Dear Colleagues,

Reinforced concrete is the most commonly used building material, which is used worldwide in infrastructure. Due to its limited tensile strength, steel reinforcement is usually provided to create a powerful composite material. However, due to various mechanisms, these reinforcements often corrode. In particular, when chlorides are attacking the structures, the corrosion rates can be very high and result in serious damages, including partial or complete collapses.

The mechanisms of corrosion of steel in concrete are highly complex, and due to the huge number of influencing factors from the materials for concrete and reinforcement, as well as environmental factors, corrosion of the reinforcement is difficult to quantify and predict. Therefore, the corrosion evaluation and selection of protection and repair measures need to be carried out individually for each concrete structure. Due to the lack of understanding of corrosion and protection mechanisms, in practise, decisions on the best maintenance and repair methods are difficult.

If the durability of all relevant repair and protection methods is known, reliable life-cycle-oriented management is possible. Therefore, modeling of the durability regarding corrosion is an important topic. Effective sensor-based monitoring systems are required to support inspection and supervision of the status of buildings and prevent unexpected corrosion problems. These will be integrated in digital building models in future, allowing effective building maintenance.

Additionally, traditional cement as binder for concrete will eventually be replaced by more sustainable materials. In this context, there is an urgent need to investigate how these new binders will influence the corrosion behaviour of the reinforcement and durability of concrete structures and which protection measures are required.

This Special Issue covers the corrosion mechanisms and protection of reinforcements in old, new and future concrete.

Prof. Dr. Michael Raupach
Prof. Dr. Sylvia Kessler
Guest Editors

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• reinforcement corrosion
• corrosion protection
• alternative binders
• cathodic protection
• corrosion monitoring
• BIM-based maintenance
• case studies