Factors Affecting the Corrosion Rate at Intersection Points of Steel Rebar Mat in Reinforced Concrete Structures

This paper investigates high corrosion observed at intersection of steel rebars in the mesh as compared to low corrosion in all other areas observed in a typical RC structure. This was a rather new and unusual finding having limited research in the past and needed further investigation to clarify the mechanisms involved therein. Therefore, chloride contaminated RC panels were cast and half-cell potential, corrosion current and concrete resistivity were measured. The measurements at the intersection of steel bars were found to be actually much higher than the areas in between them. This research is expected to result in improved steel rebar fixing and placement methods in the future.

Keywords: Corrosion, Steel reinforced concrete, Experimentation, Rebar intersections.