A practical method for calculating the corrosion rate of uniformly depassivated reinforcing bars in concrete

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Abstract
The quantification of active corrosion rate of steel in concrete structures through nondestructive methods is a crucial task for scheduling maintenance/repair operations and for achieving accurate service life predictions. Measuring the polarization resistance of corroding systems and using the Stern‐Geary equation to calculate the corrosion current density of active steel is a widely‐used method for this purpose. However, these measurements are greatly influenced by environmental factors; therefore, accurate monitoring of corrosion requires integrating the instantaneous corrosion rates over time. Although advanced numerical models are helpful in research settings, they remain to be computationally expensive and complex to be adopted by general engineering community. In this paper, a practical numerical model for predicting corrosion rate of uniformly depassivated steel in concrete is developed. The model is built on Stern's earlier work that an optimum anode‐to‐cathode ratio exists for which the corrosion current on the metal surface reaches a maximum value. The developed model, which represents the corrosion rate as a function of concrete resistivity and oxygen concentration, is validated using experimental data obtained from the literature.

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