Influence of flexural fatigue on chloride threshold value for the corrosion of steels in Ca(OH)2 solutions

The flexural fatigue was enforced on reinforced concrete beam with stress level of 0.6 and different fatigue life cycles. Steels removed from the beams were soaked in the saturated Ca(OH)2 solution, which was used as a simulated concrete pore solution. The NaCl solution was chosen as the source of chloride ions. The Chloride Threshold Values (CTV) were detected by combining the open-circuit potentials (Ecorr) with the corrosion current densities (icorr), which were obtained by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The changes of microstructure caused by the flexural fatigue were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that as the fatigue cycle times increased, the CTV decreased under a certain stress level and range of fatigue life cycles. The grains became finer and cracks appeared on the surface of the steels. While the capacitive arcs under no flexural fatigue decreased gradually with the addition of chloride ions, the ones under flexural fatigue presented no regularity. Cracks at the surface were expanded because of sustaining flexural fatigue, which degenerated the later resistance to chloride ions of the steels.