A non-destructive test method to monitor corrosion products and corrosion-induced cracking in reinforced cement based materials

This paper introduces a non-destructive test method to monitor the development of corrosion products as well as the corrosion-induced formation and propagation of cracks in cementitious materials. A parametric experimental investigation (utilizing x-ray attenuation measurement technique) was conducted to describe the impact of water-to-cement ratio and corrosion current density (i.e., corrosion rate) on the reinforcement corrosion process.

Focus was placed, in particular on the determination of the corrosion accommodating region (CAR) and time to corrosion-induced cracking. Experimental results showed that x-ray attenuation measurements allow determination of the actual concentrations of corrosion products averaged through the specimen thickness.

The total mass loss of steel measured by x-ray attenuation was found to be in very good agreement with the calculated mass loss obtained by Faraday’s law. Furthermore, experimental results demonstrated that the depth of penetration of corrosion products as well as time to corrosion-induced cracking is varying for the different water-to-cement ratios and applied corrosion current densities.