Effects of the zinc and zinc-nickel alloys electroplating on the corrodibility of reinforced concrete rebars

This paper shows the analysis performed on the corrosion parameters of three groups of reinforcing steel bars, two of these coated by electroplating process with Zinc (Zn) and Zinc-Nickel (Zn-Ni), and the other without any coating. It was used reinforced concrete specimens, which ones were grouped and then subjected to two different corrosion accelerating methods: aging wetting/drying cycles and salt spray exposure. Corrosion potential was measured to qualitative monitoring of the process and, after the end of the tests, corrosion rate was estimated by measuring the mass loss, to quantitative analyses. As it was expected, coated bars presented a better performance than the average bars regarding the corrosion resistance in chloride ions containing environments. It was also observed that the drying/ NaCl solution wetting cycles seems to be more severe than salt spray fog apparatus with respect to the acceleration of corrosion process.