Corrosion propagation of steel reinforcement in pre-cracked mortar attacked by seawater using wire beam electrode

Abstract

A novel custom-designed wire beam electrode (WBE) covered by uncracked and cracked mortar was applied to study the corrosion propagation behavior of steel reinforcement. The results showed that WBE technique can effectively monitor passivation and pitting corrosion, especially for the propagation of corrosion. Mortar with a 0.1 mm crack could facilitate the initial corrosion of steel, and a 0.3 mm crack would enhance corrosion tendency dramatically, reaching a corrosion current density of 0.76 μA/cm2 after 300 d of seawater wetting-drying cycles. The corrosion propagation of wire electrodes is mainly determined by chloride distribution, which changes with increasing crack width.