Engineering

Curing (chemistry)

Metallurgy

Materials science

Reinforced concrete

Tropical marine climate

Chloride

Geography

Cement

Environmental science

Composite material

Corrosion

Meteorology

Forensic engineering

Construction and Building Materials

Concrete cylinders with an embedded reinforcing bar and different watercement ratios were cured for different periods and then exposed in a salt spray chamber (according to ISO-9227). Cylinders from the same batches were also exposed to a marine atmosphere for 24 months at a location 50 m from the shoreline. In both exposures the corrosion rate, the corrosion potential and the chloride content close to the reinforcing bars were monitored as a function of the exposure time, in order to obtain information about the corrosion kinetics. These data allowed us to find relationships between exposure time in marine natural weathering (field tests) and in a salt spray chamber (accelerated tests). Therefore, rapid surveys (in periods of 30–45 days) of the type of reinforced concrete evaluated here can be made using 7 days of curing. The results showed that the salt spray chamber tests modified the corrosion kinetics of reinforced concretes with curing times below 7 days.

Corrosion of reinforced concrete in a tropical marine environment and in accelerated tests