dissolved oxygen diffusion at the drying process. AC impedance was measured in a frequency range from 100 kHz to 1 mHz on a wet-drying process. A theoretical model was proposed to explain the interface condition between the rebars and cement mortar by using the equivalent circuit consisting of a solution resistance, a charge transfer resistance and a CPE (constant phase element). It was observed that the diffusion impedance appeared in a low frequency range as corrosion of rebars progresses. At the drying stage of the wet-drying cycles, the currents line for monitoring tended to be non-uniform at the interface of rebar/mortar, being phase shift, ${\theta}$, close to $-45^{\circ}$.