Evaluating corrosion deterioration in self-compacted reinforced concrete beams and prisms using different tests

Abstract

There is a limited reported research on the corrosion deterioration of self-compacted concrete (SCC) compared to conventional vibrated concrete (CVC). Therefore, this work represents a novel and innovative research to evaluate the corrosion deterioration of reinforcing steel in SCC compared to CVC using different tests. Sixteen reinforced concrete (RC) beams (100 × 150 × 1000 mm) and 16 RC prisms (100 × 100 × 400 mm) were casted using two w/c ratios (0.35 and 0.45) and two concrete types (SCC and CVC). After 28 days of moist curing, the beams and prisms were exposed to accelerated corrosion process using direct current supply. Different tests were performed to detect the corrosion deterioration in the RC specimens including crack pattern and width, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), half-cell potential (HCP), and structural performance (flexural test for beams and pullout test for prisms).The innovative study showed that the SCC specimens (beams and prisms) exhibited higher performance in controlling the corrosion in comparison with CVC beams and prisms. The non-destructive tests (UPV and HCP) showed significant difference between the corroded SCC and CVC specimens. The damage index of the UPV of the corroded CVC beams showed higher values than that of the corroded SCC beams. The HCP values of the corroded CVC beams showed lower negativity than those of the corroded SCC beams. Flexural tests of corroded SCC beams showed higher performance than those of corroded CVC beams. Pullout behavior of corroded SCC prisms showed higher performance compared to corroded CVC prisms. As expected, the CVC and SCC specimens at w/c of 0.35 showed improved corrosion performance compared to the CVC and SCC specimens at w/c of 0.45.