Abstract
This study aims to evaluate the correlation between crack width and apparent corrosion rate in reinforced concrete specimens exposed to a tropical marine environment of very high aggressiveness. Specimens from DURACON project (prismatic 15x15x60 cm), with 0.65 and 0.45 w/c ratios were monitored in this investigation for more than a 6-year period. Six of them have six reinforcing steel bars (rebars) placed at three different depths (two each at 15, 20 and 30 mm) for electrochemical tests, and six specimens without reinforcement were used for concrete destructive testing. These specimens were exposed for more than 6 years at the station La Voz, Venezuela.Each day, the meteorochemical parameters (relative humidity, temperature, precipitation, wind speed and Cl-) were monitored. Also, once a month, the electrochemical parameters (corrosion potential and corrosion rate) were measured. This paper presents the results obtained with the0.65 w/c ratioconcrete specimens, which were the only ones that presentedcorrosion-induced surface cracks. Results obtained shown excellent linear correlation between mean maximum crack width and rebar cross section loss, depending also on the rebar´s concrete cover.
