Studying the Effect of Eco-addition Inhibitors on Corrosion Resistance of Reinforced Concrete

Due to the high cost of repair of damaged constructions, some preventive measures, namely using, for example, rice husks as corrosion inhibitor admixtures were chosen as a prospective preventive technique. Along this approach, laboratory concrete samples were so prepared and sent to mechanical testing, and concurrently, the inhibitive potential of the rice husks suspended in electrolyte solution (water with dissolved sodium chloride of 3.5 wt.%) was also tested by using a standard electrochemical corrosion testing technique, i.e. the powdered rice husk was added to the electrolyte solution in different dosages (1%, 2% and 3%), then the corrosion currents of the steel samples were recorded by using a three-electrode cell assemblage. In these laboratory tests a quite steady decreasing tendency could be observed in the measured corrosion current densities ( I corr ) compared to the case when the electrolyte solution did not contain any inhibitor admixture ( I corr =41.3 µA/cm 2 ; taken as the reference). For example, a corrosion current of I corr = 28.5 µA/cm 2 was measured at 1% rice husk concentration, and only I corr = 7.8 µA/cm 2 when the solution was mixed with 3% rice husk powder.