Effect of electrolysis on the compressive strength of cement and concrete

Abstract

A paper on “The Electrolytic Corrosion of Reinforced Concrete” by C. E. Magnusson and G. H. Smith was read before the A. I. E. E. June 30, 1911, and, as stated in that paper, the results could not be pronounced entirely conclusive, as the duration of the experiments was only 30 days. In the present paper a similar series of experiments is described by the authors in which the tests were continued for several months. The paper gives in tabular form the result of a large number of experiments and the conclusions corroborate the results reported in the former paper. For the current density covered by the experiments, the current was found to produce no change in the compressive strength of concrete cubes, from which it is deduced that the failures of reinforced concrete due to electrolysis are due entirely to the forces produced by the increase of volume when iron is changed into iron oxide, and not by any direct action of the current upon the concrete.