• Computers and Concrete
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.461-471
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• 2015

The permeability is the most direct indicator to reflect the durability of concrete, and the testing methods based on external electric field can be used to evaluate concrete permeability rapidly. This study aims to use an experiment method to accurately predict the permeability of concrete box beam during service. The ion migration experiments and concrete surface resistivity are measured to evaluate permeability of five concrete box beams, and the relations between these results in service concrete and electric flux after 6 hours by ASTM C1202 in the laboratory are analyzed. The chloride diffusion coefficient of concrete, concrete surface resistivity and concrete 6 hours charge have good correlation relationship, which denote that the chloride diffusion coefficient and the surface resistivity of concrete are effective for evaluating the durability of concrete structures. The chloride diffusion coefficient of concrete is directly evaluated permeability of concrete box beam in service and may be used to predict the service life, which is fit to engineering applications and the concrete box beam is non-destructive. The concrete surface resistivity is easier available than the chloride diffusion coefficient, but it is directly not used to calculate the service life. Therefore the mathematical relation of the concrete surface resistivity and the concrete chloride diffusion coefficient need to be found, which the service life of reinforced concrete is obtained by the concrete surface resistivity.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.119-132
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• 2015

Electrical resistivity is an important physical property of portland cement concrete which is directly related to chloride induced corrosion process. This study examined the electrical surface resistivity (SR) and bulk electrical resistivity (BR) of concrete cylinders for various binary and ternary based high-performance concrete (HPC) mixtures from 7 to 161 days. Two different types of instruments were utilized for this investigation and they were 4 point Wenner probe meter for SR and Merlin conductivity tester for bulk resistivity measurements. Chronological development of electrical resistivity as well as correlation between two types of resistivity on several days was established for all concrete mixtures. The ratio of experimental surface resistance to bulk resistance and corresponding resistivity was computed and compared with theoretical values. Results depicted that bulk and SR are well correlated for different groups of HPC mixtures and these mixtures have attained higher range of electrical resistivity for both types of measurements. In addition, this study presents distribution of surface and bulk resistivity in different permeability classes as proposed by Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) specification from 7 to 161 days. Furthermore, electrical resistivity data for several HPC mixtures and testing procedure provide multiple promising options for long lasting bridge decks against chloride induced corrosion due to its ease of implementation, repeatability, non-destructive nature, and low cost.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.106-113
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• 2013

One of feasible non-destructivity test methods for evaluation of concrete permeability is the measurement of surface resistivity. But the application to steel fiber-reinforced concrete has been limited because mis-evaluation could be caused by the steel fibers in concrete. In this study, the effect of fiber distribution on surface electrical resistivity of steel fiber-reinforced concrete was investigated through experimental program. Resistivity was measured three times on four surfaces in three rectangular and circular specimens with 0.5%, 1% and 1.5% steel fibers by volume and compared each other. The results obtained from circular specimens were consistent compared to those from rectangular specimens. And the results demonstrated that the effect of fiber distribution on surface resistivity was not significant compared to that of mixing ratio of steel fibers. In conclusion, this non-destructive testing method using measurement of surface resistivity could be used for SFRC within 0.5% steel fibers by volume.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.163-176
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• 2014

Essentially, when electrical current flows easily in concrete that has large pores filled with highly connective pore water, this is an indication of a low resistivity concrete. In concrete, the flow of current between anodic and cathodic sites on a steel reinforcing bar surface is regulated by the concrete electrical resistance. Therefore, deterioration of any existing reinforced concrete structure due to corrosion of reinforcement steel bar is governed, to some extent, by resistivity of concrete. Resistivity of concrete can be improved by using SCMs and thus increases the concrete electrical resistance and the ability of concrete to resist chloride ingress and/or oxygen penetration resulting in prolonging the onset of corrosion. After depassivation it may slow down the corrosion rate of the steel bar. This indicates the need for further study of the effect of electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) addition on the concrete resistivity. In this study, concrete specimens rather than mortars were cast with different additions of EAFD to verify the electrochemical results obtained and to try to understand the role of EAFD addition in influencing the corrosion behaviour of reinforcing steel bar embedded in concrete and its relation to the resistivity of concrete. The results of these investigations indicated that the corrosion resistance of steel bars embedded in concrete containing EAFD was improved, which may link to the high resistivity found in EAFD-concrete. In this paper, potential measurements, corrosion rates, gravimetric corrosion weight results and resistivity measurements will be presented and their relationships will also be discussed in details.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.212-218
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• 2011

The effect of composite reinforcing bars on surface electrical resistivity of concrete was investigated through experimental program. The resistivity was measured by Wenner method using an equipment with 4 probe. Ordinary steel, GFRP, and CFRP reinforcing bars produced domestically were used and a specimen with no reinforcement was tested for the comparison. This investigation is motivated from the fact that measured value of resistivity of concrete is significantly affected by details of steel reinforcements, such as location, depth and direction of the internal steel reinforcement. These results could be valuable data for evaluation of corrosion degree of concrete structures reinforced or strengthened by the composite reinforcing bars.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.141-148
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• 2003

