CORROSION-RESISTANT REINFORCING BARS FINDINGS OF A 5-YEAR FHWA ST

From 1993 to 1998, the FHWA funded a 5-year research project to develop cost-effective new organic, inorganic, ceramic and metall coatings, as well as metallic alloys that can be utilized on or a reinforcement for embedment in portland cement concrete. It was required that these new coatings and alloys should provide reinforcement that is significantly more corrosion-resistant than fusion-bonded, epoxy-coated reinforcement that has been used in t United States since 1975. Eleven different bar types were tested concrete: black bars, three bendable and three nonbendable epoxie Type 304 and 316 stainless steel, copper-clad, galvanized, and sp metallic clad reinforcing. From the research it was determined th the Type 316 stainless steel bars provided the best corrosion resistance, even when in precracked concrete. The best performanc from epoxy-coated bars was achieved when the epoxy-coated bars we utilized throughout and damage sites were minimal. In all cases, corrosion-resistance of the epoxy-coated bars was better than tha black bars. All bar systems were affected by the presence of a bl bar cathode and it is recommended that cracks in concrete be repa to optimize the corrosion-free life for all bar systems. For the covering abstract see ITRD E117314.