Steel and concrete are becoming the most common materials for man-made construction over the last hundred or so years, with the use of composite materials, concrete reinforced with steel, becoming one of the most popular methods for civil construction.1The historical reasons for the popularity of steel reinforced concrete are not difficult to find: its cheapness, high structural strength, mould ability, fire resistance and to the external environment, domestic and international standards are being developed to take advantage of these properties while requiring almost maintenance.
Standards for both concrete and steel were initially defined primarily by composition limits and strength, which continue to be the main means of quality control to this day. Until the 1950s, when steel was wrapped in an alkaline concrete matrix, it was assumed that neither would suffer degradation for an uncertain future.
However, as early as 1907,evidence of degradation was pointed out (Knudsen, 1907), and it was observed that the addition of chloride to concrete can corrode enough to crack the concrete. Implicit assumptions to date by many civil engineers of the virtually infinite durability of reinforced concrete have proven to be true in some cases when structures reach their design life without evidence of structural degradation. However, in areas with an aggressive atmosphere, concrete can be damaged or steel corroded in a dramatically shorter period of time than specified as the design life.
On UK highways, the current design life was originally set at 120 years, although corrosion design life analysis is not required, despite all the evidence that highway structures show serious problems in a short period of time, but it is set at this very promising figure.
About the Book
This book is an available comprehensive overview of electrochemical technology for treating steel corrosion. Different technologies for determining the effectiveness of cathodic protection were compared and their economic benefits were examined in comparison with other available technologies.