Concrete surface is a part that resists chiefly to carbonation by carbonic acid gas, affluence of rainwater and air, deterioration by freezing thawing, salt damage by seawater, and other chemical erosion etc. Therefore, this research analyzed physical characteristic and durable characteristic of concrete eliminated glut water and bubble of concrete surface using CON-SILK that is permeated with dehydration. As a research result, concrete using CON-SILK was improved, in comparison with concrete using general formwork, in physical performance and durability of concrete, as surface hardness, carbonation resistivity, and salt content permeation resistivity etc. Therefore, we could know that it is effective to use CON-SILK in performance elevation of concrete surface.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.285-298
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• 2007

Corrosion of Reinforcement (rebar) is nondestructively estimated by the half-cell potential measurement. As is the case with other nondestructive testings (NDT), understanding of the underlying principles should be clarified in order to obtain meaningful results. Therefore, the measurement of potentials in concrete is analytically investigated. The effect of internal defects on the potentials measured is clarified numerically by the boundary element method (BEM). Thus, a simplified inversion by BEM is applied to convert the potentials on concrete surface to those on rebars, taking into account the concrete resistivity. Because the potentials measured on concrete surface are so sensitive to moisture content, concrete resistivity and surface condition, an inverse procedure to convert the potentials on concrete surface into those on rebars is developed on the basis of BEM. It is found that ASTM criterion is practically applicable to estimate corrosion from the potential values converted. In experiments, an applicability of the procedure is examined by accelerated corrosion tests of reinforced concrete (RC) slabs. For practical use, the procedure is developed where results of IBEM are visualized by VRML (Virtual Reality modeling Language) in three-dimensional space.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.27-33
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• 2014

Electrical resistivity of concrete can be measured in a more rapid and simple way for estimating durability of the concrete, however, carbonation causes a result of misleading for durability testing because carbonation leads to a significant reduction in the permeability and porosity of concrete. The purpose of this study is to estimate and quantify the effect of carbonation of concrete on a surface electrical resistivity measurement. Samples of three mixes with difference w/c were prepared and exposed in a carbonation chamber for 330 days. The results show that carbonation leads high electrical resistivity. The increase is substantial and has been shown to proportional to the extent of the carbonation by some of extent. The relationship between electrical resistivity and carbonation depth is taken in the study. Resistivity ratio of carbonated concrete to air concrete decreased significantly from the specific carbonation depth, however, resistivity ratio of carbonated concrete to air concrete had a linear relation with carbonation depth. From the relationship between electrical resistivity and carbonation depth, it is expected that the result should be subsequently used as a calibration curve for estimating carbonated concrete to overcome the interruption effect of carbonation on regular measurements of the electrical resistivity.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.557-569
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• 2011

Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete (SFRC) is widely used for tunnel structures such as shotcrete and segments. Corrosion of steel fibers and steel reinforcements may affect on the long-term durability of the concrete structures with steel fibers and reinforcement. Therefore, a study on the feasible method to evaluate corrosion possibility and permeability of the concrete structures is required. This experimental study examines the effect of steel fibers and internal reinforcement on the surface resistivity. Steel fiber mix ratio and corrosion of internal reinforcement were considered as variables. In the results, steel fibers significantly reduce the surface resistivity due to those conductive characteristic. In the case of 3% mix ratio, it was difficult to evaluate rate and permeability of corrosion due to the great reduction of resistivity by mixing of steel fibers.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.57-63
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• 2017

PURPOSES : The pole electrode method damaged the concrete pavement on inserting the electrode into the pavement surface. This study examined the feasibility of the flat electrode method to observe the concrete pavement instead of the pole electrode method and analyzed the resistivity characteristics of the concrete by performing laboratory tests. METHODS : The resistivity of the concrete specimens manufactured with three different mixing ratios (38.50%, 39.50%, and 40.50%) were measured using the pole and flat electrode methods according to the concrete age (7 and 28 days) and electrode spacing (20 mm, 30 mm, and 40 mm). RESULTS :In both pole and flat electrode methods, the resistivity increased with increasing fine aggregate proportion regardless of the concrete age. The resistivity measured at a concrete age of 28 days was slightly larger than that measured at 7 days. In the case of a concrete age of 7 days, the resistivity measured by the flat electrode method was larger than that measured by the pole electrode method. The difference disappeared at 28 days. CONCLUSIONS :The results suggest that the flat electrode method can replace the pole electrode method because the resistivity measured by both methods was similar. Hence, the development of a technology to apply the flat electrode method to actual concrete pavement is necessary.