Current Distribution in Reinforced Concrete Cathodic Protection System

Abstract:

The protection current distribution was investigated in a three layer reinforced concrete cathodic protection system, with carbon fiber reinforced cement based material as the conductive coating anode. The influence of steel bars’ initial current state, concrete resistivity and magnitude of applied current density on the current distribution was discussed, respectively. The results show that both the initial corrosion rate of rebars and concrete resistivity have a great effect on the protection current distribution. However, the magnitude of impressed current density only affects the uniformity of current distribution to some extent when the rebars are corroding severely. This study contributes to the cathodic protection of reinforced concrete structures in field condition.

Key words:concrete; rebar corrosion; cathodic protection; current distribution