Abstract

The marine environment corrosion behavior of steel reinforcement concretes processed with Chilean puzolanic Portland cement has been evaluated. Two types of concretes with 0.52 and 0.65 water/cement ratio, respectively, were employed. Both types of concretes were subjected to cycles of immersion and drying steps in 3.5% NaCl solutions. The corrosion potential and galvanic current of steel in concretes was measured after each cycle. The carbonation front and the profile deep of chlorides were estimated from the hysteresis curves. The results show that concrete with 0.52 water/cement ratio provides a better protection against marine environment corrosion exposure, because it possesses a lower porosity, lower absorption and less electrical resistivity.