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Organisationseinheit der BAM
The development of alkali‐activated materials (AAMs) as an alternative to Portland cement (PC) has seen significant progress in the past decades. However, there still remains significant uncertainty regarding their long term performance when used in steel‐reinforced structures. The durability of AAMs in such applications depends strongly on the corrosion behaviour of the embedded steel reinforcement, and the experimental data in the literature are limited and in some cases inconsistent. This letter elucidates the role of the chemistry of AAMs on the mechanisms governing passivation and chloride‐induced corrosion of the steel reinforcement, to bring a better understanding of the durability of AAM structures exposed to chloride. The corrosion of the steel reinforcement in AAMs differs significantly from observations in PC; the onset of pitting (or the chloride ‘threshold’ value) depends strongly on the alkalinity, and the redox environment, of these binders. Classifications or standards used to assess the severity of steel corrosion in PC appear not to be directly applicable to AAMs due to important differences in pore solution chemistry and phase assemblage.
Concrete is the most produced material in the world. Every year approx. 6.000.000.000 m³ are produced worldwide and it is expected that the production volume will continue to increase because of the economic growth of many countries around the world. This development will also result in an increase of manufacturing CO₂ emissions if nothing changes. The cement production is already responsible for 5-10 % of the worldwide anthropogenic CO₂ emissions. An immense decrease of the CO₂ emissions (approx. 45-65 %) can be achieved by the use of geopolymers as binder instead of ordinary Portland cement. However, so far only limited data exists regarding the corrosion behavior of reinforcements in geopolymer concretes.
The poster shows by means of different electrochemical investigations the formation of a protective layer on the surface of carbon steel reinforcement and galvanized steel reinforcement in fresh geopolymer mortars and in a fresh mortar with Portland cement as reference. The free corrosion potential in combination with current density potential curves as well as polarization resistances show the development of a protective layer on the reinforcement. The monitoring of the free corrosion potential starts with the first contact of the rebar with fresh mortar and ends after a passive condition was reached. The further electrochemical investigations are done during the potential monitoring under active conditions, semi active conditions and passive conditions.
The results show that the formation of the protective layer in geopolymer mortars is significant slower than in mortar with Portland cement. The two investigated geopolymer mortars also show a significant difference in formation of the protective layer. This can depend on the different solidification time of the geopolymer mortar.
Alkali-activated materials such as geopolymers are currently receiving a lot of attention because of their potential to be used as binders for concrete with advantageous engineering properties and reduced manufacturing CO2 emissions. Knowledge of the durability of steel in these concretes and related properties of alkali-activated materials is a prerequisite for their application as building materials, if they are to be used for steel reinforced elements. However, to date only limited data exists on this topic. The present contribution focuses on durability-related transport properties of geopolymer-based mortars (as model systems for concrete). We report results of accelerated carbonation, rapid chloride migration (RCM) and air permeability measurements as well as porosity data for fly ash-based geopolymer mortars, including mixes containing ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS). In addition, we report polarization resistance data and corrosion potential vs. time curves for carbon steel bars embedded in two of the fly ash-based geopolymer mortars and a CEM I-based mortar (as reference).
Despite comparable total porosities, the carbonation depths, the chloride migration coefficients and the air permeabilities of the mortars differed significantly. In general, the addition of GGBFS to the binders improved the performance (decreased transport coefficients); however, this was not found to be true for the air permeability in all cases. This latter effect can be explained by drying damage of the C-(A-)S-H gel in GGBFS-containing binders. On the other hand, low transport coefficients can also be achieved by optimization of the binder formulation without the addition of GGBFS, which is also reflected in the material’s air permeability. Thus, there exists no simple correlation between air permeability (of harshly dried mortars) and durability-related transport coefficients for the studied alkali-activated materials.
The corrosion potential vs. time curves in combination with polarization resistance values reveal that the steel reinforcement in geopolymer mortars assumed a passive state. However, this happened considerably later than for steel in CEM I-based mortars. The free corrosion potential of carbon steel reinforcement in the geopolymer mortars had different values than the free corrosion potential values for the CEM I-based mortar for both the active and the passive state; possible reasons for this behavior are discussed.
Corrosion of steel reinforcement in concrete is one of the major deterioration mechanisms limiting the service life of reinforced concrete structures. While for conventional (Portland cement-based) concretes a great amount of experience exists in this regard, the factors that determine the onset of reinforcement corrosion in alkali-activated materials are incompletely understood yet. One aspect of corrosion protection is leaching and the accompanying changes of the concrete pore solution. In the present study, alkali-activated fly ash mortars with embedded carbon steel rebars were exposed to de-ionised water for periods up to 330 days, and the electrochemical response of the steel (free corrosion potential, polarisation resistance), the alteration of the mortar (ohmic resistance, mechanical strength, pore size distribution) as well as the pore solution composition were monitored. Although substantial alkali leaching was observed, the pH of the pore solution remained at values sufficient to protect the embedded steel from depassivation. The mortar did not exhibit indications of significant deterioration. Thus, the present results suggest that leaching is not critical for protection of steel reinforcement in alkali-activated fly ash mortars and concretes.
Alkali-activated fly ash mortars were studied with regard to durability-relevant transport coefficients and the electrochemical behaviour of embedded carbon steel bars on exposure of the mortars to leaching, carbonation and chloride penetration environments. The transport coefficients differed considerably between different formulations, being lowest for a mortar with BFS addition, but still acceptable for one of the purely fly ash-based mortars. Leaching over a period of ~300 days in de-ionized water did not lead to observable corrosion of the embedded steel, as shown by the electrochemical data and visual inspection of the steel. Exposure to 100 % CO2 atmosphere caused steel depassivation within approx. two weeks; in addition, indications of a deterioration of the mortar were observed. The results are discussed in the context of the different reaction products expected in high- and low-Ca alkali-activated binders, and the alterations caused by leaching and carbonation.