Reinforced Concrete Demo-Wall Illustrating Service Life Extension Through Cathodic Protection

Cathodic protection (CP) has proven to be an effective technique to stop corrosion of reinforcement in concrete elements and extend their service life. Although CP systems are more frequently used in Belgium the past decade, there still is an experience gap within the repair market with respect to this promising and effective electro-chemical repair technique. Different stakeholders within the (Belgian) (concrete) renovation sector must be able to interact with CP systems in order to increase their knowledge and experience with the technique. To achieve this, six reinforced concrete demo-panels were developed and stored in an outdoor Belgian sheltered environment in order to acquire a certain degree of corrosion. Different types of CP systems are installed on/in the concrete demo-panels. The different systems are monitored (e.g. corrosion current density, internal relative humidity, temperature, corrosion potential of the steel and protective current) through a remote sensing and control monitoring system. In this paper, the design of the demo-wall is presented and discussed. The start-up phase of the CP systems was analyzed and a first 24-h depolarization measurement was performed. Finally, the first two weeks of data generated by the monitoring system is discussed.