Corrosion behavior of steel in pore solutions extracted from different blended cements

Abstract

Mortar specimens made from four different types of cement, CEM I, CEM II, CEM III, and CEM IV, were prepared and pore solutions extracted. Three different types of exposure were studied: noncarbonated without chlorides, noncarbonated with chlorides, and carbonated with chlorides. Various electrochemical methods (linear polarization, potentiodynamic polarization measurements) were implemented to characterize the processes of corrosion on steel in these solutions. The type and extent of corrosion products were evaluated by means of various spectroscopic techniques. Specific differences in the type and extent of corrosion damage were determined and compared for each of the extracted pore solutions from the different blended cements. An attempt was made to classify these differences in comparison with the reference cement (CEM I) and in relation to the different types of exposure.