Localized corrosion propagation of steel in cracked mortar and long-term corrosion of steel reinforcement in cracked concrete in seawater environment

Abstract

A custom-designed wire beam electrode (WBE) covered by cracked mortar was applied to study the localized corrosion propagation of steel reinforcement in seawater. Additionally, steel-reinforced concrete specimens with cracks were monitored by EIS methods to study the long-term corrosion of steel in a real marine environment for 1920 days. The results revealed that corrosion initiates from the crack and then propagates to other electrodes through the steel-mortar interface. The number of anodic areas first increases and then decreases. The corrosion current density of steel reinforcement in cracked concrete increases exponentially with prolonged exposure time in a real marine environment.