Abstract
This paper aims at measurement of time dependent electrochemical corrosion rate in reinforced concrete under the effect of varying moisture content in the gel zone and capillary pores acting as an electrolyte. From the experimental measurements of the concrete-corrosion electrochemical cells for one year, an interesting descending trend in the corrosion rate measurement was observed which has been further explored in this paper and modeled by using a constitutive equivalent FEM electrochemical model based on mass and energy transfer through the porous media for corrosion measurement under various environmental conditions. The reason for decrease in measured corrosion rate with time was found to be dependent on the saturated area of concrete acting as electrolyte for the corrosion process which becomes gradually smaller with the passage of time and age of concrete. The electrolyte present in gel and capillary pore zones reduces with successive reduction in porosity and saturation over a certain time interval and finite control volume.