Investigating Concrete Steel Rebar Degradation Using Some Selected Inhibitors in Marine and Microbial Media

Potential monitoring investigations were conducted on concrete steel rebar samples premixed with selected inhibitors accompanied by fixed amount of sodium chloride salt and partially immersed in sulphuric acid and sodium chloride solution. Varying concentration of potassium dichromate, potassium chromate and sodium nitrite inhibitors were used individually and synergistically in this study. The potential readings were taken in accordance with ASTM C 876 through the open circuit potential corrosion monitoring technique. Suppressive quality and dependability of the inhibitor was then assessed by the Weibull probability density distribution as an extreme value statistical modeling approach to study performance effectiveness and forecast the most effective inhibitor concentration in each media. Inhibitor effect on the compressive strengths of the reinforced concrete samples was also examined and reported. Results showed that 0.15M potassium chromate inhibitor had the best overall and individual performance in its inhibiting ability in the H2SO4 medium, while 0.68M sodium nitrite admixture was predicted as showing the lowest probability of corrosion risk in NaCl medium. Also, the best synergistic performance was shown by sample admixed with 0.06M K2Cr2O7, 0.15M K2CrO4 and 0.27M NaNO2 partially immersed in the NaCl medium. The compressive strength of concrete sample admixed with 0.03M K2Cr2O7 and 0.10M K2CrO4 was the highest amongst samples admixed with inhibitor in both media, though the control sample partially immersed in the NaCl medium had the highest overall compressive strength value