Environmental And Economic Aspects Of Anticorrosion Protection By Hot-Dip Galvanized Method Rebars In Concrete

The implementation of the sustainable development concept is nowadays a key issue in almost all human activities. For the constructions domain an European strategy has already been elaborated. Among its goals are also the use of long lasting materials and the reduction of repair costs. This paper presents an interdisciplinary study concerning the efficiency of the use of hot-dip galvanized rebar for concrete structures. Experimental results about corrosion kinetics of coated and usual steel reinforcement embedded in concrete, subjected to chlorine ions attack, are analyzed. Electrochemical methods as chronoamperometry and linear polarization have been used. Corrosion potential values recorded for galvanized steel embedded in concrete indicate an uncertain corrosion activation process up to a rate of 2.5 % calcium chloride relative to concrete. For rates of 5% CaCl₂ and more the corrosion process is activated. For unprotected steel bars embedded in concrete the corrosion activation process started at all calcium chloride studied rates and higher corrosion potential values has been registered than for the hot-dip galvanized ones, at the same rates. Economical assessments have been done using entire lifetime cost analysis of the reinforced concrete structures. Despite that the hot-dip galvanization is a rather expansive procedure, when taking into account the whole expected life span, the use of zinc coating proves to be efficient both from structural and financial approaches.