Embedded capacitor sensor for monitoring corrosion of reinforcement in concrete

Abstract

Corrosion of reinforcement can affect durability and integrity of reinforced concrete structures. Repair cost for a badly corroded structure can be very costly and time consuming. In this paper, several capacitor sensors were developed to monitor corrosion potential of reinforcement in concrete. The impedance capacitive of sensors was tested in various acid and alkali solutions using Agilent 4284A Precision LCR meter. The other sensors were tied to reinforcements and embedded in concrete specimen contaminated with 5% chloride to measure corrosion potential. The specimens were exposed to the corrosion chamber and indoor environments. From the research, it was found that the sensor can measure the impedance capacitive at different frequencies in the aggressive solutions. Besides, it was observed that the patterns of corrosion potential shown by the embedded sensors were similar to the SRI sensor. The output values from embedded sensor are in a range of recommendation by the ASTM-C876. Eventually, the bars were found corroded from the broken specimens that confirmed the detection of corrosion activities as recorded by the sensors.