Reinforced concrete structures, especially those in marine environments, are commonly subjected to high concentrations of\nchlorides, which eventually leads to corrosion of the embedded reinforcing steel. The total time to corrosion of such structures\nmay be divided into three stages: corrosion initiation, cracking, and damage periods. This paper evaluates, both empirically and\nexperimentally, the expected time to corrosion of reinforced concrete structures. The tested reinforced concrete samples were\nsubjected to ten alternative curing techniques, including hot, cold, and normal temperatures, prior to testing. The corrosion\ninitiation, cracking, and damage periods in this investigation were experimentally monitored by an accelerated corrosion test\nperformed on reinforced concrete samples. Alternatively, the corrosion initiation time for counterpart samples was empirically\npredicted using Fick�s second law of diffusion for comparison. The results showed that the corrosion initiation periods obtained\nexperimentally were comparable to those obtained empirically. The corrosion initiation was found to occur at the first jump of the\ncurrent measurement in the accelerated corrosion test which matched the half-cell potential reading of around ?350mV.
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