Environmental influence on point anodes performance in reinforced concrete

This work reports the most recent laboratory results from zinc-based point anodes performance in two different humidity environments (constant ∼95% and at outdoors with ∼77% relative humidities) in reinforced concrete small beams (10 × 15 × 60 cm and 20 × 30 × 120 cm), with and without chloride contamination (contaminated between 1% and 3.5 wt% by cement weight). The commercially available point zinc-based anodes were placed at one end of the chloride-free or chloride-contaminated concrete beams to determine the polarization performance of these anodes along the reinforcing steel. Half cell potentials, current distribution, and polarization decay due to the anode interconnection with the reinforcing steel bar (rebar) were measured. A detailed discussion of the system efficiency at both humidities is included in this report.