Construction and Building Materials | 2021
Corrosion rate measurement by using polarization resistance method for microcell and macrocell corrosion: Theoretical analysis and experimental work with simulated concrete pore solution
Abstract
Abstract The applicability of the polarization resistance method to microcell and macrocell corrosion (MMC) has been often ignored. To address this research gap, this study investigates corrosion rate measurement by using the polarization resistance method on MMC of reinforced concrete. A modified Stern-Geary equation for MMC is proposed to consider the effects of the macrocell current. The Tafel kinetic parameters and polarization resistance are obtained by conducting potentiodynamic polarization tests in a simulated concrete pore solution. The proposed equation is validated for both active and passive steel rebars. A significant overestimation is found for passive steel rebars while a substantial measurement error is found for active steel rebars due to the macrocell current.