Macrocell corrosion of steel in concrete: Characterization of anodic behavior in relation to the chloride content

This study presents the determination of electrochemical properties of active steel in mortar, based on inverse numerical modeling that focuses on their dependency on chloride content. An experimental campaign, consisting of galvanic coupling tests between anode samples contaminated with different chloride concentrations and cathode samples without chlorides, was carried out. Cathode polarization tests allowed for directly determining passive steel electrochemical parameters. Anode polarization tests coupled with a numerical optimization were then performed for quantifying active steel parameters and focusing on chloride's effect on the iron anodic Tafel coefficient. Furthermore, the steel electrochemical properties were successfully used as input parameters to model the galvanic experiments.