Title: Effect of Real Climate on Non-Uniform Corrosion in Reinforced Concrete

Author(s): Aditi Chauhan and Umesh Kumar Sharma

Publication: Materials Journal

Volume: 116

Issue: 5

Appears on pages(s): 77-89

Keywords: concrete damage; corrosion rate; modeling; relative humidity; temperature

DOI: 10.14359/51716829

Date: 9/1/2019

Abstract:
The study investigates the effect of temporally varying real climate on chloride-induced non-uniform corrosion in a holistic manner—that is, right from corrosion initiation to concrete damage. Numerical modeling to simulate chloride-induced corrosion initiation and propagation was carried out for a reinforced concrete (RC) element exposed to temperate marine and tropical marine climates. The steel depassivating time and time of formation of macrocells and microcells on the reinforcing bar was observed to be higher under temperate climatic exposure than under tropical climate. However, larger variations in the corrosion rate under temperate climate resulted in more damage in the RC element than under tropical climatic exposure. In addition, the influence of processing different climatic schemes—that is, daily variations, weekly variations and monthly variations, while modeling chloride-induced corrosion—is investigated.