Considerations on the repassivation of corroded reinforced concrete structures

An analysis is made of the responses of clean and precorroded steel electrodes in Ca(OH)2 saturated solutions and in cement mortar, using gravimetric, metallographic and electrochemical techniques, essentially polarisation resistance measurements. The paper aims to answer some important questions about the corrosion of reinforced concrete structures (RCS) which, though seemingly elementary, continue to arouse controversy in scientific, technical and economical circles, such as the following: What corrosion rates are dangerous in RCS? What concrete resistivities guarantee sufficient durability of RCS?. Is it possible to detain corrosion once it has begun?. Can corroded RCS be repassivated? Are electrochemical RCS rehabilitation methods efficient, and if so, when? The results obtained indicate that electrochemical chloride removal and realkalisation cannot repassive heavily corroded steel surfaces, however they can be effective methods to prevent corrosion provided they are used before the transition from the passive state to the active one occurs. If applied to late, are useless for this purpose. (Author) 25 refs