Corrosion Behavior of Reinforcing Steel with Mill Scale in Concrete
Authors: Doi Kotaro , Hiromoto Sachiko , Shinohara Tadashi , Tsuchiya Koichi , Akiyama Eiji 
Published: February 2020

Corrosion of reinforcing steel rebar is a main cause for losing the long-term reliability of concrete structures. When the rebar is corroded, the rust induces cracks and detachment of the cover concrete. On the rebars, the mill scale which is a thick oxide film is formed when the rebar is hot rolled. The role of mill scale on corrosion behavior of rebars in concrete has not been clarified, yet. In this study, the corrosion behavior of rebars with mill scale in concrete was studied using a new accelerated corrosion test we developed.
Commercial rebars with 19 mm diameter, which have mill scale of several tens of micrometers in thickness, were used in this study. The corrosion behavior of rebars with and without mill scale in mortar was investigated. To remove the mill scale on the rebar surface, electrolytic polishing was carried out. The rebars with or without mill scale were embedded in mortar with 5.5 mm cover thickness and the sample was cured for 28 days. In order to prompt breakdown of passive film on the rebars, 2.06 M NaCl solution was mixed to the mortar. Using these samples, Hyperbaric-oxygen accelerated corrosion test (HOACT) was carried out [1]. In the HOACT, pressurized oxygen gas is supplied to the sample, and the oxygen reduction reaction on the steel surface is enhanced, which leads to the corrosion acceleration of the steel. In this study, the mortar-covered rebar samples were located in a high pressure gas chamber, and pressurized oxygen gas of 0.6 MPa was supplied. The periods of HOACT were 14, 28 and 56 days. After finishing the HOACT, the samples were embedded in resin, and then the cross section of the sample was observed using an optical microscope. The rust composition was analyzed using Raman spectroscopy measurement.
The corrosion of the rebar with mill scale was more significant than that without mill scale. In the case of the sample with mill scale after 14-day HOACT, a rust layer was formed between the steel surface and mill scale, whereas no obvious corrosion was observed on the rebar without mill scale. To investigate the effect of the mill scale on the corrosion resistance of the rebar, anodic polarization measurements of the rebars with and without mill scale were carried out in a saturated Ca(OH)2 solution with Cl-. The pitting potential of the rebar with mill scale was more noble than that of the sample without mill scale. However, when the mill scale was scratched the pitting potential was significantly shifted to the less noble direction and it was below that of the rebar without mill scale. These results show that the mill scale improves the corrosion resistance of the rebar in mortar, whereas the corrosion resistance of the rebar becomes even worth than that of the rebar without mill scale when the mill scale contains defects. After 56-day HOACT of the sample with mill scale, two rust layers were observed above and beneath the mill scale. Raman spectroscopy revealed that the rust layer above the mill scale was mainly composed of a- and g-FeOOH, and the layer just beneath the mill scale was mainly composed of Fe3O4. The rust formed on the sample with mill scale during 14-day HOACT was monolayer just above the steel surface and it was composed only of Fe3O4. It is speculated that the Fe3O4 layer grows under the mill scale at the early stage of corrosion of a rebar.
[1] K. Doi, S. Hiromoto, H. Katayama and E. Akiyama, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 165(9), C582-C589 (2018).