Title:
Chloride-Caused Corrosion of Steel in Concrete--A New Historical Perspective
Author(s):
William G. Hime
Publication:
Concrete International
Volume:
16
Issue:
5
Appears on pages(s):
56-61
Keywords:
corrosion; mortars; portland cements; passivity; sodium chloride; Materials Research
DOI:
Date:
5/1/1994
Abstract:
A study of nineteenth and twentieth century literature on the corrosion of steel embedded in portland cement concrete has been conducted to ascertain why the effect of chloride was apparently unappreciated until about 1950. The study suggests that monumental errors by the National Bureau of Standards (NBS, now the National Institute for Standards Technology, or NIST) led, in the early part of this century, to the mistaking of stray currents as the mechanism for corrosion that was actually caused by chloride. For many decades the NBS study directed attention away from the role of chlorides. Even to this date, corrosion due to chloride or other causes is still, in many cases, erroneously attributed to stray currents.