Corrosion of Prestrained Reinforcement Steel

Steel alloys are widely used in outdoor applications wherecorrosive media exist and contribute to a great loss in componentsdimensions and strength. Reinforcement steel bars suffer from corrosionas other steels do. This work is intended to study any possibleeffect to prestraining of this material on the corrosion behavior.Uniform prestraining was caused on specimens made of two types ofreinforcement steel bars. Two degrees of prestraining were includedand two corrosive media were implemented in the study. The weightloss method for determining corrosion rates was used. Stress relievingof specimens was also considered and results of corrosion rates atdifferent conditions were compared and discussed. Results indicatedthat prestraining slightly increased the uniform corrosion rate of testedmaterials, while this effect diminished with stress relieving specimensbefore immersion.