Corrosion protection performance of High Performance Fiber Reinforced Cement Composites as a repair material

This paper regards the corrosion protection performance of High Performance Fiber Reinforced Cement Composites (HPFRCC) as a repair material. For the purpose of improving workability, the volumetric fiber content in HPFRCC was decreased from its usual rate of 1.5% to as low as 0.75%. The applicability of HPFRCC as a repair material for preventing steel corrosion was investigated using specimens that simulated either surface coating repair or patch repair. The results can be summarized as follows: Patch repair with HPFRCC to depths beyond the backside of the reinforcement effectively suppressed chloride penetration and prevented reinforcement corrosion, whereas surface coating with HPFRCC could not prevent corrosion of the steel in the RC substrate. As long as the fiber content is set so that only fine cracks are formed under service conditions, differences in fiber content did not affect the corrosion preventing performance of HPFRCC as a repair material.