Effect of Copper Tailing Content on Corrosion Resistance of Steel Reinforcement in a Salt Lake Environment.

Zhang Zhang,Qiao Qiao,Li Li

doi:10.3390/ma12193069

Zhang Zhang, Qiao Qiao + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12193069

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Abstract

With the increasing proportions of copper tailings of concrete in the Qinghai Salt Lake area of China, there arises the problem of corrosion of steel reinforcement in concrete structures. In this study, we determine the corrosion rate (CR), crack width, and corrosion potential of the steel reinforcement with copper tailing. This was achieved by conducting the constant-current accelerated corrosion test with different proportions of copper tailing in the brine environment of the Qinghai province. The results demonstrate that the corrosion potential (Ecorr) and the passivation area of the polarization curve decrease with the increase in the corrosion time, and the corrosion rate and crack width increase with the increase in the corrosion time. When the corrosion time is the same, the corrosion potential, crack width, and corrosion depth of the reinforcement decrease first and then increase with the increase in the copper tailing powder content. When the copper tailing powder content is 20%, the above parameters reach the minimum value. In the salt lake environment of Qinghai, China, the copper tailing powder content is recommended to be 20%.

Highlights

Copper tailings are the residues that remain after the crushing, pickling, and multiple screening of copper ores
It can be concluded that the accumulation of early corrosion products on the surface of reinforced concrete specimens mixed with 10% copper tailings may temporarily
By conducting the constant-current accelerated corrosion test of reinforced concrete with different copper tailing in the brine environment of the Qinghai province, the corrosion rate, crack width, and corrosion potential of the steel reinforcement with copper tailings were studied, and the following conclusions were obtained: 1

Summary

Introduction

Copper tailings are the residues that remain after the crushing, pickling, and multiple screening of copper ores. These residues have a particle size of less than 0.3 mm. The copper mining enterprises of the Jiangxi province of China spend more than 0.2 billion dollars on the construction, expansion, reinforcement, and health monitoring of tailing dams, and pay an environmental protection tax of more than 1.45 billion dollars. Some non-ferrous metal enterprises have been forced to stop production because they are unable to build new tailing dams. It is of utmost importance to recycle the waste copper tailings in the Jiangxi province of China. Research has mainly focused on using copper tailings as fine aggregate [4,5,6], mineral admixture [7,8,9,10], and aerated concrete products [11,12,13]

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