Abstract
Cracks in concrete allows the ingress of corrosive factors such as chloride ions, water, and oxygen, and reduce the durability of the structure. Therefore, the generation and the development of the cracks must be controlled within the extent with which they do not affect the durability. However, the influences of crack on the steel bar corrosion are still poorly understood. Therefore, in order to investigate how the ingress of corrosion factors through cracks affects rebar corrosion and corrosion distribution, accelerated deterioration tests simulating a chloride rich environment were conducted in this study, using bending crack width and corrosion acceleration period as parameters. This study reports the results up to 3 months of corrosion acceleration period. As a result, it was observed that the cracks facilitated the ingress of chloride ions into the concrete. However, the effect of the cracks to ease the penetration of chloride faded with time. As for the corrosion of the steel bars, the effect of the presence of cracks was observed, but the effect of the width of the cracks was not observed. As the corrosion acceleration period was extended, the corroded area of the rebar also expanded, and the corrosion distribution changed. At the early period, localised cross-sectional reduction was observed around cracks, but later, the corrosion became more extensive, and the reduction in cross-sectional area spread along entire rebar.
Keywords
crack, chloride, rebar corrosion, chloride induced corrosion.
DOI
10.5703/1288284318164
Recommended Citation
Kiriyama, Shogo and Kobayashi, Koichi, "The Effect of Cracks on the Corrosion Distribution along Rebar in a Chloride Contaminated Concrete" (2025). International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures. 1.
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/icdcs/2025/ddm/1
The Effect of Cracks on the Corrosion Distribution along Rebar in a Chloride Contaminated Concrete
Cracks in concrete allows the ingress of corrosive factors such as chloride ions, water, and oxygen, and reduce the durability of the structure. Therefore, the generation and the development of the cracks must be controlled within the extent with which they do not affect the durability. However, the influences of crack on the steel bar corrosion are still poorly understood. Therefore, in order to investigate how the ingress of corrosion factors through cracks affects rebar corrosion and corrosion distribution, accelerated deterioration tests simulating a chloride rich environment were conducted in this study, using bending crack width and corrosion acceleration period as parameters. This study reports the results up to 3 months of corrosion acceleration period. As a result, it was observed that the cracks facilitated the ingress of chloride ions into the concrete. However, the effect of the cracks to ease the penetration of chloride faded with time. As for the corrosion of the steel bars, the effect of the presence of cracks was observed, but the effect of the width of the cracks was not observed. As the corrosion acceleration period was extended, the corroded area of the rebar also expanded, and the corrosion distribution changed. At the early period, localised cross-sectional reduction was observed around cracks, but later, the corrosion became more extensive, and the reduction in cross-sectional area spread along entire rebar.
