Nondestructive Corrosion Evaluation of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Decks with Overlays: An Experimental Study

摘要

Concrete corrosion induced by deicing agents can decrease the durability of concrete bridgedecks by causing cross-sectional loss of reinforcement, concrete delamination, and spallingowing to the expansion of corroded reinforcement. The installation of overlays can extendthe service life of the deteriorated decks. However, overlays present challenges in the evaluationof the corrosion condition of the underlying decks. This laboratory study employed three nondestructivetesting (NDT) methods to assess the effects of seven types of overlays on corrosionevaluation for concrete bridge decks. The NDT methods were electrical resistivity (ER), groundpenetratingradar (GPR), and half-cell potential (HCP). The ER method could not evaluate thecorrosive environment in the concrete decks through the overlays. The GPRmethod could detectthe corrosive environment through four of the seven overlays. The HCP method could detect thedecrease of electrical potential over the actively corroded reinforcement for all seven specimens;however, only two of the seven specimens could be identified as having active corrosion perASTM C876-15, Standard Test Method for Corrosion Potentials of Uncoated Reinforcing Steelin Concrete. Overlay debonding did not affect GPR and HCP testing results in this study.