Corrosion found in reinforced concrete is one of the most frequent pathologies of buildings, especially those exposed to aggressive environments such as the onshore marine atmospheres. The corrosion of carbon steel reinforcements produces oxides and hydroxides. The volume of these corrosion products has much greater volume than the original steel which determines the cracking of concrete followed by peeling, exposing the steel directly to the local atmosphere. Under these conditions, repairs are made with very high costs.
Electrochemical tests in concrete with stainless steel reinforcement
Diagnosing the onset of the corrosion before the concrete cover damage dramatically reduces maintenance costs because mitigation measures can be taken with the physically intact concrete. The Laboratory for Corrosion and Protection of IPT has infrastructure and trained professionals to diagnose the state of unexposed reinforcement and to propose mitigation measures.
This Laboratory in association with the civil construction engineers of IPT has been inspecting piers, popular houses, bridges and buildings in general, diagnosing the condition of the reinforcements and proposing mitigation measures to extend their useful life.
Resistivity meters, equipment for electrochemical measurements and physical-chemical concrete characterizations are used in the field to verify the corrosion state of the reinforcements. These measures are complemented by laboratory tests and analyses conducted both at the Laboratory for Corrosion and Protection and at the other IPT laboratories specialized in civil construction.
