Investigations on the chloride migration in consequence of cathodic polarisation

At the Institute for Building Materials Research (ibac) in Aachen and the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) in Berlin a joint research project is currently running with the aim to develop a numerical model which describes cathodic protection (CP) of reinforced concrete. Special project focus is the CP of the rear reinforcement layer. The resulting model shall include the impact of chemical alterations at the steel surface and within the adjacent concrete on the polarisation behaviour of reinforcement, which are induced by long-term application of CP. The investigations presented in this paper aim to clarify open aspects on the migration of chloride ions due to small electric fields as applied in CP of steel in reinforced concrete structures. A comparatively new method, laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), was applied in order to determine chloride concentration profiles on laboratory specimens as one of several model parameters for a mathematical description of CP of the rear reinforcement of reinforced concrete structures. The paper concerns migration tests using non-saturated specimens under laboratory conditions at constant voltage and the application of the experimental parameters on FEM-calculations. The presented results suggest the conclusion that even comparably small electric fields, as applied in CP of steel in concrete, may lead to significant and sustainable reduction in chloride concentration at the surface of the reinforcement.