What is it about?
The 12 year-long performance of galvanic anodes was assessed using two reinforced concrete panel specimens with and without anodes with 2% chloride ion by mass of binder added. For this, electrochemical measurements, such as depolarized corrosion potential, output current, and corrosion current density, were performed. The results indicate that the galvanic anodes were able to passivate the steel reinforcement even in highly aggressive warm and humid environments for about 12 years. With adequate design and intact electrical connections, the cathodic protection approach is expected to mitigate reinforcement corrosion in similar environments (concrete with chlorides) for about 10 to 15 years. This duration can be longer when adequately designed durable galvanic anodes are installed to rebars without corrosion or not sufficient chlorides in the vicinity of steel rebars. The output protection current has roughly halved between say Month 6 and Year 12, which indicates that an ‘Aging factor’ may be determined, which can aid in the long-term design of the required current output.
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Why is it important?
Conventional patch repairs can result in repeated repairs of adjacent regions. The National Association of Corrosion Engineers IMPACT report states that nearly 4% of worldwide GDP is spent to control corrosion of infrastructure, most of which is spent to repair the concrete systems. The adequate implementation of CP using galvanic anodes for full structure as CP and CPrev can reduce the frequency of repair and cost of corrosion. The results presented in this paper show that suitable galvanic anodes can protect RC systems for more than 12 years. It is hoped that this will encourage practitioners to incorporate galvanic anodes in the repaired areas of RC systems to significantly prolong their performance. The specifications proposed in this paper can help to design durable galvanic anode systems.
Perspectives
12-year long protection data from CP protected slab shows that the adequately designed galvanic anodes can protect the reinforced concrete structures for more than 12 years. Suggestions from this paper can be used to design durable galvanic anodes.
Deepak Kumar Kamde
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Long-term performance of galvanic anodes for the protection of steel reinforced concrete structures, Journal of Building Engineering, October 2021, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.jobe.2021.103049.
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