Abstract
Deterioration of concrete structures due to reinforcement corrosion is noted in many industrial and non-industrial structures. Considerable resources are being expended to repair and rehabilitate the deteriorated concrete structures. One of the preventive techniques is the use of corrosion inhibitors. While some studies have been conducted on the performance of corrosion inhibitors in concrete, their performance in chloride plus sulfate environments have not been investigated. In the reported study, the performance of three corrosion inhibitors (Generic and proprietary) in simulated concrete pore solution was investigated at three various levels of contamination, i.e., 1000 ppm Cl- plus 0, 500 and 2000 ppm SO4--. The mechanism of corrosion protection provided by the selected corrosion inhibitors under the combined effect of chloride and sulfate ions was evaluated by utilizing potentiodynamic polarization technique. Moreover, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was utilized to assess the morphology of the corrosion products on the steel. Generally, the corrosion rate of steel increased with an increase in the sulfate concentration in chloride-contaminated pore solution. An increase in the sulfate concentration from 0 to 2000 ppm increased the corrosion rate. Further, all the selected inhibitors were efficient in decreasing the rate of corrosion
