Effect of environmental changes on chemical and electrochemical parameters in reinforced concrete. the case of a tropical marine atmosphere

Environmental parameters such as airborne salinity (chloride deposition rate, CDR), time of wetness (TOW) and pluvial precipitation (PP) affect chemical and electrochemical parameters related to steel corrosion in reinforced concrete. Understanding the relationship of these parameters to corrosion is challenging because steel embedded in concrete has a different corrosion mechanism from that of steel exposed directly to the atmosphere. A necessary first step is to determine how these environmental parameters influence concrete and their consequently indirect effects on steel reinforcing bars. A comparison was made of changes in environmental parameters to those of electrochemical parameters (corrosion current and potential) in steel reinforcing and to chloride penetration profiles in concrete at different exposure times. At low exposure times (0, 6 and 12 months), corrosion behavior depended on concrete parameters such as water/cement ratio (w/c) and time of curing (tc) under strong influence from changes in TOW, CDR and PP. Once the corrosion process began, changes in CDR or PP no longer had an effect.