| Abstract: | Steel reinforcing rods with varying amounts of cold work and carbon concentrations (0.06 to 0.45% C) exposed in soil embankments has shown various degrees of pitting corrosion. To understand this pitting process, laboratory investigations on residual stresses, microstructures and potentiodynamic cyclic polarization were undertaken. Analysis of residual stresses in the steels indicated low value of compressive stresses in hot rolled steels and high value of tensile stresses in the cold worked counterparts. Hot rolled steels displayed a slightly better pitting corrosion resistance than cold worked samples which is consistent with the above internal stress pattern. No definite correlation was obtained between the percentage of carbon in the steels and pitting susceptibility. An attempt has been made to define the role of the complex steel-soil system for pitting corrosion behavior. |
