Effect of salt spray corrosion exposure on the mechanical performance of different technical class reinforcing steel bars

The results of an experimental study for assessing the effects of the gradually accumulating corrosion damage on the tensile mechanical behavior of reinforcing steel bars of technical Class B500c are presented and compared against the mechanical behavior of its predecessor, technical Class S500s steel. Laboratory salt spray tests were performed to artificially corrode the tensile specimens of the different reinforcing steel bars. The pre-corroded specimens were tensile tested to assess the degradation of the mechanical properties of the material with accumulating corrosion damage. The quality index QD was exploited to quantify the mechanical performance of the two materials with regard to the long term material degradation due to corrosion damage.