Long-term performance and LCC benefits of cathodic protection of concrete systems

What is it about?

In 2016, the overall cost of corrosion (CoC) for various countries were estimated to be about 4 to even more than 10% of GDP, of which about 50% is due to corrosion in concrete structures. The conventional patch repairs adopted in many structures are failing in about 5 years and lead to repeated repairs and significant increase in CoC and life-cycle cost (LCC) of concrete structures. Patch repair with cathodic protection (CP) can enhance the life of repairs to about 20+ years. But cathodic protection using galvanic anodes is not being considered by many practitioners because of the myth of excessive cost implications. This is probably the first of its kind of paper with long-term field data on the performance of galvanic anodes and LCC analysis of patch repairs of RC systems with and without galvanic anodes. The long-term data and possible huge LCC savings (of about 90%) due to cathodic protection presented in this paper could be an eye-opener and can build confidence in engineers to use galvanic anodes to achieve durable repairs and extend service life of concrete structures.

Featured Image

Photo by Ibrahim Boran on Unsplash

Photo by Ibrahim Boran on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Conventional patch repairs adopted in many structures failed prematurely in ≈ 5 years. Galvanic anodes could protect concrete structures were found to be working for at least 14 years. A generalized framework to calculate the life cycle cost of repair is proposed. Repair using galvanic anodes can save ≈ 90% life cycle cost over conventional patch repair.