Applicability Analysis of Assessment Methods for Morphological Parameters of Corroded Steel Bars

The irregular and uneven residual sections along the length of a corroded steel bar substantially change its mechanical properties and significantly dominate the safety and performance of an existing concrete structure. As a result, it is important to measure the geometry and amount of corrosion of a steel bar in a structure properly to assess the residual bearing capacity and service life of the structure. This paper introduces and compares five different methods for measuring the geometry and amount of corrosion of a steel bar. A single 500 mm long and 14 mm diameter steel bar is the specimen that is subjected to accelerated corrosion in this protocol. Its morphology and the amount of corrosion were carefully measured before and after using mass loss measurements, a Vernier caliper, drainage measurements, 3D scanning, and X-ray micro-computed tomography (XCT). The applicability and suitability of these different methods were then evaluated. The results show that the Vernier caliper is the best choice for measuring the morphology of a non-corroded bar, while 3D scanning is the most suitable for quantifying the morphology of a corroded bar.