Coated steel reinforcement is widely used in new concrete construction to provide enhanced corrosion protection to the embedded steel. While concrete itself provides natural corrosion protection to steel, this may be lost as a result of degradation of the concrete mass andlor the penetration of aggressive species from the environment through the cover concrete to the reinforcement. Coating of the reinforcement reduces the risk of corrosive attack in concrete and two coating systems are widely applied to steel for this purpose; namely, fusion bonded epoxy coatings and hot-dip galvanized coatings. An overview is presented of the characteristics and use of epoxy coated steel and galvanized steel reinforcement in concrete. The nature of the protection afforded by these coating systems is explained together with their method of application and relevant codes and standards. A discussion and comparison of typical characteristics of the two systems is given. The results of recent research comparing both the accel...
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