Corrosion of steel in concrete with and without silica fume

Abstract A corrosion cell based on constant impressed voltage of 400 mV was developed to study corrosion rate of steel in concrete of different strength levels and in concrete with different silica fume contents. The results indicate that corrosion rate of steel embedded in saturated concrete can be reduced by increasing concrete strength, particularly in chloride contaminated environment. The use of 10 percent silica fume as cement replacement material in making 70 MPa concrete can have beneficial effect in terms of reduced corrosion rate. Adverse effect may results from using silica fume at higher replacement level of 20 percent.