A Time-Dependent Corrosion Characteristic of a Steel Member in Contact with Concrete

Abstract

Steel members in composite structures of steel and concrete, such as composite girder bridges, guardrails, and steel piers, are often partially embedded in concrete members. The corroded steel members in contact with concrete were recently fractured because of corrosion damage. This study investigates the time-dependent corrosion behavior of a steel plate in contact with concrete by performing an accelerated cyclic corrosion test, which was specified in the ASTM D 6899-03, on four types of composite model specimens of steel plates with different painted areas and concrete blocks for 100, 200, and 400 cycles. The surface geometry of the corroded steel plates was measured at a 1 × 1 mm interval using an optical 3D measurement system after the corrosion productions were removed. The corrosion characteristic, that is, the changes in the corrosion growth, corrosion depth, and the corrosion depth distribution with testing time, was statistically analyzed. The application procedure of the present test results to atmospheric environments was also proposed based on the amount of flying salt.