An Experimental Corrosion Investigation of Coupling Chloride Ions with Stray Current for Reinforced Concrete

Abstract

According to the service environment of light rail transit and subway structures, in this paper experiments on the corrosion characteristics of reinforced concrete under single corrosion environment of stray current, single corrosion environment of chloride ions and joint corrosion environment of stray current and chloride ions were respectively carried out. Loading direct current electric field was used to simulate the stray current. The experimental results showed that, the corrosion growth process of the rebar in reinforced concrete under single environment of chloride ions was slow and stable, while that under single environment of stray current being separated two stages, i.e., rapidly increasing stage and stably varying stage. In addition, the rebar of reinforced concrete in stray current alone environment was corroded faster than that in chloride ion alone environment did; when stray current and chloride ion coexist, the stray current speeded up the chloride ion transportation, which gave rise to the increase of the corrosion rate of the rebar of reinforced concrete; the corrosion degree of the rebar depended on the chloride ion concentration, stray current strength and test time. The stronger the stray current strength, the longer the stray current corrosion period and the heavier the chloride ion concentration, the more the corrosion products of the rebar and thus the more serious the reinforced concrete deterioration.