Abstract
Many studies have suggested that the corrosion detection of reinforced concrete (RC) based on electrical potential on concrete surface was an ill-posed problem, and thus it may present an inaccurate interpretation of corrosion. However, it is difficult to prove the ill-posed problem of the RC corrosion detection by experiment. One promising technique is using a numerical method. The objective of this study is to simulate the ill-posed problem of RC corrosion detection based on electrical potential on a concrete surface using the Boundary Element Method (BEM). BEM simulates electrical potential within a concrete domain. In order to simulate the electrical potential, the domain is assumed to be governed by Laplace’s equation. The boundary conditions for the corrosion area and the noncorrosion area of rebar were selected from its polarization curve. A rectangular reinforced concrete model with a single rebar was chosen to be simulated using BEM. The numerical simulation results using BEM showed that the same electrical potential distribution on the concrete surface could be generated from different combinations of parameters. Corresponding to such a phenomenon, this problem can be categorized as an ill-posed problem since it has many solutions. Therefore, BEM successfully simulates the ill-posed problem of reinforced concrete corrosion detection.
Highlights
Rebar corrosion is one of the main causes of reinforced concrete (RC) premature failures [1,2,3]
The half-cell potential technique is among the conventional methods that are used in the field to detect or evaluate the RC corrosion [11, 12]
The motivation for utilizing Boundary Element Method (BEM) to simulate the ill-posed problem of RC corrosion came from the actual condition that interpretation of the half-cell potential technique is merely based on electrical potential data on the RC surface, as mentioned in ASTM C876
Summary
Rebar corrosion is one of the main causes of reinforced concrete (RC) premature failures [1,2,3]. The half-cell potential technique is among the conventional methods that are used in the field to detect or evaluate the RC corrosion [11, 12]. It is important to understand the nature of the RC corrosion problem before the development of other methods and/or improvement of conventional techniques to detect RC corrosion. Using a numerical method to prove the ill-posed problem of RC corrosion is very promising.
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