An Approach for the Evaluation of Performance of Point Anodes for Corrosion Prevention of Reinforcing Steel in Concrete Repairs

Repair of chloride contaminated concrete with fresh concrete passivates the steel in the repair region, but that also elevates the steel potential in the surrounding, still contaminated concrete. Thus, the risk of corrosion increases in the surrounding region. Sacrificial anodes are being promoted as a means to avoid this risk by cathodically polarizing the steel in the repair and surrounding region. An approach to evaluate candidate anodes for this application is presented. The galvanostatic operation history of the anode is used together with independent steel polarization data to forecast the performance of the anode-reinforcing steel system under diverse application scenarios. Examples of experimental and analysis methods developed for this purpose are presented along with initial results.