Autogenous healing and reinforcement corrosion of water-penetrated separation cracks in reinforced concrete Original Research Article

Depending on the crack width, the thickness of the structure, the water pressure, and the degree of acid of the water, long-term investigations have been performed over a period of 2 years with respect to the autogenous healing and reinforcement corrosion of water-penetrated separation cracks in reinforced concrete by the University of Kaiserslautern, supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). For the waters penetrating the cracks deionised water (neutral, pH=7.0), and boric acid treated deionised water with a pH-value of 6.1 and 5.2 (weakly acid waters) were used. A complete autogenous healing could not be observed. The water penetrating the cracks could hardly be measured with a pH-value of 7.0 at the end of the test. While naturally at the beginning of the test, no influence of the water-chemical degree of the acids could be determined, the existing flow-through quantities towards the end of the test period depended clearly on the crack width and the pH-value. With an increasing crack width and an increasing acid-degree larger flow-through quantities were measured. Depending on the pH-value and the crack width it was determined whether and to which extent corrosion developed at the reinforcing steel bars crossing the cracks. With a crack width of 0.1 mm, corrosion was not to be observed in any case. For the test specimens with a crack width of 0.2 mm a start of the corrosion was found depending on the pH-value. With an increasing width of the crack, an increasing corrosion development is to be expected for test specimens penetrated by acid water. For a crack width of 0.4 mm and a pH-value of 5.2, the highest corrosion development was to be observed, however, there were weakenings of the cross section not worth being mentioned even after a 2-year test period.