Experimental investigation of the relation between damage at the concrete-steel interface and initiation of reinforcement corrosion in plain and fibre reinforced concrete

Highlights: •Cracked plain and steel fibre reinforced concrete flexural beams were investigated. •"Instrumented rebars" provided location- and time-dependent corrosion measurements. •Interfacial condition can be used as a reliable indicator to quantify the risk of corrosion. •Simulated interfacial conditions are in very good agreement with all experimental observations. -- Abstract: Cracks in covering concrete are known to hasten initiation of steel corrosion in reinforced concrete structures. To minimise the impact of cracks on the deterioration of reinforced concrete structures, current approaches in (inter)national design codes often limit the concrete surface crack width. Recent investigations however, indicate that the concrete-reinforcement interfacial condition is a more fundamental criterion related to reinforcement corrosion. This work investigates the relation between macroscopic damage at the concrete-steel interface and corrosion initiation of reinforcement embedded in plain and fibre reinforced concrete. Comparisons of experimental and numerical results indicate a strong correlation between corrosion initiation and interfacial condition