Study of wiring method on accelerated corrosion of steel bars in concrete

Corrosion of steel reinforcement severely affects the load-bearing capacity of reinforced concrete elements. Accelerated corrosion of reinforcement by electrolytic methods (i.e., impressed current methods) is an effective technique to obtain corroded concrete specimens in a short time. To study the applicability of the accelerated corrosion methods, this study artificially induces corrosion in the longitudinal reinforcement and stirrups, and investigates the effects of different wire connection methods on the corrosion characteristics. The amount of rust, surface morphology of rusted steel, morphology of corrosion product, rate of corrosion, and mechanical properties of corroded specimens were investigated. The results show that under the same corrosion condition, the rusting occurs first in the stirrups, and the corrosion rate of stirrups is higher than that of longitudinal reinforcement, regardless of the wiring method. Under the same targeted corrosion rate, the corrosion-induced expansion and surface morphology are identical for different wiring methods. The ultimate bearing capacity and stiffness of corroded specimens decrease with the increase of corrosion rate. The connection method has little influence on the bearing capacity, stiffness, strain, macroscopic mechanical properties, and failure characteristics of the corroded specimens. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.