Algorithm for Extracting Corrosion Parameters from the Response of the Steel-Concrete System to a Current Pulse

Abstract

The transient response to a current pulse applied to steel reinforcement bars in concrete has been analyzed by means of a new computational algorithm based on discretized approxn. of the fractional difference operator. An optimization strategy has been designed to obtain a set of optimal values for the characteristic corrosion parameters from the information contained in the potential-time transient (specially, in the decaying part of the trace). The method compares the exptl. response with the simulated response in the time domain obtained from an elec. circuit model which includes the effects of a const.-phase element and diffusion coupled with charge transfer. The practical possibilities of this method for extg. corrosion parameters (in particular, the charge-transfer resistance) have been demonstrated with steel reinforcements embedded in concrete in the presence and absence of chloride addns.