Abstract
The effect of cathodic pulses on carbon steel reinforcements has been studied. High frequency pulses (1 and 100 kHz) were compared to traditional continuous current, both on mortar and dissolution. Different conditions regarding chloride presence, mortar quality, applied current intensity (from 10 to 2000 mA m−2) and duty cycle (from 10 to 80%) were tested. Current pulses caused voltage pulses whose amplitude coincides with the ohmic drop in media where steel is embedded. The onset of depolarisation of reinforcements is not detectable. Results show that pulses polarisation ability depends on mean intensity and that their maximum intensity seems to have no influence. The results referred to pulses short term efficiency were confirmed with other results obtained on reinforcements in chloride contaminated mortar which lasted until passive state was reached.
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