Chloride-induced corrosion of steel reinforcement – Mechanical performance and pit depth analysis

In the current study the effects of chloride-induced corrosion, in terms of mechanical properties and pit depths, are evaluated on B500c steel bars embedded in concrete (embedded samples) and directly exposed (bare samples), immersed in a salt spray chamber. The results indicate that for the same level of mass loss, degradation of the “embedded” samples was found to be much more severe than that of the “bare samples”, in terms of losses in yield strength and uniform elongation. Analysis of the statistical significance of the pit depth and area values measured, based on a methodology developed using advanced imaging analysis, indicate that degradation of the steel bars embedded in concrete produced a more severe pitting corrosion in terms of depth of pitting, compared to the steel samples directly exposed to the same corrosive medium, for the same (on average) mass loss.