Modelling of reinforcement corrosion – Corrosion with extensive cathodes

Reinforcement corrosion is the most common reason for the premature deterioration of a concrete structure. In case of a partial depassivation of the reinforcement macrocells are formed with considerable metal removal rates. Thus an assessment of the macrocell current becomes of great concern. To find out, whether this can be achieved by numerical calculations, specimens have been fabricated and simulated by the use of a boundary element program. In this paper the results of the calculations are presented and compared to electrochemical measurements on the real specimens.