Corrosion of Steel in Concrete: Prevention, Diagnosis, Repair, Second Edition

Prof. Luca Bertolini

Preference :

The case of reinforced concrete is somewhat different. These structures are not eternal, or nearly eternal, as was generally supposed up until the 1970s. Instead, their service life is limited precisely because of the corrosion of reinforcement. Actually, concrete provides the ideal environment for protecting embedded steel because of its alkalinity. If the design of a structure, choice of materials, composition of the mixture, and placement, compaction, and curing are carried out in compliance with current standards, then concrete is, under most environmental conditions, capable of providing protection beyond the 50 years typical of the required service life of many ordinary structures, at least in temperate regions. In fact, cases of corrosion that have been identified in numerous structures within periods much shorter than those just mentioned can almost always be traced to a failure to comply to current standards or to trivial errors in the manufacturing of the concrete.