Savcor Extends Life of Our Infrastructure

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A reinforced concrete structure may suffer from heavy chloride-induced corrosion on reinforcement steel in marine environment. Corrosion is a flow of electric current. Savcor Cathodic Protection system feeds the opposite current to corroding steel and stops the damaging corrosion process.  

Aging of the structure, often combined with increased loads may create safety risks that should be detected as early as possible. In order to keep track on any movement or unexpected response, the whole structure is instrumented with Savcor Structural Health Monitoring System.  

Corrosion causes massive repair works of concrete structures - sometimes without any warning.  Corrosion is one of the main reasons causing repair work of concrete structures. Contributing factors to corrosion of reinforced steel in concrete, typically, are design and construction failures, load and structural issues, temperature, moisture and concrete quality (low cover over the reinforcement, porosity, accelerators and other mixtures). These factors together with chloride ingress from de-icing salt or sea water will lead to an increased risk of corrosion. Once chlorides have destroyed the protective oxide layer from steel surface, corrosion will initiate leading to material loss. Corrosion products - which takes larger space than steel - will eventually cause cracks in concrete and later dangerous spalling of concrete. Due to the fact that corrosion of rebars occurs inside the concrete and cannot necessarily be noticed from the surface, corrosion in concrete often causes surprises. The structure may collapse or extensive rebuilding is needed.  

Savcor Cathodic Protection (CP) is a well-known and proven method to extend the service life of an old reinforced concrete structure. Cathodic Protection is usually applied during the ordinary concrete repairs. For new reinforced concrete structures, CP installation already during building stage can prevent the initiation of corrosion, thus providing an effective and  more economical long-term solution.