Detection and identification of concrete cracking during corrosion of reinforced concrete by acoustic emission coupled to the electrochemical techniques

The tenacious oxide passive film, which is formed on the surface of embedded reinforcing steel under high alkaline condition of concrete, protects the steel against corrosion. However, the condition of passivity may be destroyed, due to processes such as leaking out of fluids from concrete, atmospheric carbonation or through the uptake of chloride ions. Passive steel reinforcing corrosion induced by chloride is a well-known problem, especially where chloride-containing admixtures or chloride contaminated aggregate are incorporated into the concrete. The objective of this work is on one hand to study the effect of chloride ions on passivity breakdown of steel, respectively, in simulated concrete pore solution (SCP) and in concrete reinforcement, and on the other hand to reproduce the carbonation phenomena by applying to the concrete samples a heating–cooling cycles. In this context, the acoustic emission coupled to the electrochemical techniques (potentiodynamic and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS)) are used.

The results show clearly that [Cl⁻]/[OH⁻] ratio of 0.6 is the critical threshold where the depassivation set-up can be initiated. In addition, the carbonation process is very aggressive with chloride ions and shows a perfect correlation with acoustic emission evolution.

A physical model of the reinforcement/electrolyte interface is proposed to describe the behavior of the reinforcement against corrosion in chloride solution.