Some questions on the corrosion of steel in concrete. Part II: Corrosion mechanism and monitoring, service life prediction and protection methods

This second part addresses some important issues that remain controversial despite the vast amounts of work devoted to investigating corrosion in concrete-embedded steel. Specifically, these refer to: 1) the relative significance of galvanic macrocouples and corrosion microcells in reinforced concrete structures; 2) the mechanism by which reinforcements corrode in an active state; 3) the best protective methods for preventing or stopping reinforcement corrosion; 4) the possibility of a reliable prediction of the service life of a reinforced concrete structure; and 5) the best corrosion measurement and control methods. The responses provided are supported by experimental results, most of which were obtained by the authors themselves.